India lacks adequate valuation mechanism for skilled workers: Jayant Chaudhary

Skills development minister Jayant Chaudhary on Friday urged India Inc to offer higher pay scales for certified workers and recognise formal qualifications over informal labour practices, saying India lacks adequate valuation mechanisms for skilled workers.

“Currently, we don’t really have a price for employability, for skilling,” the minister said while speaking at the 16th FICCI Global Skills Summit.

“Everyone understands our skilling gap — young people are graduating, but we cannot hire them,” the minister said, emphasising that formal education systems struggle to keep pace with technological disruption.


“Industry should really take ownership of skills development,” he said, urging companies to co-create from curriculum to protocols to bridge the skill gap.

A FICCI–KPMG Knowledge Report on ‘Next-Gen Skills for a Global Workforce: Enabling Youth and Empowering Economy’, released at the summit, projected AI to grow to a $4.8 industry by 2033, with India facing particular disruption in IT, finance, healthcare and entry-level positions.

The report outlines six strategic recommendations including tailored sector-specific AI skilling frameworks, modernised ITI curricula with AI machine interface training, and localised AI skilling hubs in Tier II and III cities, Ficci said in a statement.

Besides, the summit also witnessed the launch of FICCI–FRSN Knowledge Report on ‘Grading Framework for ITIs in India’. The report introduces a comprehensive three-stage methodology for evaluating India’s 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), moving beyond traditional input-focused metrics to outcome-oriented assessment.

The framework evaluates ITIs across three key levers, namely youth readiness and skills, ITI-industry engagement, and institutional functioning, using triangulated data from multiple stakeholders, including learners, alumni, employers, and administrators.

“The framework emphasises that proper ‘pricing’ of skills requires industry to value certified workers through higher pay scales, whilst enabling targeted interventions based on performance patterns rather than uniform mandates across India's diverse institutional landscape,” Ficci added.