‘How to get a job’ may be the most pressing question for youngsters in India today, and going by PMKVY data, the best courses for getting a job today are electronics and hardware, apparel, retail, telecom and logistics.
This insight is based on the placement and salary data collected by National Skill Development Corporation, the nodal organization for implementing India’s National Skill Development Mission or Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
According NSDC, a total of 11.16 lakh youth have been placed in various jobs under the central component of the second phase of India’s National Skill Development Mission or PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
Kaushal Vikas Yojana has nearly 40 course in all, ranging from Aerospace and Aviation to Tourism and Hospitality.
However, six key courses generated 69% of all the placements under PMKVY 2.0.
These courses are ‘Electronics and Hardware’, ‘Apparel’, ‘Retail’, ‘Telecom’, ‘Logistics’ and ‘Beauty and Wellness’ (see chart above).
FROM TRAINING TO PLACEMENT
The National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) was launched on 15th July, 2015 to rapidly implement and scale up skill development efforts across the country.
While the Phase 1 of the National Skill Development Mission focused more on training and certification, Phase 2 focuses as much on finding jobs for the trained candidates as on training them.
This has resulted in better placement numbers in the second phase.
According to the guidelines of PMKVY 2.0, it becomes the responsibility of the training providers to find jobs for those who successfully complete the course. The emphasis is on building a bridge between the trained candidate and local industries that are looking for trained manpower.
Under the new guidelines, one of the key responsibilities of training providers is to organize placement or job fairs every six months. They also have to ensure the participation of local industry in these job melas.
In this effort, the training providers will be supported by Sector Skill Councils. Sector Skill Councils are national partnership organizations comprising representatives from a particular industry — such as automobiles — as well as labour organizations and academia related to the same.
The SSCs, which operate as a non-profit company or society, help create training material on the one hand and ensure the placement of trained manpower in companies and organizations on the other.
In case the training providers and these SSCs are not able to find the certified candidate a job within 90 days of the completion of the course under PMKVY, the apex agency — National Skill Development Corporation — will help them in their search for jobs via its specialized ‘placement partners’.
To make sure that trainers and training centers focus as much on getting their candidates jobs as on training them, the scheme has mandated that the 20% reimbursement of training costs from the government is released only if at least 70% of the trained candidates are employed.
ELECTRONICS, TELECOM LEAD
Not surprisingly, one of the biggest contributors to skilled jobs under the PMKVY placement has been the electronics sector.
Taking the ‘telecom’ and the ‘electronics and hardware’ streams together, this sector accounted for nearly 3 lakh out of the 11.16 lakh total placements recorded.
Moreover, at close to Rs 18,000 per month, the sector also offered higher salaries than the average of Rs 15,703 per month recorded for all the courses together.
The course enables candidates to manufacture and repair electronic goods, while the ‘telecom’ course focuses more on mobile and smartphones.
Not surprisingly, the second-best course for jobs turned out to be ‘apparel’, which generated 2.07 lakh jobs.
The apparel course provides training in mechanized stitching, dyeing and other aspects of garment making. However, the average salary given to a fresher who enters the apparel business is only Rs 12,289 — considerably below the overall average of Rs 15,703 per month.
The third best course for getting a job — going by the PMKVY data — is retail. Under this course, candidates are trained in various aspects of modern retail, such as classification, labeling, billing, sorting, sales and so on.
The average salary for candidates who were placed in the retail business was Rs 17,341.
Logistics, or the movement of goods from one place to another — was also a big creator of jobs, with over 72,000 youth placed at an average salary of Rs 17,985. The boom in e-commerce as well as organized retail chains is expected to provide more impetus to job demand in this sector.
SALARY DIFFERENCES
In terms of salary, the most lucrative sector for a fresher was BFSI or the banking and financial services industry.
Ideally suited to commerce and management graduates, this course trains candidates in accounting, clerical and sales functions.
A total of 37,337 people were placed in the financial sector under the central component of PMKVY 2.0.
The average salary in BFSI was the highest, at Rs 19,326 per month.
Another lucrative and emerging sector is ‘green jobs’, which involves installation of solar power systems and so on. A total of 10,642 people were placed at an average salary of Rs 18,787.
‘Security’ was at No.3 in terms of average salary at Rs 18,518 per month (see chart).