From Training to Employment: Evaluating India’s Solar PV Skilling Ecosystem

Abstract

India’s goals of achieving 500 GW of renewable energy capacity and the PM‑Surya Ghar scheme of 10 million rooftop solar systems are expected to create a demand of over 100‚000 solar PV installers in India․ Despite millions of candidates trained through programs such as PMKVY and SANKALP‚ placements have been low (overall PMKVY placements rate ~21%)․ This study investigates India’s solar PV training ecosystem’s skills-to-jobs gap through a secondary data analysis, administrative scheme data‚ audited reports of the CAG‚ the PLFS‚ industry reports (CEEW and Mercom India)‚ and international best practice (Germany’s dual VET system‚ and Singapore’s SkillsFuture)․ For the solar PV sector‚ four major systemic challenges of placement emerge: (i) demand-supply mismatch in skills taught and industry requirements‚ (ii) weak industry-training provider linkages‚ (iii) low levels of on-the-job training and exposure‚ and (iv) mismatch between training centre locations and industry locations․ Compared to international comparators Germany (placement rates of >80 per cent) and Singapore (around 65 per cent) with similar investment levels‚ India’s placement outputs are very low․ It proposes three pathways to align with such global benchmarks: 1․ District-level Solar Skills Councils for co-creating employer-led curriculum‚ 2․ an Outcome-Linked Fund for paying training providers based on trainees settled and retained in jobs‚ and 3․ a Digital Talent Stack of portable credentials‚ employer ratings and AI-enabled job matching on the Skill India Digital Hub․ This model enables addressing ex‑ante implementation challenges and serving the Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) agenda by building domestic institutional and human capacity for a self-reliant green economy.