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The rural part of India was once again lagging behind the urban populace in receiving formal vocational or technical training.

As per the data shared by the government in its Economic Survey for 2021-22, there was an improvement in skills for males and females, both in rural and urban sectors compared to previous years, however, formal training for males and females was lower in rural than in urban areas.

The government said in a bid to unlock the demographic dividend, several steps have been taken to increase the skill levels in the population.

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2019-20 shows that formal vocational and technical training among youth (age 15-29 years) and working population (age 15-59 years) have improved in 2019-20 over 2018-19.

For 2019-20, 7 per cent of male population between 15-29 years of age in urban India were imparted vocational or technical training while only 3.1 per cent in rural part of the country received the benefits of skill development. In the same age bracket, the data for women showed a similar widening gap between rural and urban India. A total of 6.5 per cent females got the training in urban areas while 2.7 per cent received the training in rural India.

The government said that their skill development efforts aim at the removal of disconnect between demand and supply of skilled manpower, building the vocational and technical training framework, skill up-gradation, building of new skills and innovative thinking not only for existing jobs but also jobs that are to be created.

As per the report of the first quarter (April-June, 2021) of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) in respect of establishments employing at least 10 workers in major nine sectors, 17.9 per cent of estimated establishments were imparting formal skill training.

According to the Economic Survey, sectors such as IT/BPO imparted skill training in 29.8 per cent of estimated establishments, followed by 22.6 per cent in financial services and 21.1 per cent in education sector's establishments. Further, about 24.3 per cent estimated establishments were found to be imparting 'On-the-Job' training, which is higher in IT/BPO sector (36.1 per cent of establishments) and financial services sector (34.8 per cent).