I posted a small article about employability a few months back. I was going through the employability report of 2024 presented by CII. Then I did some further information gathering on the subject, online and offline. I happened to get in touch with colleges and some teachers & faculty members.
The report says that we have improved employability over last 5 years and now reached to 52%, (rounding off the decimals). My immediate thought was like should we be celebrating the improvement or should it be a big concern?
It is like a child used to get 10/100 in exam and now after puting all efforts and tutions etc, got 20/100 marks in exam.
What do we do? celebrate it for improvement?
And what ever gyan we all give about improvement, progress, patience and all. Ultimately results matter.
Just to share what my experience has been during interaction with people on this subject
This I am looking at the technical education scenario.The situation about the regular graduates is more grim.
- People have degrees /certificates but they dont know how to work.
- College placement in professional colleges is skewed towards placement of IT graduates more. This way they can project the placements and "packages" theory. Other streams of technical education are not given focus and it all depends upon the students networking efforts.
- Regular graduates - There are many students who take up delivery boy jobs and other logistics jobs, dont attend the colleges, but still get degrees at the end of 3 years. College is ok with that, they look at it from more humanitarian ground. The training and placement office is just a log.
On the other hand, if we look at the change in the scape of the education curriculum, it has changed exponentially in last 10 to 15 years. the technology is developing at breakneck speed. How is it possible to cover all things in just 4 years?
Even after doing post graduation for another 2 years the employability skills remains same and hence the earning potential.
So what is point in spending time and money in doing post graduation?
These questions are very valid but answers seems to be missing.
Government can make policies, implementation lies with people and the executive bodies. Government has skill development schemes. People consider those skill development programs as something below their stature. The technical / engineering student after completing the degree considers skill development programs as something lesser than his/her potential. A regular graduate or diploma holder doesnt see himself as developing into a plumber or electrician or a civil work person just to get the "Skill India" tag.
I am more worried about the future few years down the line, I can visualise that with this kind of hollowness in education system, How will we get good teachers to teach new generations. Will it not be vicious cycle? most detrimental to society and country as whole.
This where I believe that executive bodies and chamber of industries and various industrial committee bodies under CII, should join hands and take up a focussed approach of developing the new front line with complete employability skills that will combination of Techincal and Soft skills both.
- Create programs that are more valid and valuable for industry in long run.
- Collaborate with Govt education department to form a curriculum which is industry or entrepreneur specific skills.
- Create affordable programs for the young population.