8/8/2019 MIB-DELHI

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THEME OF THE WEEKLACK OF TRAINED MANPOWER IS A HURDLE FOR INDIAIN ITS

SWITCH FROM AN AGRARIAN TO AN INDUSTRYDOMINATED ECONOMY

Shobha Mishra Ghosh

EDUCATION, skill develop-

ment and employability have

unfortunately become

clichØs, debated nowadays in every

other industry forum. However, an-

swers are needed to questions such

as, what does employability mean inthe Indian context? What skills make

a graduate employable and how

does an institution prepare employ-

able graduates? The reality is that

there is scant research done in these

areas.

The international commission on

education, UNESCO report says,

education must be organized

around four pillars of knowledge i.e.

learning to know, learning to do,

learning to live together and learning

to be. Graduates should be

equipped through education to con-

tribute effectively towards economic

growth and knowledge creation.

Once graduates imbibe these four

fundamental aspects it converts into

skills or competencies that are trans-

ferable from one setting to another.

Thus employability becomes visible

when graduates demonstrate the

ability to adapt and contribute pro-

ductively to the work environment.

Unfortunately, over the past two

decades, the Indian higher educa-

tion system with exception of a minis-

cule percentage of institutions have

been unable to produce quality grad-

uates and can be held responsible

for the rising skill shortages and

skill gap that coexist with increasinggraduate unemployment and un-

deremployment . This is a great chal-

lenge for India in times when we are

the third largest economy in the

world with a growth rate of 6-7% post

global meltdown. To make matters

more complicated there are specu-

lations galore regarding lack of em-

ployability of Indian engineering and

higher education graduates based

on certain industry reports. The de-

mographic advantage that India is

bestowed with, would bear results in

future only if we empower our youth

with knowledge and appropriate

skill. We would not only have to cater

to our own domestic needs but also

cater to the global demand as the

world is looking at India as the future

stock of skilled and semi-skilled hu-

man resource. There is an urgent

need to leap frog the reforms in the

education sector in order to remain

globally competitive.

Skills and skill gaps

W orld Bank along with FICCI car-

ried out a employer satisfaction sur-

vey of 150 companies across

sectors and regions to get a more ac-

curate picture of what are the skills an

Indian or multinational company in

India look for while hiring new engi-

neering graduates and how Indian

engineering institutions should re-

orient themselves to better serve the

present and future human resource

requirements.

Findings were dismal. 64% of sur-

veyed employers are somewhat ,

not very, or not at all satisfied with

the quality of engineering graduates

skills. Employers are not seeking a

tall order.According to the participat-

ing employers, the top three most im-

portant general skills are integrity, re-

liability and teamwork and the top

three most important specific skills

are entrepreneurship, communica-

tion in English and use of modern

tools and technologies.

Skill gap is another major issue,

for instance, while reliability and

communication in English are de-sired skills, employers are relatively

satisfied with graduates when it

comes to communication in English

but not with the graduates reliability.

The survey revealed reliability, self-

motivation and willingness to learn

as the top three skill gaps in general

skills and gaps in specific skills were

found in problem solving, ability to

design, conduct experiments and

data analysis and reading.

The scenario for general higher

education programmes in liberal

arts, science and commerce is far

worse in terms of employability and

skill gaps as compared to the engi-

neering education as some reports

claim to the extent that only 10% of

the general graduates are of employ-

able quality.

Wherein lies the solution?

Engineering institutions need to

upgrade themselves and regularly

update their curriculum in sync with

industry needs and improve on the

teaching methods to equip gradu-

ates with skills to formulate, analyse,

and solve a real life problem using

standard engineering techniques.

This is clear indicator that to resolve

this scenario engineering institu-tions and employers have to resolve

their differences, interact and collab-

orate to design education pro-

grammes in a sustained manner that

respond to the specific skill demands

of the industry. Government s role

should be to ensure that while the is-

sue of employability is addressed,

the education provided is holistic and

not company or industry centric.

