I Got Skills

India is positioned to be the largest labour marketplace in the coming years. This worker marketplace can transform and drive tangible impact, if it is skilled sufficiently, to accelerate India’s growth. In contrast, India’s current workforce is predominated by unskilled and semi-skilled workers. In fact, only 2.3 percent of India’s workforce has received some formal skills training.

At the same time, the need for humans, who perform menial jobs, is dwindling due to the growing popularity and influence of technology and automation solutions. Without education and vocational skills, the future of India’s unskilled and semi-skilled workers is dim and distressing.

That’s why the Indian Government, on its part, is putting in focussed efforts to skill India’s workforce. While many national-level initiatives by the National Skills Development Council (NSDC) have been put in place, state governments too are doing their bit. In Karnataka, the government has launched Koushalya Karnataka program to train and educate the youth of the state. And we are happy to state that we, at Mindtree, have been chosen as their primary partner to realize the centre’s and state’s objectives of skilling.

I Got Skills (IGS) is our flagship program in partnership with the Government of Karnataka to upskill the state’s workforce. Our objective is to career counsel unemployed youth in the state, which will not only provide them with a livelihood but also enhance confidence and selfesteem. Through this program, we aim to skill the unemployed youth such that their capabilities match the new requirements of today’s business establishments.

To begin with, we have created an application and on boarded unemployed youth and potential employers of the informal sector. The primary objective of the app is to function as a matchmaker and connect the most suitable employer and employee.

At the same time, we have encouraged employers to start apprenticeship programs that could enhance skills of the unemployed. We are happy to note that 10,000 employers are now offering apprenticeships.

The IGS application: Connecting the unemployed with the employer

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