 Employability Skills can be defined as the transferable skills needed by an

individual to make them ‘employable’. Along with good technical

understanding and subject knowledge, employers often outline a set of skills
that they want from an employee. These skills are what they believe will
equip the employee to carry out their role to the best of their ability.
Employability depends on your knowledge, skills and attitudes, how you
use those assets, and how you present them to employers. The table below
has been compiled by a range of companies ), and it lists the Top 10
Employability Skills which they look for in potential employees .
S.NO SKILLS THAT
EMPLOYERS WANT
1 Communication and
interpersonal skills
2 Problem solving skills
3 Using your initiative and
being self-motivated
WHAT THAT MEANS
The ability to explain
what you mean in a clear
and concise way through
written and spoken
means.
The ability to understand
a problem by breaking it
down into smaller parts,
and identifying the key
issues, implications and
identifying solutions. To
apply your knowledge
from many different
areas to solving a task.
Having new ideas of
your own which can be
made into a reality.
Showing a strong
personal drive and not
waiting to be told to do
things.
4 Team working
5 Organisational skills
6 Ability to learn and adapt
Working well with
other people from
different disciplines,
backgrounds, and
expertise to accomplish
a task or goal.
Being organised and
methodical. Able to plan
work to meet deadlines
and targets. Monitoring
progress of work to
ensure you are on track
to meeting a deadline.
To be enthusiastic about
your work, and to
identify ways to learn
from your mistakes for
the benefit of both you
and your employer.
After economic liberalisation in 1991 started unshackling the private sector,
demand for MBAs shot up. Companies were willing to pay the top dollar to this
new breed of executives who were seen as wunderkinds capable of putting family-
held, traditional businesses on fast track. Management became a sought-after
career for students and MBA the key to success in life.
After more than two decades, the degree is
losing the prestige

In 2016-17, more than half of MBA graduates

could not get hired in campus placements, data
by All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) shows. Just 47% of MBAs were
placed, 4% less than the previous year, and at a
five-year low. The drop in placements for
postgraduate diploma holders was even bigger
at 12%. The numbers do not include graduates
from the elite Indian Institutes of Management
(IIMs) which are not affiliated to AICTE.
There is a glut of MBAs in India. Out of nearly
5,000 management institutes across the country,
about 200,000 students passed out in 2016-17.
Add to that an overall jobs crisis in the
country.

But the biggest reason behind the decline in job

offers to MBAs is the outdated curriculum.