One can conclude that the urgent

need for higher education institutions

and universities is to focus on the skills

of the graduates through sustained

interactions between industry, civil

societies and the communities to pro-

duce effective knowledge workers as

well as compassionate human be-

ings. Each institution should define

the set of skills that a graduate is sup-

posed to have after each semester

and continuously measure such

skills. Further, institutions need to

change pedagogical style from

teacher-centric to student-centric,

and include more assignments for

students to independently analyse

and apply tools on real life problems.

Only through such changes in the

teaching-learning process will the fu-

ture graduates become more em-

ployable.

The author is director, FICCI. An-

dreas Blom, senior education econ-

omist, and Hiroshi Saeki, analyst

both at The World Bank contributed

to the article

Nikhil Menon

THE India story is back on track. With the

GDPexpected to touch 7%, it is a welcome

relief from the spate of job losses and hiring

brakes initiated across sec-

tors by India Inc. But where

one problem ends, the other

begins. As the economy

swings up, the problem of

lack of skilled manpower

resurfaces. India it clearly

needs to get its act together

to move from being an

agrarian economy to a de-

veloped one. India, with its

outdated education sys-tem, is at risk of losing its

competitive edge to other

low cost locations around

the world.

During the boom years of 2003-2007, In-

dian industry faced a crippling shortage of

skilled manpower in all sectors of the indus-

try ranging from IT/ ITES, health services, fi-

nancial services, manufacturing, retail,

pharmaceuticals the list goes on. Despite

this obvious lack of quality manpower,

wages were on the rise, with outrageous

hikes of 30% seen in India s sunrise ser-

vices sector.Areality check

was long overdue and it

came in the form of a reces-

sion. The recession has giv-

en employers an

opportunity to upgrade the

skill sets of their workers.

However since this is an ex-

pensive proposition, few

companies would be willing

to invest in such a measure

during a recession.The state of engineers,

graduates and MBAs, run-

ning India s growing ser-

vices sector that

contributes 54 % to the GDPis no different

as the sector faces a serious dearth of grad-

uates with market relevant skill sets. With In-

dian BPOs, KPOs and IT companies

looking overseas (China and Philippines)

for talent, the scenario can t get any scarier.

India already is facing a severe shortage of

skilled manpower for the planning and con-

struction of its road network.

The time is still ripe, with the economy

showing promising signs of recovery, for the

government to embark on a modernizing

drive of the industrial training institutes

(ITIs). These institutes provide diplomas in

vocational courses to students who have

passed their tenth standard examinations,

in semi skilled professions like welding

technology, carpentry, motor winding and

so on. It is these blue-collar workers who

form the backbone of any industrial econo-

my and hence the need to make them em-ployable is even more pronounced.

However the infrastructure and the curricu-

lum are so outdated that most of these stu-

dents have to be provided extra training by

the organization employing them.

The recession could very well turn out to

be a blessing in disguise for India, as it gives

industry as well as the government an op-

portunity to tackle this problem which could

seriously hamper India s transition to an in-

dustrial power.The need of the hour is to

overhaul the education system in India s

schools and universities, to move the sys-

tem from learning by rote to learning by do-

ing. It is this practical aspect of work which is

missing from the present system, and it is

the absence of this experience in schools

and universities that contribute to the crip-

pling skilled manpower shortage India

faces. If this issue is left unaddressed, we

can bid the India growth story goodbye.

The author is from the 2008-2010 MIB

batch and can be reached at

nikhilmenon.mib2010@gmail.com

Monday,

November 16, 2009@ Campus

The Masters of International Business programme started in 1995 at Delhi School of Economics under the latters department of commerce

Nikhil Mehra

INDIAand China both came out of the re-

cession relatively unscathed. China

clocked a 9.4% growth in 2008-09 and In-

dia not far behind stood at 6.4% growth.

