Skilling in India: An Analysis of Youth Training in India

More young people in India are acquiring skills, but where does that training lead?  

Only a small share of young people in India receives formal training. Only 5 percent of youth aged 15 to 29 have received formal training. Those who have are more likely to be in the labour force and in regular, formal jobs, yet they also face relatively high unemployment rates, and technical degree holders show the same pattern in sharper form. Training is also short, concentrated in a few fields, and strongly gendered. So, while training is associated with better jobs, the data raise an important question: is the economy creating enough of those jobs for the young people it is training?

This data story draws on PLFS 2025 data to examine the state of vocational and technical training among India’s youth aged 15 to 29: who is getting skilled, what they are training for, and whether that training is translating into better employment outcomes.

Formal Skilling Reaches Only a Small Share of Youth

Only 5 percent of youth in India have received formal vocational training¹. While skilling efforts have expanded opportunities for millions of young people, the data highlight how much further there is to go in extending the reach of formal training. When informal forms of training² are also included, encompassing hereditary learning, self-directed learning, and informal learning on-the-job, the overall skilling rate rises to 30.6 percent (Figure 1). Formal skilling coverage, in other words, remains limited.

Figure 1: : Distribution (%) of Youth by Type of Training

Of the 368.2 million youth, 95.4 million had received informal training, compared with only 18.6 million who had received formal training (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Number of Youth by Type of Training (million)

Source: JJN calculations using PLFS 2025 unit-level data”; million figures scaled to MoHFW population projections).

The gender distribution shows a marked disparity: while males accounted for 66.3 million youth with informal training, the corresponding figure for females was 29.1 million; conversely, the number of females with no training (139.0 million) was substantially higher than males (115.2 million). PLFS 2025 estimates show that rural young women have the lowest formal training coverage of any group, at 3.7 percent, compared with 4.5 percent of rural young men, 6.9 percent of urban young men, and 7.0 percent of urban young women.

Figure 3: Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) & Unemployment rate for youth by skills training 

LFPR

Unemployment Rate

Formally trained youth have a labour force participation rate of 65.1 percent, compared with 28.6 percent for those with no training. The gap is particularly pronounced for women: formally trained females participate at 51.2 percent, compared with 17 percent for untrained females. However, unemployment among formally trained youth stands at 19.5 percent, comparable to the 17.7 percent recorded for those with no training (Figure 3). Thus, while formal training is associated with higher labour force participation, the relatively high unemployment rate among formally trained youth suggests that participation does not necessarily translate into employment.

PLFS 2025 estimates suggest that part of the participation gap reflects age and enrolment, since the no-training group includes most young people who are still studying. Among 25 to 29 year olds, most of whom have left education, the gap persists: 78.2 percent of formally trained youth are in the labour force, against 49.4 percent of those with no training, and 58.9 percent against 28.1 percent among young women. The unemployment gap, meanwhile, is wider than the comparison with the no-training group suggests. Formally trained youth make up 7.1 percent of the youth labour force but 14.0 percent of unemployed youth, and their unemployment rate is about twice that of all youth without formal training (9.2 percent). What this hints at is that formal training helps young people enter the labour market, but the jobs they are seeking do not always materialise.

What this suggests is that formal training is associated with greater labour market participation, but does not necessarily translate into employment.

Informally trained youth present a different picture. Their labour force participation rate is the highest among the groups at 89.1 percent, while their unemployment rate is relatively low at 1.8 percent. However, these figures should not be interpreted as evidence that informal training produces better labour market outcomes. They may instead reflect the greater ease with which informally trained youth are absorbed into available work, including low-paid, insecure, or informal employment, and the available data do not indicate the nature or quality of the employment obtained.

Field and Duration of Training

Information technology and IT-enabled services (IT-ITeS) account for 41.2 percent of all trained youth, making it by far the most common training field. Beyond IT-ITeS, training is spread across electrical and electronics trades, textiles and handlooms, office and business-related work, and healthcare and life sciences (Figure 4).

Figure 4:  Gender distribution across fields of formal vocational training 

Figure 5: Distribution of formal vocational training by duration

Training choices are sharply divided by gender. Young men are concentrated in electrical, mechanical, automotive, and construction-related trades. Young women are concentrated in textiles, beauty and wellness, healthcare, and office-related work. This pattern is consistent with societal and labour market norms that direct women towards a narrower set of sectors, limiting the range of opportunities available to them.

An important quality concern is duration. 44.9 percent of all trained youth complete their training in under six months; for young women, this proportion rises to 52.2 percent. Only 15.5 percent of trained youth report training durations of 24 months or more, falling to 9.9 percent among women (Figure 5). The concentration of training in shorter-duration programmes raises questions about the depth of skills acquired and their alignment with employment opportunities

Technical Education: Stronger Outcomes, But Not Without Challenges

Technical education refers to degrees and diplomas in technical courses including engineering, medicine, agriculture, crafts, and related fields. Youth with technical degrees have a labour force participation rate of 78.3 percent, and diploma holders are close behind. Both groups substantially outperform those with no technical education, whose participation rate stands at 44.3 percent (Figure 6). Technical education appears to be associated with stronger labour market attachment.

