IndiaSkills 2023-24 to kick off on Wed; 900 participants to take part

The national level skilling competition is the precursor to the WorldSkills competition, as participants who excel at national level will get to participate at the world stage in September in Paris

The IndiaSkills 2023-24 competition is set to kick off from Wednesday in the national capital, with nearly 900 competitors from 32 states and union territories set to participate in 61 different skilling competitions. 

The national level skilling competition is the precursor to the WorldSkills competition, as the participants who excel at the national level will get to participate at the world stage in September in Paris. The WorldSkills is the largest skill competition in the world, held once every two years, conducted by WorldSkills International, which has 86 member countries.

The national level competition provides both a benchmark for high performance and a way to assess vocational excellence among the workforce. It is also expected to see participation from more than 200 industry and academic partners like Toyota Kirloskar, Mahindra, Saint Gobain, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, and Infosys.

The competition will be held under six sectors - construction technologies, transportation, manufacturing and engineering, information & communication technology, creative arts, and social & personal skills.

Atul Kumar Tiwari, secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), told reporters that the competition will help the Indian youth attain world-class standards of competence, excellence, and productivity and it will also facilitate cooperation among governments, industry, and academia.

The government is spending Rs 80 crore on the project and close to Rs 30 crore have been raised by the private players that include corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well.

The earlier WorldSkills competition in 2022 saw over 1,000 competitors from 58 countries in 61 skills. India participated in 50 skills including new-age skills like robot system integration, additive manufacturing, industry 4.0, digital construction, mobile application development, and renewable energy. It secured 11th position, its best ranking so far, since it started participating in 2007.