If unemployment was the main problem during the License Raj years, unemployability has become the major concern in India’s post-liberalization period.
So it came as no great surprise when I read yet another news item / report on the growing unemployability problem in India. A recent study “India Labour Report 2007: The Youth Unemployability Crisis,” by TeamLease Services, a leading staffing services company in India, states that unemployability among the youth is a far greater problem than unemployment.
What’s disconcerting is that India’s growth story may not be hampered by just the oft cited poor roads and infrastructure or corruption, but much more due to its growing number of ‘unemployables’. Moreover, the problem of ‘unemployables’ will continue to grow given India’s young demographic profile and an ineffective education system, both at primary and higher levels.
It’s clearly a paradox situation where in companies are competing with each other for talent, when the number of unemployable youth is ever increasing. How long can companies hike salaries, and increase perks before their high employee costs impact their competitive advantage.
So what can we do to overcome this challenge?
Unemployability is a huge monster that has to be tackled on many fronts. It is a crisis, but also seems a good opportunity for entrepreneurs to bridge this demand-supply gap in skills and competencies.
On a more immediate basis, I think we need to look at the graduate and post-graduate level professional degree programs. The main concern is that most of the knowledge imparted is bookish in nature and does little to prepare the student for what he/she may encounter on the job in the corporate world.
In this regard, many corporate entities like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, etc. have initiated industry-academia partnership programs to impart more practical education to students, train the college faculty, and make the curriculum more attuned to the industry needs.
But I believe that the efforts of a few corporates may not be enough to address the full scale of the unemployability problem. There are over 2,000 colleges (many of which teach the engineering discipline) and around 1,400 management colleges (as of end 2006). Corporate entities may select only a few of the well known colleges, which leaves out a large majority.
Entrepreneurs are needed to address this opportunity by providing employability training programs and workshops that develop life skills. Also college administrators and faculty members need to initiate changes in their curriculum and change the nature of pedagogy.
Above all else, I feel that students themselves need to understand that they have to take a keen interest in their personal development, identify their skills gap, and take action by forming self-help groups or attending personal development programs. This will not only help them become employable, but also enable them to get better growth and earning opportunities throughout the course of their career.
So it came as no great surprise when I read yet another news item / report on the growing unemployability problem in India. A recent study “India Labour Report 2007: The Youth Unemployability Crisis,” by TeamLease Services, a leading staffing services company in India, states that unemployability among the youth is a far greater problem than unemployment.
What’s disconcerting is that India’s growth story may not be hampered by just the oft cited poor roads and infrastructure or corruption, but much more due to its growing number of ‘unemployables’. Moreover, the problem of ‘unemployables’ will continue to grow given India’s young demographic profile and an ineffective education system, both at primary and higher levels.
It’s clearly a paradox situation where in companies are competing with each other for talent, when the number of unemployable youth is ever increasing. How long can companies hike salaries, and increase perks before their high employee costs impact their competitive advantage.
So what can we do to overcome this challenge?
Unemployability is a huge monster that has to be tackled on many fronts. It is a crisis, but also seems a good opportunity for entrepreneurs to bridge this demand-supply gap in skills and competencies.
On a more immediate basis, I think we need to look at the graduate and post-graduate level professional degree programs. The main concern is that most of the knowledge imparted is bookish in nature and does little to prepare the student for what he/she may encounter on the job in the corporate world.
In this regard, many corporate entities like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, etc. have initiated industry-academia partnership programs to impart more practical education to students, train the college faculty, and make the curriculum more attuned to the industry needs.
But I believe that the efforts of a few corporates may not be enough to address the full scale of the unemployability problem. There are over 2,000 colleges (many of which teach the engineering discipline) and around 1,400 management colleges (as of end 2006). Corporate entities may select only a few of the well known colleges, which leaves out a large majority.
Entrepreneurs are needed to address this opportunity by providing employability training programs and workshops that develop life skills. Also college administrators and faculty members need to initiate changes in their curriculum and change the nature of pedagogy.
Above all else, I feel that students themselves need to understand that they have to take a keen interest in their personal development, identify their skills gap, and take action by forming self-help groups or attending personal development programs. This will not only help them become employable, but also enable them to get better growth and earning opportunities throughout the course of their career.
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