21-year-old Mikhail Ansari from Jharkhand works at Premson Motors in Ranchi. Just after completing his intermediate studies, he started working to support his family. Ansari’s skill and expertise were noticed by his manager who pushed him to participate in IndiaSkills 2018, a biennial competition held to felicitate skilful youngsters and motivate others to take up vocational education. Ansari won at the regional level at the Auto body repair competition and is presently training at Gurgaon for the National level of the competition.
Platform for youngsters to display skills
A United Nation’s report in 2014 revealed that India, with 356 million people in the age group of 10 to 24-year-olds had the largest youth population in the world. Meaning that India has a great potential to emerge as the top country in terms of economic growth. This is possible when this youth is skilled and job-ready. Recognising this, under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been holding this competition every alternate year to give professionals a platform to show their workplace skills.
This year, for the first time IndiaSkills was organised across four regions of North, East, West and South which included 21 states and union territories. The winners will now be competing at the National level competition to be held at New Delhi between October 2-6. Winners of this competition would then be given extensive training and will be further groomed in their trade for them to put their best foot forward at the International level, WorldSkills competition to be held in February at Kazan, Russia.
India has been participating in the World Skills Competition since 2007 which showcases the value of different skills and raises the recognition of skills professionals across the globe. India in 2017’s competition participated in 26 skills categories. India has also bagged a silver and bronze along with nine medals and medallions.
A competition where skill alone triumphs
Notably, a lot of candidates participating in this competition come from a very humble background. However, this hardly matters as the sole criteria for one to excel here is on the basis of their skill.
Sanjoy Pramanik from West Bengal is one such participant who crossed every hurdle and shortcomings to emerge as the winner in the jewellery making and designing competition. Another candidate Nikita Sarkar, a beauty therapist from Rajasthan after defeating her competitors, is now training to repeat the glorious feat at the national level too. 18-year-old Anjali Udayan, a specially-abled girl, is training hard in word processing for the upcoming event at Delhi. Udayan had earlier participated in Abilympics which is a work skills Olympics for the differently-abled.
People like Mikhail, Sanjoy, Nikita and Anjali winning these competitions are not just personal victories, in fact, their accomplishment is instrumental in inspiring a whole community. The testament to this is Rohim Momin who participated in bricklaying competition at the WorldSkills competition last year. He finished at the fifth position and won “Medallion Of Excellence”. Momin’s journey from a construction labourer in West Bengal to becoming a master bricklayer attracted a lot of accolades and inspired thousands like him.
Also Read:
Meet Rohim Momin, The School Dropout Who Represented India At World Skills Competition
