India's young population has a great responsibility — to make the country the next superpower. With 50% of its population below the age of 29, India is poised to become the world's youngest nation by 2020. However, this 'demographic dividend' may end up being a 'disaster' if employment opportunities are not provided to the youth. Young Indians will play a significant role in shaping the nation, provided they have relevant opportunities to prove their worth.
Today's generation is focused and determined to participate and contribute in every sphere, be it technology, politics, sports, education or entrepreneurship. The past decade has seen small ideas being transformed into billion-dollar businesses. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, which not only made him a billionaire but also changed the way people communicated with friends and family.
The scenario
Understanding the urgency for economic reforms, the new government is expected to take the necessary steps to bring the growth rate back to its previous best. Steady and continuous economic growth would ensure more jobs across all sectors. But the big question is whether the youngsters are equipped with the skills required for various jobs.
Recent policy changes have given an impetus to skill development. A similar boost to entrepreneurship would ensure young citizens an opportunity to be an integral part of India's growth story.
The challenge
After schooling, youngsters can choose a conventional three-year degree or a four-year professional programme. The absence of shortterm programmes that focus on providing competencies required for the job market forces them to take up jobs in the unorganised sector or makes them vulnerable to exploitation.
Almost 20 million students enrol in various colleges every year. According to various studies, 75% of technical graduates and more than 85% of general graduates are unemployable by India's most demanding and high-growth global industries, including information technology. This shows that India offers the world's largest pool of technically-skilled graduates who are not industry-ready.
Possible solutions
It is time to act fast in this rapidlychanging world. So, here are some possible solutions to the multiple challenges before the nation:
Focus on providing vocational training to high school students and introduce them to various career options available to them if they wish to discontinue formal education. The first step in that direction, the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF ), aims to formally integrate vocational education with its current conventional educational streams in school and higher education.
Introduce short-term (one-or two-year ) government-approved courses and encourage existing educational institutions to provide them alongside conventional degrees. This would give the youth an option to choose from an array of courses and degrees. Also, this would ensure every enrollee in a one-year course an opportunity to bag a job after completing it.
Keeping in mind the huge gap between the demand and supply of skilled workers across sectors, increase the capacity of existing training providers besides empanelling new training organisations. In addition, all agencies that support skill development initiatives must focus on placements of candidates trained under various schemes. Map courses to gaps in a demandand-supply analysis across sectors and job roles.
Encouraging entrepreneurship is essential to fuel growth across sectors. Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of a country's economy. Besides providing local employment, they create a market for local produce. However, India is ranked 134 in the World Bank index on 'Ease of doing business'. Drastic policy changes and minimising delays in giving out licences to micro, small and medium enterprises are required if young India's aspirations are to be fulfilled.
—Chandrajit Banerjee (The author is member trustee, India@75 and DG, Confederation of Indian Industry)
Today's generation is focused and determined to participate and contribute in every sphere, be it technology, politics, sports, education or entrepreneurship. The past decade has seen small ideas being transformed into billion-dollar businesses. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, which not only made him a billionaire but also changed the way people communicated with friends and family.
The scenario
Understanding the urgency for economic reforms, the new government is expected to take the necessary steps to bring the growth rate back to its previous best. Steady and continuous economic growth would ensure more jobs across all sectors. But the big question is whether the youngsters are equipped with the skills required for various jobs.
Recent policy changes have given an impetus to skill development. A similar boost to entrepreneurship would ensure young citizens an opportunity to be an integral part of India's growth story.
The challenge
After schooling, youngsters can choose a conventional three-year degree or a four-year professional programme. The absence of shortterm programmes that focus on providing competencies required for the job market forces them to take up jobs in the unorganised sector or makes them vulnerable to exploitation.
Almost 20 million students enrol in various colleges every year. According to various studies, 75% of technical graduates and more than 85% of general graduates are unemployable by India's most demanding and high-growth global industries, including information technology. This shows that India offers the world's largest pool of technically-skilled graduates who are not industry-ready.
Possible solutions
It is time to act fast in this rapidlychanging world. So, here are some possible solutions to the multiple challenges before the nation:
Focus on providing vocational training to high school students and introduce them to various career options available to them if they wish to discontinue formal education. The first step in that direction, the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF ), aims to formally integrate vocational education with its current conventional educational streams in school and higher education.
Introduce short-term (one-or two-year ) government-approved courses and encourage existing educational institutions to provide them alongside conventional degrees. This would give the youth an option to choose from an array of courses and degrees. Also, this would ensure every enrollee in a one-year course an opportunity to bag a job after completing it.
Keeping in mind the huge gap between the demand and supply of skilled workers across sectors, increase the capacity of existing training providers besides empanelling new training organisations. In addition, all agencies that support skill development initiatives must focus on placements of candidates trained under various schemes. Map courses to gaps in a demandand-supply analysis across sectors and job roles.
Encouraging entrepreneurship is essential to fuel growth across sectors. Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of a country's economy. Besides providing local employment, they create a market for local produce. However, India is ranked 134 in the World Bank index on 'Ease of doing business'. Drastic policy changes and minimising delays in giving out licences to micro, small and medium enterprises are required if young India's aspirations are to be fulfilled.
—Chandrajit Banerjee (The author is member trustee, India@75 and DG, Confederation of Indian Industry)
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