Excluding graduates from top 20 colleges, only

7% of MBA students from Indian business
schools got jobs immediately after the
completion of the course, an ASSOCHAM
report said last year. The report found lack of
quality control and infrastructure, low-paying
jobs through campus placement and poor
faculty as the major reasons for India's
unfolding B-school disaster.
Even engineering colleges face the same
challenges. A few years ago, a McKinsey report
said just a quarter of engineers in India were
actually employable. Of late, some other
studies put it at less than 20%. Recently, a
survey by employability assessment firm
Aspiring Minds said 95% of Indian engineers
can’t code.
A New Delhi-based employment solutions
company, Aspiring Minds, conducted an
employability-focused study based on 150,000
engineering students who graduated in 2013.
The findings were rather shocking.
As many as 97 per cent of graduating engineers
want jobs either in software engineering or core
engineering. However, only 3 per cent have
suitable skills to be employed in software or
product market, and only 7 per cent can handle
core engineering tasks.
According to the HRD ministry, India has
6,214 engineering and technology institutions
which are enrolling 2.9 million students.
Around 1.5 million engineers are released into
the job market every year. But the dismal state
of higher education in India ensures that they
simply do not have adequate skills to be
employed.
So, what can happen when such a large
population of youth do not get jobs? Experts
say that this may cause serious instability in the
economic and social conditions in the country,
along with wide scale dissatisfaction and
disillusionment.
Though the quantity of universities, colleges
and programmes are going on increasing in the
country, the lack of quality education persists.
Profit-hungry managements, lack of skill
education, resplendent corruption, focus on
rote-learning methods, and shortage of faculty
(both in quantity and quality) are the major
issues plaguing higher education. Graduates are
collecting their degrees despite not being
skilled enough to be a productive part of the
Indian economy.
the following factors decide whether an engineer is employable:
"The ability to apply the concepts learnt to constantly develop innovative things
and find solutions to complex problems are main factors working behind the
employability of an engineer."
"The state of the economy also plays a major role for employment generation.
Industry insiders say that in a strained economic condition, companies do not want
to spend much on training and would prefer candidates with some skill sets who
can be made billable soon."
Location factor: According to the Aspiring Minds report, in Tier-1 cities such as
Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, 18.26 per cent of software engineers are job
ready, while in Tier-2 cities such as Pune, Nagpur and Surat, 14.17 per cent are
employable
 This shows that the candidates from lower tier cities are not getting the same
opportunities as those hailing from Tier-1 cities, even if they are equally qualified
and skilled. The chances of finding a job for such a person is 24 per cent lower and
the earning per-year salary would also be Rs 66,000 lesser
"Problems with English language along with issues in computer
programming make these students ineligible for employment. The difference in
English and cognitive skill modules may only be a function of the input quality of
the students. There is a consistent trend that the maximum gap is in computer
programming, followed by cognitive skills and English and least in other domain
skills."
 Basically the Tier 3 cities are the one with the lowest employability rate. This is

because of the insufficient infrastructure for developing skilled specific knowledge.

