Young India is looking for jobs. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) report merely 20% out of 5 million students who graduate every year find employment in India, and less than 47% are employable. Over 12 million young people, are added to the job seeker’s market each year, ranging from various educational profiles.
Unfortunately, our education system does not prepare young people for jobs, it only prepares them for higher education. Hence, there is a strong need to bridge the gap and make the job-seekers skilled and employable.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all " which also means ensuring a livelihood opportunity for every citizenand an environment for continuous learning. There is a strong case to move from only gaining technical skills through degrees and certificates to also obtaining livelihood skills& life skills. The Report by the Labour Beruae, says 58% of unemployed graduates and 62% of post-graduates have mentioned that they are unable to find jobs matching their education.
How do we ensure job seekers are employable? What are livelihood skills? What are Life skills?
Livelihood skills refers to essential skills necessary to effectively conduct regular income-generating activities, including vocational training. Livelihood means the capability not just to survive but to thrive. It includes skills such as plumbing, sewing, carpentry also financial literacy, entrepreneurial skills, basic management skills, food processing and many such specific skills. Livelihood training links technical and further education, it develops skills to enhance livelihood.
On the other hand, the Lifeskills approach is all about specifically addressing the developmental needs and aspirations of individuals, their ability to think and reason, think ahead and plan for future. Life skills are seen as abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.Life skills are those attributes that focus on prepping young minds for a social and fruitful life and deserve an equal amount of attention. They are quite different from Livelihood skills, they are the qualities that make a responsible citizen.
Life skills include self-awareness, interpersonal skills, decision making, critical thinking, empathy, emotional intelligence, time management, leadership skills to name a few.WHO categorises 10 important life skills into 3 - Thinking skills, Social skills & Emotional skills.
One of the major life skills needed for now is managing stress. A cool and calm mind will help one sail through many difficult hurdles.
There is an urgent need for India to re-strategise its skill development programme not only to prepare the youth for jobs in India but also for jobs overseas. Those trained in IT in India are servicing the world, hence it can become a template to train our rich human resources on skills that can ensure they gain employment!
Investing strategically in full-fledged skill universities and developing modules for skills enhancement, with robust training delivery mechanisms and industry interventions to enhance the efficacy of training methods will be integral in the coming years.With the largest working population, we as a nation, have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and responsibility to channelize our human resources towards nation-building. Fixing the skill gap is the only way to achieve this.
It is important we concentrate on all three areas to enable skilling the young
Technical literacy (Provided by Schools and Colleges through degrees), Livelihood skills (To enable one to bring technical theory into action effectively) and Lifeskills (Addresses Social, Emotional and Thinking areas enabling one to make the most out of life)
India has great potential with a high population in the employable age. We are a young country. Economic growth over decades did not have a trickle-down effect sufficient to reduce poverty, but sustained efforts on skilling and facilitating job creation can change the destiny of the people and nation.
In the coming future, we need to upskill our young minds to become job creators, to unleash our potential and optimise our rich resource pool. Entrepreneurship is an under-rated skill.
Inspired by a DH article and the voice of Santosh S Lad, former Labour Minister of Karnataka.
The author, V Muralidharan is a Chief Financial Officer in a Real Estate Firm and has industry experience of over 30 years in various fields say, Direct, Indirect Taxation, Company Law, Accounting - including identifying revenue leakage, Audit and General Management & Human resources.
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