Monday,

@ Campus November 16, 2009

Ensuring education leads to employability

Skill gap among Indian graduates can be reduced only if institutes, industry and government work together in a productive
Shobha Mishra Ghosh ductively to the work environment. The demographic portant general skills are integrity,re- upgrade themselves and regularly change pedagogical style from
Unfortunately, over the past two liability and teamwork and the top update their curriculum in sync with teacher-centric to student-centric,
D U C ATION, skill develop- decades, the Indian higher educa- advantage that India is three most important specific skills industry needs and improve on the and include more assignments for

E ment and employability have

unfortunately become
clichØs, debated nowadays in every
other industry forum. However, an-
swers are needed to questions such
as, what does employability mean in
the Indian context? What skills make
a graduate employable and how
does an institution prepare employ-
able graduates? The reality is that
there is scant research done in these
areas.
The international commission on
education, UNESCO report says,
education must be organized
around four pillars of knowledge i.e.
learning to know, learning to do,
learning to live together and learning
to be. Graduates should be
equipped through education to con-
tributeeffectively towards economic
growth and knowledge creation.
Once graduates imbibe these four
fundamental aspects it convertsinto
skills or competencies that are trans-
ferable from one setting to another.
Thus employability becomes visible
when graduates demonstrate the
ability to adapt and contribute pro-
tion system with exception of a minis-
cule percentage of institutions have
been unable to produce quality grad-
uates and can be held responsible
for the rising skill shortages and
skillgap that coexist with increasing
graduate unemployment and un-
deremployment . Thisisagreatchal-
lenge for India in times when we are
the third largest economy in the
world with a growth rate of 6-7% post
global meltdown. To make matters
more complicated there are specu-
lations galore regarding lack of em-
ployability of Indian engineering and
higher education graduates based
on certain industry reports. The de-
mographic advantage that India is
bestowed with, would bear resultsin
future only if we empower our youth
with knowledge and appropriate
skill.We would not only have to cater
to our own domestic needs but also
cater to the global demand as the
world is looking at India as the future
stock of skilled and semi-skilled hu-
man resource. There is an urgent
need to leap frog the reforms in the
education sector in order to remain
bestowed with, would
bear results in future
only if we empower our
youth with knowledge
and appropriate skill.
W e would have to cater
to our own domestic
needs and also to
global demand as the
world is looking at India
as the future stock of
skilled and semi-skilled
globally competitive.
Skills and skill gaps
W orld Bank along with FICCI car-
ried out a employer satisfaction sur-
vey of 150 companies across
sectors and regions to get a more ac-
curatepictureofwhataretheskillsan
Indian or multinational company in
India look for while hiring new engi-
neering graduates and how Indian
human resource
engineering institutions should re-
orient themselves to better serve the
present and future human resource
requirements.
Findings were dismal. 64% of sur-
veyed employers are somewhat ,
not very , or not at all satisfied with
the quality of engineering graduates
skills. Employers are not seeking a
tallorder.According to the participat-
ing employers, the top three most im-
are entrepreneurship, communica-
tion in English and use of modern
tools and technologies.
Skill gap is another major issue,
for instance, while reliability and
communication in English are de-
sired skills, employers are relatively
satisfied with graduates when it
comes to communication in English
but not with the graduates reliability.
The survey revealed reliability,self-
motivation and willingness to learn
as the top three skill gaps in general
skills and gaps in specific skills were
found in problem solving, ability to
design, conduct experiments and
data analysis and reading.
The scenario for general higher
education programmes in liberal
arts, science and commerce is far
worse in terms of employability and
skill gaps as compared to the engi-
neering education as some reports
claim to the extent that only 10% of
the general graduates are of employ-
able quality.
Wherein lies the solution?
Engineering institutions need to
teaching methods to equip gradu-
ates with skills to formulate, analyse,
and solve a real life problem using
students to independently analyse
and apply tools on real life problems.
Only through such changes in the
standard engineering techniques. teaching-learning process will the fu-
This is clear indicator that to resolve ture graduates become more em-
this scenario engineering institu- ployable.
tions and employers have to resolve
theirdifferences, interact and collab- The author is director, FICCI. An-
orate to design education pro- dreas Blom, senior education econ-
grammes in a sustained manner that omist, and Hiroshi Saeki, analyst
respond to the specific skill demands both at The World Bank contributed
of the industry. Government s role tothearticle
should be to ensure that while the is-
sue of employability is addressed,
the education provided is holistic and
not companyorindustrycentric.
One can conclude that the urgent
need for higher education institutions
anduniversitiesistofocusontheskills
of the graduates through sustained
interactions between industry, civil
societies and the communities to pro-
duce effective knowledge workers as
well as compassionate human be-
ings. Each institution should define
the set of skills that a graduate is sup-
posed to have after each semester
and continuously measure such
skills. Further, institutions need to

