Why are the graduates unemployable?
Everyone pays in enormous sum of money to universities only to clutch to the dream job that she/he envisages building a productive life. In 2016, ill-fated studies discovered that underemployment/unemployment was an acrimonious reality. More than 51% of the graduates who graduated in the past two years (including 2016) were touted to be highly famished as far as hitting the job market was concerned. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in a report, has projected unemployment in India at 18.6 million for 2018, higher than the 18.3 million in 2017.
A report titled “Leveling Up: How to win in the Skills Economy,” makes a dedicated effort to dive deep into the skill gaps that is so widely spoken about in today’s day and age and brightens the key aspects of actual skills being hunted by the hiring managers. The latter have a substantial pain point that either the newbie college completers are underprovided of skills or do not have them at all. The report also divulges which skills bring in the biggest pay checks and get the employee a promotion. Critical thinking, problem solving, attention to detail, and writing ability top the list of skills managers find missing from job seekers.
When companies recruit from campuses, some like Infosys train the recruits for about six months before putting them on actual jobs. But lately, firms that don’t have that luxury, train fresher candidates for a month and ask them to take a test, which diminishes the long term commitment of the potential employee. Employers are more likely to hire candidates who have completed an apprenticeship rather than candidates without any experience which helps the candidates to set foundation for career gaining insight about their field.
Hands-on training gives a real chance to put the skills into practice and helps to gain more confidence in a working environment. Amongst all these scorching issues that sort of take civilisations down to an abyss, there’s another problem of gender parity.
Women’s participation in job arena has always been on the lower side and nothing has changed in the recent past. It is appalling to know from the World Economic Forum that there are 24 percent women in India’s workforce, 117 million out of 478 million people. However, the proportion of women in private sector companies is 24.5 percent of the total personnel compared to just 17.9 percent of the public sector. This shows that all the talks of equity is hollowed and the policy making and implementation is subdued.
Skill and employability go hand in hand. Skill gap is the real cause of high unemployable population. In the work sphere of ITI and polytechnic, youth employability is a challenge. Low employability of ITI and polytechnic youth is due to limited focus on industry partnerships, obsolete curriculum and zero emphasis on faculty development. Ditto with the non-technical B.A. and B.Com courses that have colossal volumes coming out of colleges every year.
There is also a gap in terms of expectations of youth and parents that is hardly spoken about in India and that seldom match. There has also been limited jobs that are being created especially in the services and manufacturing sector. Most people aspire for government jobs whereas the opportunity exists in private jobs and self-employment.
What are the top trends in recruitment industry?
As per 2018 report there is relatively some good news from the demand side, as the companies show a resumption in their hiring assurance. As per India Hiring intent survey, organisations across sectors presume 10-15 percent of increase in hiring in 2018. While Retail, Banking & Financial services and Insurance sectors are expecting increase in pace of hiring, sectors like ITES, Software, Hardware and IT also forestall a judicious transformation in employee acquisition.
In these changing times and looking at the trend being out for 2018, Meritude SDPL has pull its socks up to leverage an opportunity of a lifetime to the graduates and potential workforce of the country. This year, the organisation envisages putting up its first of the many fellowship programs aimed at skill building for employability. The first of the lot will be Meritude’s Saksham Fellowship Program for accounts graduates and under-graduates willing to take on significant accounts, finance, banking and allied modern day jobs. The 4+1 month fellowship program will happen in state-of-the-art skilling centres of Meritude SDPL with industry experts helming it in conceptualisation, execution and placements.
Keep looking at this space for more interesting news and announcements. Visit www.meritude.in or write to [email protected] to express your thoughts.