Formal training draws young people into the labour force, but not always into work.

Figure 6: LFPR & Unemployment rate for youth by technical education 

LFPR

Unemployment Rate 

Yet technical degree holders face an unemployment rate of 24.1 percent, nearly three times the 8.9 percent recorded among youth with no technical qualification. The relatively high unemployment rate among technically educated youth may indicate some degree of mismatch between their skills and the employment opportunities available to them. This also raises questions about whether the economy is generating sufficient opportunities that match the expectations and skills of technically educated youth.

PLFS 2025 estimates show that youth with a technical degree or diploma make up 8.7 percent of the youth labour force but 18.0 percent of unemployed youth. Yet, as the next section shows, those who find work are far more likely than any other group to be in regular, formal jobs. What this hints at is a queue: technical qualifications open access to a limited pool of formal jobs, and many of those who do not secure one may continue searching rather than take informal work.

The gender dimension is again significant. Female technical degree holders face an unemployment rate of 30.5 percent, compared with 20.8 percent for their male counterparts. Women are accessing technical education in growing numbers, but structural and social barriers continue to constrain their employment outcomes even after qualification.

Does Training Translate Into Better Jobs?

While vocational training captures one pathway of skill acquisition, combining this information with technical education allows individuals to be classified into five mutually exclusive levels. Youth with a technical degree or diploma are classified in those respective categories; among those without a technical degree or diploma, individuals are classified according to whether they received formal or informal training.

As training level rises, the share in regular salaried employment rises and the share in casual labour falls. Among youth with no skills training, only 21.9 percent are in regular employment. The majority are in self-employment or casual work, categories that typically offer lower and less stable earnings. As training level rises, this distribution shifts markedly. Formally trained youth have a regular employment share of 48.4 percent. Diploma holders reach 62.6 percent. Technical degree holders reach 76.5 percent, with casual employment falling to just 1.2 percent (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Employment type by youth training status

The formal³ versus informal⁴ employment split also varies considerably by training status. Among youth with no training, only 8.2 percent of men and 6.2 percent of women are in formal employment. This share increases to 25.8 percent for men and 19.8 percent for women among those with formal training, and rises further among diploma and technical degree holders. Among technical degree holders, 60.4 percent of men and 64.3 percent of women are in formal employment (Figure 8).

One finding in these data deserves particular attention. At the diploma level, the share of women in formal employment (42.0 percent) is higher than that of men (35.2 percent). This suggests that higher levels of technical qualification may be associated with greater access to formal employment among women. However, the data also highlight the importance of widening access to higher-level technical qualifications.

Figure 8: Formal vs Informal work according to youth training status 

Informal employment remains prevalent across all training categories. Even among formally trained youth, 74.2 percent of men and 80.2 percent of women continue to work in informal employment. Only at the technical degree level does formal employment become the norm. Training improves outcomes along this spectrum, but it does not escape the structural dominance of informality in India’s labour market.

Where Does the Skilled Youth Work?

The distribution of employment across sectors shifts with skill level. Among youth with no training, 44.6 percent work in agriculture and 16.4 percent in construction. Among formally trained youth, the agriculture share falls to 17.5 percent, and among technical degree holders it falls further to 8.3 percent (Figure 9). Formally trained and technically educated youth are more represented in manufacturing, public administration, health and education, financial services, and transport.

Figure 9: Percentage of workers in each sector as per training level

The data show a clear shift in the sectoral distribution of employment as skill levels rise.. At the same time, agricultural training accounts for a negligible share of training currently delivered, even though a large share of untrained youth are employed in and around the agricultural sector.

Building Pathways from Training to Meaningful Work

Formal and technical training are associated with better employment outcomes: higher participation, more regular employment, and greater access to the organised sector. But training is one part of a larger picture.

It does not resolve a shortage of quality formal jobs. It does not overcome the structural and social barriers that prevent women from entering and remaining in the workforce. And the concentration of training in short courses raises the question of whether it builds the depth of skills that employers need.

These patterns are worth policy consideration on several fronts at once: the quality, duration, and certification of training; its alignment with sectors where employment is growing; access for rural young women; the range of fields open to women; and the pace at which employers create formal jobs that can absorb a more trained workforce

The challenge is not only to skill more of India’s youth. It is to ensure that skilling connects to jobs, and that those jobs exist.

1. Formal workers consist of persons working in the unorganised, or informal, sector who are regular workers with social security benefits provided by their employer and the workers in the formal sector with any employment and social security benefits provided by their employer.

2. Informal workers consist of persons working in the unorganised, or informal, sector enterprises or households, excluding regular workers with social security benefits provided by their employer and the workers in the formal sector without any employment and social security benefits provided by their employer.

3. Formal Training: The training that is acquired through institutions/ organisations and is recognised by national certifying bodies, leading to diplomas/ certificates and qualifications. Formal training is structured according to educational arrangements such as curricula, qualifications, teaching/ learning requirements and assessment.

4. Informal Training: The training that occurs in daily life, in the family, in the workplace, in communities, and through the interests and activities of individuals. It is not structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and typically does not lead to certification.