In response to the evolving challenges and emerging opportunities in the skilling and employment landscape, DRF has developed its Youth Skilling Strategy for 2026-2030. This strategy serves as a guiding framework to equip youth from low-income households with market-aligned foundational and technical skills for better employment or self-employment, through a segmented and innovation-driven approach.

DRF acknowledges the scale of India’s skilling challenge and the rapid changes being brought about by Artificial Intelligence, automation, and shifting labour markets. Based on over two and a half decades of skilling experience and insights drawn from our research and alumni, we have chosen to focus our efforts on two complementary pillars – (a) Core Employability Skills, equipping youth with transferable, future-ready competencies for multi-sector entry-level jobs, and (b) Technical Skills, providing sector-specific training in high-growth areas such as healthcare, information technology, green economy, and pharma.

In the strategy paper, we have deep-dived into the following areas: (a) Our Work in the Area of Youth Skilling, (b) Current Skilling Scenario – Challenges and Opportunities, (c) DRF’s Youth Skilling Strategy, (d) Strategic Principles, Priorities and Components, (e) Building Partnerships, and (f) Envisioned Impact.

To know more, please download our Youth Skilling Strategy Paper.