Barriers to skills development in India’s informal economy

ABSTRACT

India’s informal economy accounts for more than half the country’s GDP but is characterised by low levels of skills, and considerable barriers to skills development for workers. The Government of India has implemented ambitious policy initiatives for upskilling, designed to catalyse ‘formalisation’ of the economy, and improve productivity. However, evidence on skills development remains weak. Drawing on systematic review methodologies, this article reviews and synthesises the literature on the practical barriers to upskilling. It finds that access to, and quality of, training (especially for women) are serious limitations, while skills are often under-utilised in the absence of supportive labour market and wider business environment conditions. Training is often insufficiently linked to labour market and learner needs, and the capacity of the training system is limited. Government should increase investment in training for the informal sector, and consider strengthening incentives for training providers to focus on improving training quality and relevance.

KEYWORDS:

• Vocational education
• training
• educational policy
• educational quality
• access to education
• skills policy
• skills utilisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joel Mullan

Joel Mullan is an education and international development consultant. He works closely with governments, NGOs and businesses to support education research, programme evaluation and policy development, and has particular expertise in TVET/skills development and EdTech. He has an MA in Educational Planning, Economics and International Development from UCL-IOE.

Caine Rolleston

Caine Rolleston is Associate Professor of Education and International development at University College London Institute of Education (UCL-IOE). His research interests include educational access and equity, learning metrics and trajectories and longitudinal studies in education and development.