Both the economies are similar in many

ways, though opening up of the economy

started in China in 1978 and in India in

1991. However in China more than 100

million people have already migrated

from agrarian economy to different indus-

tries.

In 1993-94, 64.8% of total workforce in

India was engaged in agriculture which

decreased to 58.5% in 2004-05. In China,

the figure reduced from 30.1% to 16.4%.

Out of the 60 million jobs generated in

past decade and a half in India, 30 millionwere in agriculture. This figure is mis-

matched as India s agri-

culture sector last year

grew at 2.3% and with

more than half of the

population engaged in

agriculture it is not possi-

ble for India to sustain its

growth rate if large num-

ber of people don t shift

to industrial sectors.

Additionally, with fur-

ther increase in GDP, in-

come disparity between

agricultural and non-

agricultural households

will increase unless

around 10 million more

workers currently involved in agriculture

find non-agricultural employment. To

make this possible, and absorb all new

entrants into the labour force, non-agri-

cultural employment would need to in-

crease at over 6% per annum during 11th

Plan.

The problem lies in the work that can

be offered to farm workers shifting to in-dustry.As they are not formally trained to

work in industry, a large number remain

unemployed during non-harvest season.

This problem has to be solved and more

people have to shift to other fast growing

sectors like services, manufacturing so

as to sustain this rate of development.

W ith over half of India s population in agri-

culture sector, this sector can still sustain

the growth with less number of people as

the problem is not of labour but of infra-

structure, irrigation etc.

There can be several ways to help peo-

ple come out of agriculture to other sec-

tors. Firstly, with the help of Government

more and more vocational training insti-

tutes can be opened like ITI s which can of-

fer semi skilled trainings to these workers

to make them suitable for industry. Sec-

ondly, Government can adopt PPPmode

in which private players can also venture in

these institutes with all the responsibilities

handled by them and Government having

the supervising function as it is being tried

with current ITI s. Thirdly, private players in

industry can set up institutes that provide

training to their workers as per their re-quirements, which can benefit these work-

ers, and can also be a

cash generating option .

Other companies can in-

clude such initiatives as

part of their corporate so-

cial responsibility.

If the Indian elephant

has to conquer the Chi-

nese dragon, then this

problem has to be careful-

ly tackled. The Govern-

ment and private players

in industry should under-

stand this fact and should

implement various strate-

gies so as to overcome it

and transform India into

industry dominated economy.The path

has to be chosen with utmost care as any

wrong move could lead to further erosion

of competitiveness.

The author is from the 2008-2010 MIB

batch and can be reached at

nikhil_mehra11@yahoo.co.in

The problem lies in the work that can be offered to

farm workers shifting to industry.As they are not

formally trained to work in industry, a large number

remain unemployed during non-harvest season

Blue-collar workers in welding technology, carpentry, motor winding and so on form the backbone of any

industrial economy and hence the need to make them employable is even more pronounced

fe@campus is a felicitous initiative at

the national level by The Financial

Expressto provide students from

higher education institutions an

opportunity to have their voice heard

on issues pertaining to and impacting

the economy today. Our themes for this

page are decided keeping in mind this

view and for this week we put forth the

topic: Lack of trained manpower, a

hurdle for India, in its switch from an

agrarian to an industry dominated

economy . Students from Delhi School

of Economics Masters of International

Business sent us their essays

articulating their opinion. Here are twoof the best among an informed group

of students.

NEWS RE-

NITIE’s annual management festival

sees confluence of academia and

industry leaders

National Institute of Industrial

Engineering (NITIE) played host to

Prerana Business Meet, 2009 with

The Financial Expressas media

partner. Industry dignitaries across

sectors included Gurcharan Das,

columnist and former MD of Procter

& Gamble worldwide, Meera Sanyal,

country executive, Royal Bank ofScotland India, Narayan

Ramachandran, country head,

Morgan Stanley India and

HB Joshipura, CMD, Glaxo

SmithKline who participated in a

highly interactive discussion on,

Demystifying the reforms enigma:

the how, why and why not of laissez

faire. HB Joshipura talked about

reforms in the healthcare sector and

made a pertinent point on the

staggeringly low amounts spent by

the government on healthcare an

issue that would surely gain

prominence as the average age of

India s population increases.

