Day in and day out, there is lot of phraseology floating around with respect to “Employability Skills “the never ending debate and discussions on the quality education has always been a challenge. Narendra modi’s “scam India to skill India” has been a great relief for most of the educators in the country.
The organizations today are waking up to the stark reality of comprehending the importance of a “right hire” Various studies have revealed in the past about the skill gap that exist in the industry when a fresh hire is taken on board. It could be anything between a right attitude, interpersonal skills or the team dynamics.
There are instances in IT and ITES sectors whereby the companies have lost huge projects from the overseas clients because of certain mismatch of expectations from both the parties involved. It could be a video call or a telephonic conversation or even for that matter a harmless email. What could have been the root cause??
Right professional grooming coupled with corporate etiquette matters in today’s context. Just the functional knowledge and domain expertise will not suffice. This is just a tip of the ice berg. So the next question is are we training our next generation of work force with the much need skill sets or are we just churning out individuals with a cookie cutter’s approach !
It is an important statement to ruminate now and indulge in plan of action before it is too late. We need to have more of “Sundar Pitchai and Satya Nadella” in the country. As educators we need to break free from the preconceived notions and stereotypes and bring in a revolutionary change. So how are we going to create the awareness in the educational set-ups? Some of the pointers might help us:
- Usage of curriculum based on industry needs has to be integrated.
- Men and women who are passionate about teaching should be hired instead of looking into only the research bent of mind
- Cases pertaining to live happening in the political, economical, sociological, technological and legal perspective can be used with a right pedagogy.
- Proactive and interactive sessions with skill building activities can be driven.
- Concepts, tools and techniques should be integrated in the syllabi.
Of course, there is no magic formula it is a gradual process and what we see today is there is certainly a slow change that has been initiated in most of the institutes. There is more focus on workshop, case study competition, guest lecture series, industry connects etc that has been streamlined. Hopefully all these and more interventions will help in creating some impactful change in the years to come.
Though addressing the skill gap is no joke there are various planned inputs that can be integrated in the system. Otherwise Dr.Abdul Kalam’s words on India become the most happening country in the world by 2020 and the workforce consisting of millennial generation cannot be easily achieved. Just to ponder!
– Prof. Preeja Sridhar
( Faculty- HR ISBR B School )