The education that the youth is getting in India isn’t skilling them enough to make them employable. As a result 90 per cent of engineers, MBAs and ordinary graduates are struggling to find that first job that meets their aspiration. Rajiv Mathur says the National Skills Policy is a step in the right direction
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India states that on an average approximately 2.4 crore students enter into the higher education space every year after finishing their schooling. Out of that, just 40 lakhs proceed to get the post graduate degree or a doctorate degree after completing their graduation. This means that approximately 2 crore graduates are getting into workspace scouting for their first job every year. For the last 67 years, this educated lot continues to struggle to get their first job matching their aspirations.
There are many who passed out from prestigious schools in Delhi with Commerce and Mathematics as core subjects. They score decently but their marks is not good enough to fetch them admission in B Com (Honours) at an university of their choice. What will such students doIJ Where do they goIJ Most of them settle for the second best option which they find very challenging and not scoring. Some of these students are compelled to appear for the civil services examination. Only a fraction gets through the reputed services while a majority of the students find themselves a temporary internship for Rs 8,000 pm in an MNC. This is a typical case of endless struggle in continuation. And this has been plaguing us for over a decade now.
The other problem prevalent in the country is when poor people aspire to do something big but do not have the resources to realise their dream. They feel lost in such a scenario.
Third and the most serious problem that the youth faces in this country is with the level of education and the standard of college degrees that is handed down to the students.
For the last 67 years, these and many similar problems are getting repeated and struggle of the youth is continuing to get the first job matching their aspirations. The clear reason is, as a nation we are focused on educating our youth more than what is required. But not attempting to skill them enough to get a job that meets their aspirations after completion of their studies. The education that the youth is getting in India isn’t skilling them enough to make them employable. As a result 90 per cent of engineers or MBAs aren’t employable— the plight of ordinary graduate is even higher.
On one side our youth is struggling to find a job matching their aspirations and on the other side Government estimates that by 2022, we will require 50 crore skilled youth if we have to sustain and grow our GDP at the current and planned rates.
Therefore in 2009, the Government came up with National Skills Policy and gave the task of skilling 35 crore youth out of 50 crores to the State Governments and the 17 Central Ministries and 15 crores to the private sector. In addition, it put the onus on industry to lay the National Occupational Standards (NOS) on which the Indian education system would re-align to make the youth skilled enough to be employable. Since then lot has moved forward.
NSDC and Sector Skill Councils
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) came into existence not only to lead the private sector initiative in this direction but to also support the State Governments and Central Ministries in their skilling initiatives. NSDC has also formed 29 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), which are mandated to form NOS. Through this, academia could integrate with academics, train and certify trainers and assessors who would then conduct the training and finally get the assessors from the industry to conduct the assessment and then to certify. This initiative is expected to make the students employable as they would be trained on curriculum built on NOS and assessed and certified by the SSC representing the industry. Some 800 entry level job roles across 20 sectors have NOS defined and more are being added every month.
The progress is now seen all over school system under the aegis of MHRD was the first one to adopt the NOS built by their respective SSC in 2012. The four sectors were Automotive, Retail, IT/ITes and Security. The pilot was initiated in 40 schools of Haryana. Those who participated in this pilot in 2012 are passing out this year.
All passouts who have decided not to take up higher education and enter the workspace are getting appropriately placed with the intervention and help of the SSCs. Out of 263 students desirous of placements, 150 are already placed and interviews for the rest are in progress. A segment which was hitherto exploited till recently, after being skilled is now being scrambled for offering jobs by the private sector companies likes of Marks and Spencer, Vishal Megamart, Maruti and Mahindra and many more, offering salary package from Rs 7,500 to Rs 14,000 per month.
Qualification Framework
School segment is typically looking at job roles which are pegged at level 4 of National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). This level points to a skilled worker. These levels are defined in terms of learning outcomes which the learner must possess regardless of whether they were acquired through formal, non-formal or informal learning.
From this year, Higher Education is also getting ready for this alignment with SSCs and adoption of the NOS. Consequently, Delhi University will be benefitting over 4 lakh students, Pune University benefitting over 7 lakh students both at graduation and post-graduation levels and Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) benefitting over 6 lakh students, have signed a MoU with NSDC to introduce skill based courses aligned to NOS and assessment and certification jointly with SSCs.
In this arrangement, the consortium of Sector Skill Council and NSDC Training Partners are taking the responsibility of skilling the students and making them employable by the time they finish their academics. In addition the consortium is also taking the responsibility of providing on-the-job-training in the industry while students are at study and assuring facilitating placement for 70% of students desirous of getting placed.
The participating Sector Skill Councils are Automotive, Healthcare, IT-ITeS, Telecom, Media and Entertainment, Gems and Jewellery and BFSI. More sectors are joining in as we speak. The job roles identified for higher education are typically pegged at NSQF levels 4, 5 or 6 and have corresponding National Occupational Standards.
It is important to note that hitherto, till recently the Graduates and Post Graduates in India without any skilling were offered job roles by the industry typically pegged at level 1 or 2 on NSQF. The level 1 on NSQF points to unskilled person and level 2 on NSQF points to unskilled person with 5 to 6 months of work experience.
NSDC solicits partnership with more Universities to make this silent revolution a big success.
The writer is principal, Standards and Quality Assurance, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).