Unemployability

There was a news article printed on 9th November in The Times of India (Ahmedabad). It was a summary of the India Labour Report 2007. As per the article our Indian Youth are unemployable, it highlighted some of the key issues with our manpower that needs to be immediately addressed to solve the ongoing problems. Summary from the article is as follows:

• 90% of employment opportunities require vocationals skills but 90% of our college and school output has only bookish knowledge
• Only 8% of the youth are unemployed, but 53% of them have some kind of skill deprivation.
• Youth unemployability is a bigger crisis than unemployability as poor quality of skills or education show up in low incomes rather than unemployment.
• Failure in quality education and skills, lack of technical and vocational training and policy blunders make it imperative that our system needs a structural change.

It also says that even though India is the fastest growing economy in the world its per capita income continues to be the lowest in the world. As a result of which economists believe that India will grow to be amond the richest countries in the world, but its citizens will not be as wealthy as the average American and European citizen. Repairing the skills deficit could cost approximately 10% of our GDP over the next two years, but merely allocating more funds is not the solution.

This is really an alarming and disturbing situation and I personally believe that the governments and other agencies will do whatever they can, but it is also very important for the youth to take control of their careers. I suggest that each one should draw a clear career path after proper counselling, write their limitations, and work towards achieving their career and solving their limitations.