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Insights, Trends, and Transformation of India’s Skill Workforce

Insights, Trends, and Transformation of India's Skill Workforce
Insights, Trends, and Transformation of India's Skill Workforce

As the global demand for talent continues to rise, India is uniquely positioned to meet the world’s workforce needs. India Skills Report 2025: Unlocking Indian Skills For The World, underscores how cross-border talent mobility could add USD 500 billion to the global economy by 2030, with India playing a central role in bridging these gaps. To unlock its full potential, India must reinvent the skill training ecosystem, fostering a workforce that is multi-skilled, globally agile, and deployment-ready.

Key Trends in Indian Workforce 

As reported by the India Skills Report 2025, the trends in employability and workforce has undergone drastic changes from 2019 to 2025 (projected). Some of the key trends are:

  • Employability will increase to 54.81% in 2025 as compared to 47.28% in 2019. 
  • Domains like B. Tech, MBA, B. Sc and B. Pharma will be at the forefront of bringing more talent to the workforce by 2025. 
  • Sectors like Information Technology (IT), Computer Science (CS) and Electronics and Communication Engineering are expected to employ maximum talent. 
  • States like Maharashtra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat have the highest employability. 
  • The distribution of the workforce between men and women is expected to be 53.46% men to 47.53% women in 2025, a major improvement from 2019 rates. 

Areas of Transformation 

 India’s IT industry, valued at USD 245 billion in 2023, has been at the forefront of providing talent for digital transformation across the world and leading in sectors like IT, engineering, and healthcare, while rapidly growing expertise in green energy, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics. 

With key initiatives like the National Education Policy (NEP), Skill India Mission, and Digital India, India is strategically positioning itself for a global talent revolution by investing in vocational training and skill development. By 2025, over 50% of India’s secondary and tertiary students will have access to vocational training, ensuring they are aligned with global industry standards.

India’s medical professionals, along with its burgeoning IT sector—set to reach USD 350 billion by 2025— are stepping in to fill the gap of aging populations and labour shortages in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

With ease of emigration barriers, certifications with international standards, and safeguarding the interests of Indian migrant workers, the Government is also supporting this global movement of talent and ensuring that the Indian workforce succeeds on the global stage. 

Role of CII 

India’s future-ready workforce is being shaped by strategic collaborations between organizations like Wheebox, CII, AICTE, Taggd, and ASAP Kerala, aligning skill development efforts with global industry demands. CII’s skill development initiatives now impact over 1.5 million youth annually, ensuring that India’s workforce is equipped to thrive in a globalized economy.

Bolstering the India Skills ecosystem, CII incubated the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and 11 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) – Beauty & Wellness, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Furniture & Fittings, Healthcare, Infrastructure Equipment, Life Science, Logistics, Paint & Coatings, Green Jobs, Persons with Disability & Tourism & Hospitality Sector Skill Council. 

CII worked closely with the government to bring about the 1st National Policy on Skill Development in 2008 and Amended Apprenticeship Act 2014. The CII Model Career Centres (MCCs) are Industry-led employment facilitation centres linking job seekers to job providers. These centres have helped impart Career Counselling and soft & employability skills to more than 10.25 Lakh youth and provided placement to more than 6.8 Lakh youth.

Way Forward 

By 2025, India’s workforce is expected to account for over 40% of the global skilled work with industries like IT, healthcare, and green energy benefiting from India’s growing talent pool. This transformative decade offers a unique opportunity for policymakers, educators, and industry leaders to collaborate in shaping a workforce that is globally mobile and future-ready by investing in upskilling, reskilling and capacity building at the grassroots level. 

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