India Aligns Skilled Job Roles With 20 Countries to Open Overseas Paths

India has aligned skilled job roles with roughly 20 countries as part of a push to expand overseas employment options for its trained workforce, a senior official from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) said on Wednesday.

Manisha Sensarma, Senior Economic Advisor at MSDE, said the exercise is aimed at matching Indian workers' skills with demand in foreign labour markets. She was speaking on the sidelines of WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.

"What we are doing is that we are now trying to map the job roles with the countries. This exercise we have initiated. There are around 20 countries with which the job roles have already been aligned and this work is on," Sensarma said.

She said overseas demand is especially visible in caregiving and construction, along with other skilled and semi-skilled occupations. Countries such as the UAE were among those seeking such workers, she added.

The official linked the demand to demographic shifts in many economies. "The global economy, by and large, is an ageing economy in many of the things and we, for a number of years still left, have the demographic dividend to our advantage," she said.

Sensarma said the effort is intended to keep the option of working abroad open for trained Indians. "So, we are keeping the road open for them. If they want to go abroad, they can go abroad and they can take up employment over there," she said.

Training standards in India are also being aligned with international requirements, she said, so that the workforce can meet industry demand both at home and overseas. "We are hoping that our workforce would become equipped to meet the demands of the industry, not only within the country, but also abroad," she said.

India is taking part in WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 with its largest-ever contingent of 70 competitors across 63 skill categories. The competition is being held in Shanghai from September 22 to 27.