14 sectors can cater to majority of high demand jobs in India: World Bank report

New Delhi: A detailed report prepared by the World Bank on the gap between education and skilling in six states shows that services sector jobs and agriculture income enhancement present large opportunities for school-based skilling. In all, 14 sectors including services, agriculture and IT, can cater to the majority of high demand jobs.

The report, titled 'Jobs at Your Doorstep: A Jobs Diagnostics for Young People in Six States', was released by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday. Urging the World Bank team to carry out a pan-India study, Pradhan said that such studies will help in drafting policies.

“Such in-depth diagnostics on skilling and jobs will enable stakeholders to create new architectures and make progressive policies for empowering our population,” he said, highlighting the need to broaden the definition of jobs and employment. “The framework has to be broadened and viewed from the perspective of economic opportunities and empowerment.”

The World Bank assists the Ministry of Education in a program called Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) covering six states — Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan, and the study was conducted in these states.

In its study, the World Bank carried out over 150 interviews among stakeholders like corporates, MSMEs, etc. Over 225 interviews were done among trainers and students, and detailed studies in six districts, with one each in each state.

The study shows that while agriculture sector has opportunities across jobs, income enhancement in own farms, and entrepreneurship, the services sector presents several opportunities across retail, IT, banking, among others.

In agriculture, there’s a need for curriculum customisations with a focus on farm productivity and agronomy, horticulture, dairy farming and aquaculture. In manufacturing, there are key opportunities in automotive tech, electronics and hardware, while in IT, software development and support as well as digital media has several opportunities, the report said.

In the services sector, healthcare, fashion, beauty, hospitality, sales and BFSI have a lot of potential, it said.

In the report, the World Bank has recommended that the government must target at least 20-30 per cent secondary schools in every district and offer at least 2 trades in each target school. Stating that it is critical to ensure curriculum relevance, it said the government should focus on flagship industry partners.