CAMPUS OF THE WEEK MASTERS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, DELHI SCHOOL O F

fe@campus is a felicitous initiative at
the national level by The Financial
Expressto provide students from
higher education institutions an
opportunity to have their voice heard
on issues pertaining to and impacting
the economy today. Our themes for this
page are decided keeping in mind this
view and for this week we put forth the
topic: Lack of trained manpower,a
hurdle forIndia,inits switch from an
agrarian to an industry dominated
economy . Students from Delhi School
of Economics Masters of International
Business sent us their essays
articulating their opinion. Here are two
of the best among an informed group
of students.
Blue-collar workers in welding technology, carpentry, motor winding and so on form the backbone of any
industrial economy and hence the need to make them employable is even more pronounced
Nikhil Menon
THE India story is back on track. With the
G D P expected to touch 7%, it is a welcome
relief from the spate of job losses and hiring
brakes initiated across sec-
tors by India Inc. But where
one problem ends, the other
begins. As the economy
swings up, the problem of
lack of skilled manpower
resurfaces. India it clearly
needs to get its act together
to move from being an
agrarian economy to a de-
veloped one. India, with its
outdated education sys-
tem, is at risk of losing its
competitive edge to other
low cost locations around
theworld.
During the boom years of 2003-2007, In-
dian industry faced a crippling shortage of
skilled manpower in all sectors of the indus-
try ranging from IT/ ITES, health services, fi-
THEME OF THE WEEK
LACK OF TRAINED MANPOWER IS A HURDLE FOR INDIA IN ITS
SWITCH FROM AN AGRARIAN TO AN INDUSTRY DOMINATED ECONOMY
The Masters of International Business programme started in 1995 at Delhi School of Economics under the latter s department of commerce
nancial services, manufacturing, retail, looking overseas (China and Philippines)
pharmaceuticals the list goes on. Despite fortalent, the scenario can t get any scarier.
this obvious lack of quality manpower, India already is facing a severe shortage of
wages were on the rise, with outrageous skilled manpower for the planning and con-
hikes of 30% seen in India s sunrise ser- structionofits road network.
vices sector.A reality check The time is still ripe, with the economy
was long overdue and it showing promising signs of recovery,forthe
came in the form of a reces- government to embark on a modernizing
sion. The recession has giv- drive of the industrial training institutes
en employers an (ITIs). These institutes provide diplomas in
opportunity to upgrade the vocational courses to students who have
skill sets of their workers. passed their tenth standard examinations,
However since this is an ex- in semi skilled professions like welding
pensive proposition, few technology, carpentry, motor winding and
companies would be willing so on. It is these blue-collar workers who
to invest in such a measure form the backbone of any industrial econo-
during a recession. my and hence the need to make them em-
The state of engineers, ployable is even more pronounced.
graduates and MBAs, run- However the infrastructure and the curricu-
ning India s growing ser- lum are so outdated that most of these stu-
vices sector that dents have to be provided extra training by
contributes 54 % to the GDP isnodifferent the organization employing them.
as the sector faces a serious dearth of grad- The recession could very well turn out to
uateswithmarketrelevantskillsets. WithIn- be a blessing in disguise for India, as it gives
dian BPOs, KPOs and IT companies industry as well as the government an op-
portunitytotackle this problem which could
seriously hamper India s transition to an in-
dustrial power.The need of the hour is to
overhaul the education system in India s
schools and universities, to move the sys-
tem from learning by rote to learning by do-
ing.Itisthispracticalaspectofworkwhichis
missing from the present system, and it is
the absence of this experience in schools
and universities that contribute to the crip-
pling skilled manpower shortage India
faces. If this issue is left unaddressed, we
can bid the India growth story goodbye.
The author is from the 2008-2010 MIB
batch and can be reached at
nikhilmenon.mib2010@gmail.com
The problem lies in the work that can be offered to
farm workers shifting to industry.As they are not
formally trained to work in industry, a large number
remain unemployed during non-harvest season
Nikhil Mehra
INDIA and China both came out of the re-
cession relatively unscathed. China
clocked a 9.4% growth in 2008-09 and In-
dia not far behind stood at 6.4% growth.
Both the economies are similar in many
ways, though opening up of the economy
started in China in 1978 and in India in
1991. However in China more than 100
million people have already migrated
from agrarian economy to different indus-
tries.
In 1993-94, 64.8% of total workforce in
India was engaged in agriculture which
decreased to 58.5% in 2004-05. In China,
the figure reduced from 30.1% to 16.4%.
Out of the 60 million jobs generated in
past decade and a half in India, 30 million
were in agriculture. This figure is mis-
matched as India s agri-
culture sector last year
grew at 2.3% and with
more than half of the
population engaged in
agricultureitisnotpossi-
ble for India to sustainits
growth rate if large num-
ber of people don t shift
to industrial sectors.
Additionally, with fur-
ther increase in GDP,in-
come disparity between
agricultural and non-
agricultural households
will increase unless
around 10 million more
workers currently involved in agriculture
find non-agricultural employment. To
make this possible, and absorb all new
entrants into the labour force, non-agri-
cultural employment would need to in-
crease at over 6% per annum during 11th
Plan.
The problem lies in the work that can
be offered to farm workers shifting to in-
dustry.As they are not formally trained to
work in industry, a large number remain
unemployed during non-harvest season.
This problem has to be solved and more
people have to shift to other fast growing
sectors like services, manufacturing so
as to sustain this rate of development.
W ithoverhalfofIndia s population in agri-
culture sector,thissectorcanstillsustain
the growth with less number of people as
the problem is not of labour but of infra-
structure,irrigationetc.
There can be several ways to help peo-
ple come out of agriculture to other sec-
tors. Firstly, with the help of Government
more and more vocational training insti-
tutes can be opened like ITI s which can of-
fer semi skilled trainings to these workers
to make them suitable for industry. Sec-
ondly, Government can adopt PPP mode
in which private players can also venture in
theseinstituteswithalltheresponsibilities
handled by them and Government having
the supervising function as it is being tried
withcurrentITI s.Thirdly,privateplayersin
industry can set up institutes that provide
training to their workers as per their re-
quirements, which can benefit these work-
ers, and can also be a
cash generating option .
Other companies can in-
clude such initiatives as
part of their corporate so-
cialresponsibility.
If the Indian elephant
has to conquer the Chi-
nese dragon, then this
problem has to be careful-
ly tackled. The Govern-
ment and private players
in industry should under-
stand this fact and should
implement various strate-
gies so as to overcome it
and transform India into
industry dominated economy.The path
has to be chosen with utmost care as any
wrong move could lead to further erosion
of competitiveness.
The author is from the 2008-2010 MIB
batch and can be reached at
nikhil_mehra11@yahoo.co.in

