Skill Gap Study - The facts and Finding
There is a strong argument that, now in India, the
problem is that of employability and not that of unemployment. In its
India Skills Report for 2014, Wheebox, an online talent assessment
company, has stated that only ten per cent of MBA graduates and 17 per
cent of engineering graduates in the country are employable. In its
National Employability Report of Engineering Graduates for 2014,
Aspiring Minds has stated that “less than one out of four engineering
graduates are employable in the country.” The study further shows that
“of the 1.2 lakh candidates surveyed across multiple states, 91.82% lack
programming and algorithm skills, 71.23% lack soft and cognitive
skills, 60% lack domain skills, 73.63% lack English speaking and
comprehension skills and 57.96% have poor analytical and quantitative
skills.”
From these figures, it is obvious that our
youngsters have to be provided education and training that equip them
for the labour market. It has to be noted that various agencies across
the country train millions of youngsters under skill development
programmes, and yet the results are not impressive. Corporate houses
complain they do not get workers of their choice, with adequate skills
and competencies.
What is the reason for the lack of
employability skills among our youngsters? Is it because of the
curriculum or its delivery? Educationists and placement agencies have
pointed towards outdated learning, lack of practice, exam culture, lack
of industry exposure, lack of soft skills and bad career matching as
major reasons for lesser employability of students.
While
releasing the National Employability Report, the CEO of Aspiring Minds
said, “The low employability among engineering graduates is a cumulative
outcome of poor education standards and higher demand of skilled
employees, creating a drastic skill gap in the country.”
We
have world class syllabus, but do not have world class institutions
providing world class education. Our interactions with the students
reveal that in teaching, more emphasis is placed on theory than on
practical, field exposure and competency development.
Industry
looks for candidates with basic knowledge and skills to perform their
job. A World Bank study suggests that “engineering schools in India
should seek to improve the skill set of graduates and shift the focus
toward higher-order skills and creativity. Employers rated graduates
relatively high on lower-order thinking skills (remembering,
understanding) but low on higher-order thinking skills (analysing,
evaluating, and creating).”
The ability to work in
multicultural settings is equally important for those who seek
employment in the multi-national corporate world. It is here that the
importance of life skills education comes into focus.
Life
skills help in building self-confidence and self-esteem and enable us
to adapt to situations and people. There is a core set of life skills
which can broadly be classified into social and negotiation skills,
thinking skills and coping skills, all of which are at the heart of
skills-based initiatives for the development of an individual.
The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) specifies
three key competencies which can be imparted through life skills
education to enhance the employability skills: the ability to use a wide
range of tools to interact constructively within the social context,
the ability to engage with others in an increasingly interdependent
world, the ability to take responsibility for managing one’s life, place
it in the broader social context, and behave autonomously and
responsibly. The need to think and act reflectively is central to all
these competencies.
Life skills as a subject is on a
path of growth in India. CBSE has introduced life skills education from
Fifth standard onwards. But unfortunately, the teaching of life skills
is not made a part of the credit system and hence not taken seriously.
State governments in certain states like Delhi have introduced the
subject and prescribed training manuals and trained their teachers in
life skills. In several other states, life skills training has been
introduced as part of their adolescent education programme. Though NCERT
is talking about introducing life skills in school curriculum, no
definitive direction has been issued to state governments to introduce
it as a mandatory thing. Kerala has introduced Additional Skills
Acquisition Programme (ASAP), especially in higher secondary stream, in
which the major components are life skills. National Institute of Open
Schooling has introduced a life skills approach in teaching to enhance
the competency of their learners. In the vocational education stream,
life skills training or teaching has not yet been considered.
In
the higher education sector, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth
Development, an institute of national importance near Chennai,
introduced a post graduate programme in life skills education in 2008
with the support of UNFPA and has an exclusive library for life skills
education and adolescent development. The institute is offering a Ph. D
in life skills education. Several other universities have started post
graduate courses, certificate and diploma programmes in life skills
education. Training in life skills has to be introduced in all
educational institutions including ITIs, polytechnics and engineering
colleges. In contrast, many other countries — Trinidad and Tobago being
one of them — have a strong life skills development policy in place. The
regulatory bodies of education in India like NCERT, UGC, AICTE, ACTE,
NCVT and MCI should look into the need for training and teaching life
skills and appropriate policy and programmes should be framed and
implemented.
courtesy to : Dr. A. Radhakrishnan Nair is president, Indian Association of Life Skills Education.)
