Skill Development For Indian Workforce - A View Point By Kazim Ali Khan
Indian markets "" stock markets or labour markets have witnessed significant changes in recent times
. We know that stock markets act as barometer of financial stability much as the growing labor markets precursor to sustained economic development and perhaps a better indicator in real terms of growth and development for any country.
Although the Indian economy appears to experience GDP growth rate of 7% and beyond in the next few years , but there has been an increasing concern regarding jobless growth, widening of inequality in terms of region, gender, and a mismatch between demand of skilled labour and its availability, especially in potential sectors. Sectors like Engineering, Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing Education and Agriculture form the bedrock for India"s economic development in the years to come.
India is poised to reap a 'demographic dividend' because the size of its working age population will increase from about 77.5 crore in 2008 to a likely peak of 95 crore in 2026. In 2020, the average Indian will be only 29 years old, compared with 37 in China and the US, 45 in West Europe and 48 in Japan. Such a demographic advantage is enough to build a case of claiming economic supremacy in the global economy. Claiming economic supremacy in the global context may mean focusing on the disturbing aspect of positive GDP growth rate along with unfavorable employment trend.
Collective wisdom of policy makers, regulators, industry heads and academicians recognize today importance of making the burgeoning workforce as a competitive advantage. A recent report published by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has estimated that India would face 'talent gap'- the lack of right skills for the job required - of more than 5 million by 2012, as existing educational institutions do not impart employable skills.
The report titled, 'India's Demographic Dilemma' brings out the fact the $1.1-trillion economy will have a shortfall of 750,000 skilled workers over the next five years. In contrast, during the same period there will be a surplus of 1.3 million unskilled and unqualified school dropouts and illiterates.
If this numbers are to be believed in any way then it may only mean The issue of talent-gap, employability or skill mismatch is a manifestation of social and economic disparities in society and hence a deep rooted problem. Hence addressing it at the ground level may mean adopting Public Private Partnership approach (PPP model) which allows the government, social enterprises and industry to
share equitable responsibility of resolving such problems. In a way, it enables addressing the issue across levels akin to social upliftment in healthcare, sanitation, security etc.
Necessity for skill and employability
It is noteworthy that Indian higher education and research sector is the third largest in the world, in terms of volume of students. But ironically the existing 350 universities, 15000 plus colleges and hundreds of other national and regional research institutes do not really find a place in global context (Sparing a few though) unlike in China, South Korea, Taiwan and many others from Asia itself.
Therefore, to address the problem industry has prescribed various options but apparently the view is broadly divided on the exactness of need. Some opine India needs greater capacity and others view the challenge to be of lack of competency to produce great work force. Certainly in order to make the workforce employable we must have the zeal to create about 1000 more universities, IITs, IIMs, professional colleges and certainly a million schools yet enhancing the quality of education and training at least in some measure from the present levels on the overall basis.
Presently Nasscom estimates that 500000 technical graduates and 2.3 million graduates those pass out from over 350 universities, 18000 colleges and 6000 ITIs are not easily employable to the extent of 75% and 90% respectively. Perhaps it would mean that we need to relook at the regulation of the industry, restriction of private sector participation and autonomy of the exemplary recording holding institutes. Another area that needs utmost attention to directly fuel the need of emerging sectors that power Indian economy is the gender inclusivity for the urban women.
Today, India has more working women than any other country in the world. Of the entire workforce of 400 million, 30-35 percent are female, and of these women, only 2 0 percent work in urban India particularly in the IT BPO Industry. Therefore it clearly shows great opportunity of not only preparing for enhancing the employability of existing work force but also adding a major percentage of urban women with specific gender inclusivity measures for urban women. Some of the socio economic reasons that carry merit in ensuring gender inclusivity are as follows:
1.A qualified woman inclusion in workforce may mean at least one more consumer in the marketplace
2.It ensures bringing balance and quality of life for a family
3.Propels socio-economic development and redefines middle class definitions in a country like India
4.Broadens the canvass for finding more incumbents for leadership positions in society and industry
5.Enhances the scope of development for traditionally women favorite areas like social entrepreneurship, micro finance, hospitality, human resource education and health care in particular
6.Industries like manufacturing, micro engineering, aviation, technology, R&D, security etc., may find prospective employees or future leaders
At the organization level it becomes a matter of equality opportunity creation without the gender discrimination with other expected reasons of reduced attrition, high productivity, stronger brand appeal etc. Latest research goes further in stating more reasons with some empirical data which is as follows:
"Companies with more than two female board members demonstrate a better return on equity compared to the industry average (11.4 per cent v/s an average of 10.3 per cent)
"In India, companies headed by women grew by a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 35 per cent compared to 21 per cent registered by the BSE-30 (according to a 2008 study by The Economic Times).
"There are still too few female directors (less than 2 per cent) on the boards of Indian companies
Therefore, in summary if the Indian economy has to claim the global economic supremacy, it would have to certainly look at gaining supremacy. Gaining supremacy could mean developing the talent work force to fuel the demands of emerging sectors of the economy and enforce best practices for gender inclusivity forcefully even for urban women. Because inclusion of urbane women in the employable workforce for a country like India with demographic dividend advantage may simply mean scoring healthy CGPA against competing economies in claiming economic supremacy globally.
References:
1.Educational attainment of youth and implications for Indian labour market: an exploration through data", The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 51, 4, pp 813-830
2.Abraham, V. (2008), Employment Growth in Rural India: Distress Driven, Working Paper 404, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala
3."Globalization and Employment trends in India" Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 51(1): 1-23, The Indian Society of Labour Economics, New Delhi.
4.Nasscom reports on education and employability www.nasscom.com
5.UGC Annual Report 2005-06; Selected Educational Statistics, MHRD, 2004-05
6.http://www.naacindia.org Quality categories used in this table are adapted from NAAC grading
7. University Development in India, Basic Facts and Figures, Examination Results - 2002, UGC IAMR Manpower Profile 2005
by: Kazim Ali Khan
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