NITI Aayog has called for a fundamental redesign of India’s skilling system, setting out five core reforms and four system enablers to connect school, higher education and work by 2047
NITI Aayog has called for a fundamental redesign of India’s skilling architecture, arguing that incremental reform will not equip the country’s workforce for the economy it hopes to build by 2047.
The report, Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047, was prepared by the think tank’s Skill Development, Labour and Employment Division and published in August 2026, with Boston Consulting Group as knowledge partner. It sets out five core reforms and four system enablers, and proposes a Reimagined Skilling Architecture built on non-linear pathways, lifelong skilling and outcomes as the primary measure of success.
India has formally skilled 7.67 crore individuals since 2014-15, the report notes, and the Union Budget for 2025-26 allocated ₹34,000 crore towards skilling across central ministries. State programmes such as Tamil Nadu’s Naan Mudhalvan and Maharashtra’s Mahaswayam have added further capacity. Yet outcomes remain uneven, which the report traces to delivery systems that have not kept pace with labour market change.
The analysis covers five segments spanning about 60 crore people: 12 crore school students from Grade 6 onwards; 4.4 crore in higher education and industrial training institutes; the non-agricultural formal and informal workforce; youth not in education, employment or training; and women as a cross-cutting group. Agriculture was excluded because it requires a separate analytical framework. Labour force survey data put the labour force at 65.4 crore, 45.1 per cent of the population, of whom 58.4 per cent are self-employed. Just 3 per cent of women are in formal jobs, while 71 per cent are in informal work or fall within the NEET segment.
Recurring barriers cut across every segment. Learners lack trusted guidance and clear information about credible programmes and returns on skilling, the report says, so degrees are pursued for prestige or government exam eligibility, while vocational and online routes face low trust and stigma. Fewer than one in 12 secondary schools offers vocational subjects. Affordability, geography, rigid course formats and, for women, caregiving duties, safety and mobility further limit participation.
The five reforms begin in the classroom. General Employability and Entrepreneurship Skills would be taught universally from Grade 6 to Grade 12, with structured vocational Kaushal Tracks starting from Grade 9. In tertiary education, the report presses for public-private partnership models and apprenticeship-embedded degree programmes to modernise curricula. Standalone skilling schemes would shift from enrolment-driven delivery to outcome-linked, industry-backed models aligned to high-growth sectors such as green industries and electric vehicles. Apprenticeships would be repositioned as a mainstream pathway through a unified state-led platform. The fifth reform makes career guidance a continuous layer across school, work and re-entry points.
Underpinning these are four enablers: a Digital Skills Passport anchored in the APAAR ID to carry verified credentials across education and work; financing tied to verified placements and wage gains rather than enrolment; the operationalisation of the National Credit Framework; and skills-first hiring supported by shared training infrastructure.
The report links its recommendations to the Integrated Scheme in Skilling Architecture proposed in the Union Budget for 2026-27, under which ₹600 crore has been allocated to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, with state skills transformation pilots in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. States, it argues, will be the primary drivers of implementation.
Writing in the foreword, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri said: “Skilling, in this context, is not a sectoral programme, but a foundational national priority.” He added: “The path to Viksit Bharat runs through every learner who gains a skill and every worker who finds dignified employment.”
The findings draw on the MSDE State of Skills Survey 2024, covering about 8,000 learners; a Boston Consulting Group survey of about 4,000; more than 60 interviews; and a review of skilling systems in Germany, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.
