Large-scale outmigration of youth from Assam and other states in the Northeast region as unskilled workers highlights the persistence of critical gaps in skill development in the region despite several government-sponsored initiatives. The Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU), which aims at the industry-led transformation of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) ecosystem, brings an opportunity to reorient the ITIs in the region to become the hub of modern skill development. Increasing the number of ITIs is equally important to increase the accessibility of such skill development programmes to a wider section of youth. A programme organised by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), on ‘Skilling for International Mobility & PM-SETU’ in Guwahati on Monday, places special emphasis on the tourism and hospitality sector to cater to growing demand for skilled professionals in domestic and international markets. This is excellent news. The state also needs to prioritise making youth employable as skilled workers for other industrial sectors such as manufacturing and industrial production, construction and infrastructure, logistics and warehousing, Telecom and Electronics, renewable energy and electric vehicle. Skills like industrial maintenance technician, plumbing technician, surveyor, heavy-equipment operator, emergency medical technician, supply chain coordinator, logistics technician, etc., are in high demand in advanced industrialised states. As most youth from the region migrate without receiving skills training in these areas, they often end up picking low-paid, unskilled work in construction, security services, and delivery sectors in these states. The demand for skilled workers, such as heavy machinery operators for tunnel boring machines, advanced excavators, and crawler cranes, is not limited to advanced states; it is also driven by the flow of industrial investments, the strong push for mega infrastructure projects, and the growth of the real estate sector within the region itself. However, because the local workforce lacks the required skills, contractors and project authorities hire workers from outside the region who are trained for these jobs. The rollout of 5G and other telecom infrastructure services in Assam and other states in the region has generated numerous skilled employment opportunities, underscoring the need to align skill development courses and programmes to cater to emerging industries and ensure the employment of local youth in these sectors. The pertinent question that needs to be answered is whether local youths have observed the rapid transformation in the skill landscape in the region and are seeking opportunities to receive training to acquire the skills that are in demand. This question is also relevant to students and youth organisations in the region, who have been highlighting the issue of large-scale migration of unskilled youth due to a lack of employment opportunities and insufficient industrial expansion. The student and youth bodies, like the All Assam Students Union and the North East Students’ Organisation, which are apex bodies of students and youth in each Northeastern state, should shoulder the responsibility of guiding students and youths in acquiring industry-relevant skills. By doing so, they can also impress upon the state governments the need to prioritise upgrading ITIs and other skill training institutes with modern syllabi and curricula. If they undertake such an initiative, it will significantly enhance awareness of evolving employment opportunities within the region and ensure that youths migrating to other states possess the necessary skills to access better industrial employment opportunities. The push for food processing industries, modern dairy farming, and solar-powered projects has increased demand for skilled workers for these sectors in the rural northeast. Community-led initiatives can play a transformative role by making rural youth aware of emerging employment opportunities and demonstrating that, rather than abandoning farming as a non-remunerative livelihood and migrating to urban centres without skills, they can turn agriculture into a commercially viable livelihood by establishing food processing units and packaging facilities that utilise the local skilled workforce. This demands community leaders find out, whenever large infrastructure projects or a new industry is set up in their areas, what the different types of skilled workforce that are to be employed through different stages of such projects or industries are and whether the local youths possess those skills or not. While government departments carry out such skill mapping, community leaders and organisations, as well as local self-governments like panchayats and village councils, undertaking similar exercises can strengthen awareness of the importance of industry-relevant skill building in the region. Skill development cannot be limited to government-sponsored scheme-driven initiatives alone. While the government facilitates and enables skill building through flagship programmes like PM-SETU and Skill India, the drive to acquire skills must come from the community itself. Indigenous communities in the region need to introspect on why lakhs of indigenous youths are migrating as unskilled workers for livelihoods, especially when communities that migrated to the Northeast from other Indian states, as well as those of erstwhile East Bengal or East Pakistan origin, have quickly learned modern industry-relevant skills to increase their employability within the region.