Employment and Employability in the changing landscape of Higher education in India

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1 Employment and Employability in the changing landscape of Higher education in India # Rajesh M. Pednekar & Paresh Sirsat # Corresponding author: Dr. Rajesh Pednekar, Associate Professor, Dnyanprassarak Mandal s College and research Centre, Assagao Goa. aryanraj1087@rediffmail.com Abstract: India is undergoing demographic transition with an average age of years and is one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world. India is expected to be largest economy by At the same time demand for highly skilled young workforce is expected to increase globally. To harness the demographic dividend there is need for globally relevant and highly competitive higher education system which will cater to aspiring young workforce. Employment and employability remains serious concern in the changing landscape of higher education in India. Issues related to higher education has led to poor employability among youths. Present paper deals with issues related to employment and employability in the changing policies of higher education in India and its impact on harnessing demographic dividend. Key words : Demographic transition, Demographic dividend, Employment and employability INTRODUCTION: India is one of the youngest nations in the world with average age of the working population (15-59 years) is more than 62 % and more than 54 % of its total population below 25 years of age. The working age population will be increasing to around million during Thus country is undergoing demographic transition with an average age of years and is one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world. Average age of Indian population will be 29 years as against 40 years in United States, 46 years in European Union and 47 years in Japan in the year India can play very important role in providing the talented and highly skilled young workforce to aging world. India is expected to be largest economy by It is also shifting towards a service driven economy with knowledge and skilled human capital as a competitive advantage in the world. 1 P a g e

2 Globalization and knowledge economy has created the sea of opportunities for ever growing Indian population. Indian workforce which is around 500 million is great asset for the entire world. Increase in the share of the young working population helps for the faster growth of the economy, this positive effect of young and energetic workforce on economy is known as Demographic dividend. India is in the process of reaping the rich fruits of this demographic transition in the next 20 years. Thus there is need to align policies of the government and higher education system to absorb this young and dynamic workforce in Indian economy. Ever growing aspirations of increasing young populations will be great challenge for the political system in the country in the years to come. Employment and employability of the young workforce will be very important variable in participation of youths in Indian economy. Employability refers to a person s capability for gaining and maintaining employment. Employability depends upon Knowledge, Skills and abilities possessed by workforce 3. Higher education system and its proactive policies will be very crucial in providing employability skills and utilizing this vast young and dynamic workforce in Indian economy. Educational institutions across the country needs to develop strong linkages with industries to ensure the young workforce is trained on skills, knowledge and attitude. There is large scale intervention by government of India in terms of enhancing the required resources, mobilizing various ministries and developing missions towards improving the employability of the young workforce. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been given significant responsibility of skilling 150 millions learners across twenty high growth sectors of economy by It has developed linkages with 59 corporate houses / private institutions to impart vocational training across India focusing on high growth sectors like manufacturing, textile, construction, automobile, retail and healthcare. Government of India has also doubled the allocation of funds for skill development under National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) by INR 10 Billions in the union budget of Total corpus has been subsequently increased to INR 25 Billons. Harnessing demographic dividend in a judicious manner will not only benefit Indian economy to grow faster but also help the world economy to grow and prosper. If this aspiring young population is not utilized properly in economy there may be demographic disaster with many socio economic problems like unemployment, drug addiction and more crimes in society. 2 P a g e

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The study is based on the data collected from Journals, Research articles, books newspapers and various Government of India Reports. Paper highlights the role of major stakeholders and various challenges in harnessing the potential Demographic dividend. THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN HARNESSING DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDENT Indian economy is fast changing from commodity centric to knowledge centric which requires young workforce who are having marketable and relevant skills. Productivity and skills of the workforce will help to harness the demographic dividend for next decade. Often despite ever increasing enrollment ratio in higher education, present day education system has been blamed for churning out graduates who lacks employable skills. Higher education system in India is vast and diversified 4. To harness the opportunities of demographic dividend it is necessary that young workforce acquires quality higher education. Government of India programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been highly successful in improving the enrollment in primary education and controlling the dropout rate. Huge investment in higher education for programmes like Rashtriya Ucchattar Shiksha Abhiyan ( RUSA ) will also ensure high Gross Enrollment Ratio in the Higher education. There is a total revamp going on the higher education system and the transition from decade old semester system to Cafeteria type of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) is one of the bold steps to make our education system globally competitive and robust. Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has taken important step towards standardizing and centralizing the higher education in India. However, the serious concerns have been been raised regarding the problems in the CBCS like lack of infrastructure in the colleges, Resource crunch for additional staff due to increased workload, vast diversity of India. Since the system is focusing on more of employability skills for the students, it will cater more to the needs of industry than Research and development. Many of the academicians are of the view that higher 3 P a g e