 1. Syllabus not updated regularly:
 The course contents do not focus on areas which will actually help in the job
industry after employment. There is a big gap between what the market needs and
what Indian education equips its future employees with. Despite exponential
changes in science and technology round the world, the syllabus is hardly ever
updated.
2. Lack of quality teachers:There are more
than 33,023 colleges in India granting degrees.
There are not enough quality teachers for all of
these educational institutes.
After multinational companies, the IT big shots
of India, and the smaller engineering
companies have had their pick, many from the
remaining engineering graduates go on to get a
PhD and join as faculty at engineering
institutes. Thus, unlike other parts of the world,
the Indian faculty is not comprised of the very
best of the industries who have the skills to
create brilliant students.
Most educated engineers join teaching as a
profession not because of passion, but because
they have to earn a livelihood. The few good
professors prefer administrative positions
because of lower intellectual demands coupled
with higher pay packages.
 Lack of innovation and research:
 Students need to be motivated enough to innovate or think for themselves. As the
new HRD minister Prakash Javadekar recently said, "Why do we lack innovation in
India? Because, we don't allow questioning. We don't promote inquisitiveness. If a
child asks questions in school, he is asked to sit down. This should not go on. We
need to promote inquisitiveness, children should ask questions."
 Students must be given the space and scope to think and innovate, to question and
come up with solutions. This applies to both school education and higher education.
 Such are Indian students trained right from their primary education that they never
learn to question or innovate. Rote learning instils in students a sort of
complacency for more than 12 years of education and they are unable to make the
shift from un-questioning learners to innovators in the job market.
4. Faulty education system:
Semester systems and the process of
continuous evaluation are not fulfilling their
desired roles as the students are not interested
in continuous learning-they only want good
grades. Unless the specific purpose of such
initiatives is properly understood by faculty and
students alike, these methods likely would not
work.
5. Lack of skill-based education:
Skill-based education is another immediate
need. Engineering students need to have hands-
on training on the basis of the problems they
are likely to encounter in the real world.
"One of the major problems facing the fresh
graduates is their 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
6.Lack of proper English skills:
The study attributes the lack of English
communicative skills, which they found in
73.63 per cent of candidates, and low analytical
and quantitative skills, which they discovered
in 57.96 per cent of candidates to be other main
reasons for unemployment.
Even the IT sector requires employers who are
fluent and well versed in English, as within
around two years of experience on the job, they
would have to communicate with international
customers. Thus, if the quality of engineering
graduates do not improve, IT sector hiring will
also go down.
Globally, 73 million youth are registered unemployed. Considering how many
aren’t registered, this number is actually much higher. 620 million are currently not
in employment, education or training (NEET), according to the World Bank.
Meanwhile, with 600 million young slated to enter the job market in the next
decade – with only 200 million jobs awaiting them – the youth unemployment
crisis is not projected to improve anytime soon.
1. Financial crisis
Though the current youth unemployment crisis was not caused by the financial
crisis alone, the recession just made existing problems in labour markets,
education systems and other structures worse.
Greece and Spain, for example, were experiencing high youth unemployment
years before the financial downturn, and a sudden surging of economies wouldn’t
be enough to put the 74 million unemployed young people to work. Furthermore,
the youth unemployment rate is two to three times higher than the adult rate no
matter the economic climate.
The recession did, however, affect the quality
and security of jobs available to young people.
Temporary positions, part-time work, zero-hour
contracts and other precarious job paths are
often the only way young people can earn
money or gain experience these days.
2. Skills mismatch
The skills mismatch is a youth unemployment
cause that affects young people everywhere.
There are millions of young people out of
school and ready to work, but businesses needs
skills these young people never got. Young
people end up experiencing a difficult school-
to-work transition, and businesses are unable to
find suitable candidates for their positions.
Similarly, young people who have advanced
degrees find themselves overqualified for their
jobs, and many young people are also
underemployed, meaning they work fewer
hours than they would prefer. There is an
economic as well as a personal cost here:
young people are not being allowed to work to
their full potential.
3. Lack of entrepreneurship and lifeskills
education
While the exact cause of the skills mismatch is
difficult to pin down, it’s a combination of
school curriculums neglecting vocational,
entrepreneurial and employability training in
favour of more traditional academics, poor
connections between the private sector and
schools to promote training and work
experience and a lack of instruction in how to
harness lifeskills most students already have.
4. Lack of access to capital
Young people who want to make their own jobs
by starting businesses often struggle to find
access to affordable loans, or loans in general.
This is partially due to a lack of collateral. High
interest rates also make it difficult for young
people to repay their loans on time. The World
Bank notes that <1% of loan portfolios of loan
providers are directed at those under the age of
30.
5. A digital divide
In some low-income countries, the skills
mismatch is compounded by a lack of access to
technology or the internet. If schools are unable
to afford the tools to educate young people in
the digital sector, these young people are at a
disadvantage in the job market.
1. Education and training programmes
Initiatives or extracurricular instruction that target the skills gap can focus on
anything from employability skills to job hunting and interviewing to
entrepreneurship to vocational education (including opportunities in the green
economy). Ideally, in the future, these kinds of education will be embedded into
national curricula, tackling the skills gap.
2. Youth access to capital
For young people keen to get start-ups funded,
they don’t have to rely on banks alone.
Crowdfunding sites like Kiva.org and networks
like Youth Business International give young
people all over the world the chance to get the
support they need to build their enterprises and
increase their incomes. With more programmes
like these being created every day, the future is
getting brighter for aspiring entrepreneurs.
3. Universal internet access and greater
availability of cheap tech
With programmes like
Facebook’s Internet.org working towards free
internet access to key sites and Computer
Aidproviding IT education across 32 countries,
this solution to the digital divide is coming
along. However, infrastructure development
(electrical grids, etc.) is obviously key to this
goal. As lower-income nations develop these
sectors, the digital divide will continue to be
bridged.
4. Skills matching
The private sector, government and education
systems need to start collaborating to determine
what knowledge and skills young people
should be taught in order to find rewarding
work. Considering businesses are suffering
from the skills mismatch, too, they need to take
a more active role in promoting appropriate
education and skill-building for young people
from an early age.