Skill Development and Youth Employability A comparative study of Punjab and Haryana

Abstract

Punjab and Haryana have top rank among the states of India in terms of per capita newlineGross State domestic Products (GSDP) and agricultural production. However, these newlinestates are facing two contrasting labour market problems viz., shortage of newlineagricultural labour and rising educated unemployment. While large scale interstate newlinemigration from relatively backwards states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh newline(UP) partially solves the problem of agricultural labour shortage; the mounting newlineeducated youth unemployment leads to a surge in the illegal foreign emigration and newlinedrugs addiction etc. To counter this rising youth unemployment problem, both the newlineCentral government and state governments of Punjab and Haryana have initiated newlineseveral skill development measures in the recent years. Hence, the main objective newlineof this study is: to find out whether vocational training is really helpful in improving newlineyouth employability in these states or not? Based on a primary survey (using a newlinepurposive sampling method) of three important stakeholder viz., Vocational Training newlineInstitutes (supplier of training including ITIs and Polytechnic colleges), newlineEstablishments (employers including small, medium and large enterprises), and newlinepass-out trainees (through a tracer survey), this thesis provides an in-depth analysis newlineof youth employability in Punjab and Haryana. The major findings of this work newlinesuggest that the work force participation rate of the vocationally trained youth in both newlinePunjab and Haryana is very low. Unavailability of government sector jobs along with newlinethe skill constraints are among the major distressing factors those determine the newlinev newlineemployability of vocationally trained youth. Moreover, the poor quality of training newlinealong with financial constraints, by and large, restrict a large number of vocationally newlinetrained youth to take up wage employment in private sector or to begin their own newlinebusiness as self-employed. These aspects of employment distress are reflected by newlinehigher rate open unemployment, participation in general education (after comple