4 education may deviate from its focus of generating innovative ideas, contributing to democratic way of life and function as a tool for nation building and social change 5-6 CHALLENGES IN HARNESSING DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND There is growing North South divide in terms of demographic dividend. Northern BIMARU states are in the process of beginning of the demographic dividend while southern states have problems of aging population Most of the states with large younger population in the workforce are having poor infrastructure and will not be able to create necessary infrastructure for new jobs creation Providing productive employment and creating new opportunities will be biggest challenges and critical factors to harness demographic dividend across India. Uneven demographic transition across the states has resulted in some states are demographic leaders which have already reap the benefits of demographic dividend and others are lagging behind known as demographic laggards and some states are demography Health and family planning measures will also determine the quality of workforce across India Building Human capital who are highly skilled and productive CHALLENGES IN SKILL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES Gender bias in enrollment of skills development courses and training programmes Women constitutes almost half of the demographic dividend and Low level of women 4 P a g e participation mainly due to lower interest, family and cultural norms, family responsibilities, lack of family support system especially in urban areas has kept large number of women out of productive work- force Lack of awareness programmes and non-involvement of N.G.O. S and local governing bodies in imparting skill based training programmes Wide urban rural divide in availability and accessibility to vocational training programmes and other facilities There is also need to revamp and restructure the skill training programmes as per the changing needs of Industry and Society. Vocational training programmes are often not aligned with the job skills demanded by industry

5 More than 20 ministries / Government departments are involved in skill development processes often lacks proper co-ordination and monitoring mechanism There are lot of deviations due to multiplicity of norms, procedures, curriculum and certification across country Lack of capacity building and empowerment of various state skill development missions across various states leads to confusion for employers Free training programmes has resulted in lack of seriousness among youths Weak Industry Academia linkages is creating gaps in the sectorial needs and availability. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 1. Large scale intervention by Government and Private Institutions will help the younger generation to be more skillful and employable. 2. Government of India initiatives like Make In India, Skill India, Stand up start up should not remain as catchy taglines but supported by strong resources and co-ordinated efforts by various government ministries and agencies Formation of National Skills Development Policy, up-gradation of Institutions for vocational training by using funds through World Bank and other external agencies has accelerated the skill development initiatives of Government of India. 3. Many industries are also contributing to the skill development programmes through the Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. 4. Participation of women in a productive workforce is a big challenge. They form nearly 50 % of the population with high Gross enrollment ratio in higher education. There is urgent need to control the continuous falling population of women in a workforce in urban as well as rural areas. There is more declines in rural areas as compared to the urban areas. 5 P a g e

6 Mainstreaming of Gender roles in skilling women in non traditional roles and increasing the gender sensitivity at the workplaces, favorable government policies will help in increasing the women population in productive workforce. Demanding workplaces and lack of support system at home is a major cause of drop - out rate of women in workforce in urban areas. 5. Job creation for skilled youth by accelerating entrepreneurship especially based on innovation is crucial for large scale employment generation in India. 6. The demographic dividend can be harness if the millions of youths are provided employment and opportunities. However increased unemployment may led to several socio-economic problems. India being emerging knowledge economy, highly skilled young and dynamic workforce can boost the productivity and economic growth of the country. Unskilled and unemployable young workforce can pull down the productivity and economic growth. References : 1. National Higher Education Mission, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Skilling India The Billion people challenge, CRISIL November Shubhendu Kumar Rath, Bhagavan Behera Implications of skill in congruity on leveraging India s Demographic Divident International Journal of Humanities and Social science Invention, ISSN (online ) : , ISSN ( Print) : P. F. Rahaman and I. Ramabrahmam, Promoting Excellence in Higher Education: Is Choice Based Credit System a Feasible Approach? University News, 53, (20) May 18-24, Ambrose Pinto SJ and Vinoo Fabian, Why Impose Choice Based Credit System?, University News, 53(23), June 08-14, J. Madegowda, University Grants Commission Guidelines on Choice Based Credit System : Some observations and inputs, University News, 53 (19), May 11-17, P a g e

7 Sr. No. Universities / Institutions Total No. 1. State Universities Deemed to be Universities Central Universities Private Universities Institutions of National Importance Institutions Established under State Legislation 5 7. Colleges 37,000 Source : Data adopted from and Educational statistics at a glance from MHRD, GOI. Fig. 1 Institutions of Higher Education across Country Fig. 2 Percentage employable candidates across various disciplines 7 P a g e

8 Fig. 3 Government spending on education as % of GDP 8 P a g e