To capture real-time demand and supply of the skilled workforce in the country, the government has initiated steps to create a national database on skills called the National Labour Market Information System (LMIS). For skill-seekers, this would serve as a single window platform to know about the various skilling programmes being run across the country, training providers, the skills that are more in demand and the whereabouts of the training centers. Having a single repository of skilled workforce would also help employers in their hunt for skilled workers in their respective sectors. The region or city wise availability of skilled workers can also be had from the LMIS database.
The database would also be of immense help to policy makers in planning and delivery of skill trainings and other interventions to make “Skill India” a success. The national database on skills would “serve as an avenue for rightfully deploying the potential workforce in the years to come,” said Rohit Nandan, secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The LMIS would also help the government monitor the real outcome of its “Skill India” programme that has set an ambitious target to skill over one crore youths by March 2020. As the productivity of skilled labour is more than the raw talent, many believe that this factor alone can push-up the nation’s GDP by up to 2 percentage points. Till date, the Ministry of Skill development has trained over one crore youths across all sectors. LMIS would produce labour market information as per global standards and best practices, thus bringing India at par with many advanced economies that maintain online records of skilled manpower in their countries. To begin with, all the ministries and government accredited private institutions would contribute to the database.
The database would also be of immense help to policy makers in planning and delivery of skill trainings and other interventions to make “Skill India” a success. The national database on skills would “serve as an avenue for rightfully deploying the potential workforce in the years to come.”
Anant Pande, an official with the National Skill Development Agency, which would create the database, said: “The industry is very excited by the move.” “Yet there are challenges, with the quality of data being the foremost,” Pande said. Currently, most candidates do not update their profile about their current professional status, thus making the data redundant for employers seeking skilled workforce. LMIS would be designed in such a way as to keep the information real. The government claims that LMIS would brings together statistical (quantitative) and non-statistical (qualitative) information concerning labour market actors and their environment and generate key analysis and reports which can be used by different stakeholders.