Drawing an analogy with the rapid

development of the telecom sector,

Joshipura said that, proactive

involvement in reforms in this sector

was the need of the hour. Other

highlights of the Prerana meet were a

summer project contest, decibelz

rock show and launchpad a

marketing case study competition.

BIMTECH HR summit brings

together industry and academia

champions to discuss HR challenges

of the future

Birla Institute of Management

Technology s theme for its HR

summit was, steering organisations

with a human touch: the navigational

facet of hr . HR leaders including

Geetanjali Pandit Gupta, corporate

head, talent management, The

Indian Express Ltd, SY Siddiqui,

managing executive officer Admin

(HR, Fin & IT), Maruti Suzuki, NS

Rajan, partner and Asia Pacific headof human capital, Ernst and Young

were part of vibrant discussions on

enabling talent , way of business

and inspirational HR.

W e invite colleges and universities to

send in information, for this section,

on new faculty and courses,

international alliances, industry

projects and other current events to

fecampusroundup@express

●University of South Carolina

Amount: University of South

Carolina Honours College offers

scholarships and reduced tuition to

freshman international students. A

$750 scholarship is granted per

academic year (fall and spring

terms). Additionally, recipients

receive a tuition reduction estimated

at $10,396 for the fall 2010/spring

2011 terms. This reduces the cost of

attendance from $35,453 to $25,057annually, which includes tuition, fees,

and living expenses. Students must

have a minimum 3 GPA throughout

their programme of study to maintain

the award.

Eligibility: Students must complete

an international application for

admission and submit SATscores. A

supplemental application for the

Honours College must also be

completed. Students must have a 3.5

high school weighted-score GPA and

a minimum SAT score

of 1300.

W ebsite:

http://www.sc.edu/admissions/

●IUPUI (Indiana U-Purdue U

Indianapolis)

Amount:Bepko Scholars and

Fellows (BepkoScholars.iupui.edu)

receive financial, academic, and

programming support for up to eightyears of undergraduate and

graduate or professional study at

IUPUI, with potential total award

packages valued at $80,000. Plater

distinguished scholars receive

$8,000 per year for up to four years

of study, partial funding for one year

of on-campus housing in

international house and a stipend

towards a study abroad experience,

with potential total award packages

valued at $50,000.

Eligibility: IUPUI highly desires

international beginning freshman

applicants with excellent SAT or AC T

scores, outstanding performance in

a rigorous university-preparatory

curriculum, and extensive

experience with community service

and involvement for its premier

competitive scholarship

programmes. Students must submit

separate applications for admissionand scholarship programmes by

December 1 in order to be

considered.

Contact/ Website: iapply@iupui.edu,

http://www.iupui.edu/~scentral/fresh

man/noninres.html

Source:

w ww.educationusa.state.gov

For information on higher education

in the US visit http://www.usief.org.in

CAMPUS ROUNDUP INTERNATIONALSCHOLARSHIPS

CAMPUS OF THE WEEK MASTERS OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESS, DELHI SCHOOLOF

High profile corporate panel meet at NITIE’s Prerana business meet in Mumbai

Ensuring education leads to employabilitySkill gap among Indian graduates can be reduced only if institutes, industry and government work together in a productive

The demographic

advantage that India is

bestowed with, would

bear results in future

only if we empower our

youth with knowledge

and appropriate skill.

W e would have to cater

to our own domestic

needs and also to

global demand as the

world is looking at India

as the future stock of

skilled and semi-skilled human resource