The unskilled but qualified section of Indian Population

The unskilled but qualified section of Indian population

As the job market continues to change and evolve there is an increasing demand for a competent person rather than a qualified person. A competent person is an ideal one and more desirable with essential educational qualifications. Many years ago, a degree qualification used to be a major deciding factor in generating employment, but as the number of graduates passing out each year is largely increasing who lack qualifications in some relevant industry run the risk of not getting a job at all.

There is a common lament among the job-seekers that how will their education translate to the real world? It is not essential that all qualified persons must have sufficient skill-set. The lack of relevant skills causes unemployment and underemployment due to the mismatch between skills acquired (supply) and skills required (demand).

Two years ago a study by employability assessment company, Aspiring Minds created a stir by claiming that 95 percent of engineers in the country were not fit for software development jobs.

CP Gurnani, CEO and MO of Tech Mahindra had said that 94% of the engineering graduates were not fit for hiring. The top 10 IT companies take only 6% of engineering graduates. Due to the widening skill gap now the industry has to retrain even those who get hired.

The Aspiring Minds study claimed that only 4.77 percent of candidates could write the correct logic for a programme – a minimum requirement for any programming job. More than 36000 engineering students from IT related branches of over 500 colleges took automata – a machine learning based assessment of software development skills and more than 60% could not even write code that compiles. Only 1.4% could write functionally correct and efficient code, it said.

India’s problem of sub-standard education is now widely known. Students are not interested in continuous learning. They only want good grades. The specific purpose of the education system is not properly understood by faculty and students.

While a large number of students complete their graduation every year and collect their degrees, it is only when they encounter the real world problems they realize their shortfalls. By then, they have to take extra time in order to add skills to themselves or suffer unemployment. One of the major problems faced by the fresh graduates is there insufficient understanding of basic concepts. The lack of in-depth understanding of technical information, lack of client handling skills and insufficient knowledge across domains are the major skill gaps in the area.

Initiatives like the ‘Skill India’ and ‘Make in India’ were positive efforts taken by the government to boost employment opportunities. The first phase of the Skill India scheme was easy, well-targeted and achieved as each trainee had to be given Rs.5000 to Rs.12000. However, the targets of the second phase which was launched in 2016 with the target to train over 1 crore youth in India in different skills by 2020 proved too difficult and unattainable. Later it was found that scheme was poorly implemented with unrealistic targets.

Increase in the number of colleges over time with the faulty education system has led to reduced interest in the subject, decrease in competitiveness as there is no one to stipulate the total intake.Apprenticeships offer a varied learning experience

The skill gap is a vicious issue India’s youth is facing leading to high unemployability. The reasons behind them are:

1) Inadequate preparation of students in the job area and the lack of proper industry-academia interactions

2) Students are not being trained for jobs involving innovational ideas, creativity and problem-solving skills

3) The educational institutions sometimes lack proper infrastructure and fail to provide good Faculty of teachers and professors

4) Students nowadays fail to realize that there are skills beyond the regular curriculum that can give them an edge and make them industry ready

5) Universities do not take the steps to initiate the digital learning models for the students to get hands-on experience with good quality industry ready content

6) Rote learning instills in the student a spot of complacency and they are unable to make a shift from unquestioning learners to innovators in the job market

Apprenticeships offer a varied learning experience

In the 21st century, education system faces the dual challenge of equipping students with the new knowledge, hard skills, soft skills and values needed to be competitive in a global market while at the same time producing graduates who are responsible adults, good citizens both of their country and of the world. There is a need to transform the educational system to meet the aspirational needs of the new generation, which will ensure that India’s demographic dividend continued to remain its asset.