Yawning skill gap cause for concern

There is a strong argument that, now in India, the problem is that of employability and not that of unemployment. In its India Skills Report for 2014, Wheebox, an online talent assessment company, has stated that only ten per cent of MBA graduates and 17 per cent of engineering graduates in the country are employable. In its National Employability Report of Engineering Graduates for 2014, Aspiring Minds has stated that "less than one out of four engineering graduates are employable in the country." The study further shows that "of the 1.2 lakh candidates surveyed across multiple states, 91.82% lack programming and algorithm skills, 71.23% lack soft and cognitive skills, 60% lack domain skills, 73.63% lack English speaking and comprehension skills and 57.96% have poor analytical and quantitative skills."

From these figures, it is obvious that our youngsters have to be provided education and training that equip them for the labour market. It has to be noted that various agencies across the country train millions of youngsters under skill development programmes, and yet the results are not impressive. Corporate houses complain they do not get workers of their choice, with adequate skills and competencies.

What is the reason for the lack of employability skills among our youngsters? Is it because of the curriculum or its delivery? Educationists and placement agencies have pointed towards outdated learning, lack of practice, exam culture, lack of industry exposure, lack of soft skills and bad career matching as major reasons for lesser employability of students.

While releasing the National Employability Report, the CEO of Aspiring Minds said, "The low employability among engineering graduates is a cumulative outcome of poor education standards and higher demand of skilled employees, creating a drastic skill gap in the country."

We have world class syllabus, but do not have world class institutions providing world class education. Our interactions with the students reveal that in teaching, more emphasis is placed on theory than on practical, field exposure and competency development.

Industry looks for candidates with basic knowledge and skills to perform their job. A World Bank study suggests that "engineering schools in India should seek to improve the skill set of graduates and shift the focus toward higher-order skills and creativity. Employers rated graduates relatively high on lower-order thinking skills (remembering, understanding) but low on higher-order thinking skills (analysing, evaluating, and creating)."

The ability to work in multicultural settings is equally important for those who seek employment in the multi-national corporate world. It is here that the importance of life skills education comes into focus.

Life skills help in building self-confidence and self-esteem and enable us to adapt to situations and people. There is a core set of life skills which can broadly be classified into social and negotiation skills, thinking skills and coping skills, all of which are at the heart of skills-based initiatives for the development of an individual.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) specifies three key competencies which can be imparted through life skills education to enhance the employability skills: the ability to use a wide range of tools to interact constructively within the social context, the ability to engage with others in an increasingly interdependent world, the ability to take responsibility for managing one's life, place it in the broader social context, and behave autonomously and responsibly. The need to think and act reflectively is central to all these competencies.

Life skills as a subject is on a path of growth in India. CBSE has introduced life skills education from Fifth standard onwards. But unfortunately, the teaching of life skills is not made a part of the credit system and hence not taken seriously. State governments in certain states like Delhi have introduced the subject and prescribed training manuals and trained their teachers in life skills. In several other states, life skills training has been introduced as part of their adolescent education programme. Though NCERT is talking about introducing life skills in school curriculum, no definitive direction has been issued to state governments to introduce it as a mandatory thing. Kerala has introduced Additional Skills Acquisition Programme (ASAP), especially in higher secondary stream, in which the major components are life skills. National Institute of Open Schooling has introduced a life skills approach in teaching to enhance the competency of their learners. In the vocational education stream, life skills training or teaching has not yet been considered.

In the higher education sector, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, an institute of national importance near Chennai, introduced a post graduate programme in life skills education in 2008 with the support of UNFPA and has an exclusive library for life skills education and adolescent development. The institute is offering a Ph. D in life skills education. Several other universities have started post graduate courses, certificate and diploma programmes in life skills education. Training in life skills has to be introduced in all educational institutions including ITIs, polytechnics and engineering colleges. In contrast, many other countries — Trinidad and Tobago being one of them — have a strong life skills development policy in place. The regulatory bodies of education in India like NCERT, UGC, AICTE, ACTE, NCVT and MCI should look into the need for training and teaching life skills and appropriate policy and programmes should be framed and implemented.