Skill, re-skill, upskill to stay relevant: PM Modi to millennials
PEP TALK Stresses on self-reliance, need to become job generator
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said no matter how educated a person is, one must always be ready to acquire new skills. He said skill, re-skilling and upskilling is the only way to remain relevant in the ever-changing market scenario.
Speaking on the occasion of the World Youth Skill Day, Modi said, “The biggest strength of the millennials is their ability to get skilled.”
Modi said the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed the work culture and started the concept of work from home. He added young people are acquiring new skills keeping in mind the new work culture and new nature of jobs. “People ask me business and markets are changing too fast; it is hard to remain relevant. In times of corona [Covid-19], this is even more relevant. My answer to that is to skill, re-skill and upskill. To keep learning new skills is to re-skill and continuing to scale it up is to upskill,” he said.
Modi, who has stressed on self-reliance and the need for becoming employment generators, added: “Skill is something which you give yourself and which is timeless and keeps getting better with time. It is unique and makes you different from others.” He added it is self-reliance and also self employability.
Modi underlined there is a difference between skill and knowledge and said people often confuse the two. “People get confused between knowledge and skill. You can watch on Youtube or read in books how to ride a bike; this is knowledge, but to ride a bike you need skill,” he said.
Referring to the work opportunities for skilled people, he said there is a requirement for tens of thousands of skilled people, especially in the health sector. “...That is why we have started skill mapping. Information about which country needs skilled works in which sector will be available.”
Modi referred to the portal for skill mapping of migrant labour that has been recently started. He added employers can connect with the labour at the click of a button. Modi said in today’s rapidly changing world, millions of skilled people are needed in many sectors. He also spoke about the skill centres opened by the government and how the number of Industrial Training Institutes was increased. “...skill development of more than 5 crore [50 million] people has been done. And this campaign continues,” he said.
Modi reiterated that since there is a raging worldwide pandemic, people should remember to stay healthy, maintain social distancing and wear masks, and stop spitting.