N E W S R E-

CAMPUS R O U N D U P INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS

NITIE’s annual management festival
sees confluence of academia and
industry leaders
National Institute of Industrial
Engineering (NITIE) played host to
Prerana Business Meet, 2009 with
The Financial Express as media
partner. Industry dignitaries across
sectors included Gurcharan Das,
columnist and former MD of Procter
& Gamble worldwide, Meera Sanyal,
country executive, Royal Bank of
Scotland India, Narayan
Ramachandran, country head,
Morgan Stanley India and
HB Joshipura, CMD, Glaxo
SmithKline who participated in a
highly interactive discussion on,
Demystifying the reforms enigma:
the how, why and why not of laissez
faire . HB Joshipura talked about
reforms in the healthcare sector and
made a pertinent point on the
of the future
Birla Institute of Management
Technology s theme for its H R
summit was, steering organisations
with a human touch: the navigational
facet of hr . HR leaders including
Geetanjali Pandit Gupta, corporate
head, talent management, The
Indian Express Ltd, SY Siddiqui,
managing executive officer Admin
(HR, Fin & IT), Maruti Suzuki, NS
Rajan, partner and Asia Pacific head
High profile corporate panel meet at NITIE’s Prerana business meet in Mumbai of human capital, Ernst and Young
were part of vibrant discussions on
staggeringly low amounts spent by was the need of the hour . Other enabling talent , way of business
the government on healthcare an highlights of the Prerana meet were a and inspirational H R.
issue that would surely gain summer project contest , decibelz
prominence as the average age of rock show and launchpad a W e invite colleges and universities to
India s population increases. marketing case study competition. send in information, for this section,
Drawing an analogy with the rapid on new faculty and courses,
development of the telecom sector, BIMTECH HR summit brings international alliances, industry
Joshipura said that, proactive together industry and academia projects and other current eventsto
involvement in reforms in this sector champions to discuss HR challenges fecampusroundup@express
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