In an ideal world minimum expectation from any education system would be:
- Give Knowledge based education rather than information based
- Give equal if not more emphasis to practical knowledge along with theory.
- Assess students based on their understanding and applications of the skills they have learned rather than just on written exams.
- Encourages innovation and research
- Create Graduates with well rounded personalities.
- Merit and circumstances based Scholarships
- Educate more options in courses we can pursue ( not just Engineering, Medicine or MBA)
- Make students EMPLOYMENT READY.
Now, honestly speaking can any one of us say that our education system allows any of the above to happen? Let us not blame any one and let us act smart now in choosing right country , right institution and right course which will help you become employment ready!
Let us explore the last point – making students employment ready which means employable – in more detail.
Un-employability is a bigger problem than Unemployment.
Job Skills: Our education system is more academic oriented i.e. bookish information rather than understanding and using its applications. Our culture also perpetuates a myth “Acquire a degree and get a Job.” We don’t think “What Degree” We don’t usually give a thought to what specific skills we must acquire so that we have better chances of employment
Many of the colleges in India are not concentrting in developing the bellow skills
General Skills:
- 1) Communication Skills : Written and oral
- 2) Team work : Good social skills
- 3) Basic Numerical ability
- 4) Problem solving: Logical thinking
- 5) Adaptability : For new ideas, situations and technology
- 6) Creativity : Out of box thinking
As the students are lacking the above skills we are seeing some desastrious statistics about Indian youth who are getting trained every year.
some facts are:
- In India 50 lakh students graduate every year.
- 50 percent of them lack basic employability skills.
- Only 34 percent of them will find jobs ( average for other countries is 56 percent)
- According to a report by HRD Ministry India has around 6200 engineering and technology institutes. Around 15 lakh engineering students are added to the job market every year.
- Only 7 percent engineering students are found suitable for core engineering jobs (As per a study conducted by Aspiring Minds on 1.5 lakh engineering students.
- There are nearly 5500 Business Management Schools in India.
- According to a study conducted by ASSOCHAM again only 7 percent are employable.
- Wall Street Journal – the reputed and respected American business Journal says ‘ India graduates millions but few are fit to hire’
- Economic Times reports ‘ 89 percent of Indian Hotel Management graduates Unemployable’