This post is dedicated to my Reporting Manager who’s quitting his job and moving on to take greater challenges in another company.
Indian youth today can be broadly divided into three segments- One: Jobless graduates sitting idle hoping that their dream jobs will land in their hands one day, Two: Techies working for IT industry and MNCs jumping from job to job more frequently than our politicians changing parties. Three: Others who don’t fall into either of these two.
This post aims to compare the first two and gives my opinion on demand supply gap in talent market.
Why there’s one section of youth who have NO job while there’s another section whose skills are in such a demand that retaining them is a challenge to their employers?
This difference is mainly due to the fact that Industry finds that only a part of today’s graduates fresh out of college are employable. This is the single largest concern our education system should act upon today. Hence only a part of students are absorbed into the industry with a pay packages exceeding that of their parents while rest of the student community is left behind, feeling betrayed by the educational system.
Human aspirations never end (They should never end, lest there won’t be any achievements). At college our concern was to get placed in any company. Once placed comes “who’s giving more” analysis; where focus is diverted to secure multiple offer letters so that one can go for the best option. Once in job other ambitions take over-better designation, challenges, ownership, and higher pay so on. This is common across all levels from entry level to top management. Because of a huge gap between talent supply and demand, head hunters often target techies whose aspirations are not met in their present company, hence the high attrition rates in Industry.
While the other unattended half of student community finds it a lot embracing to take up conventional jobs, remunerations wherein are no where in comparison with that of their batch mates placed in IT companies.
Immediate focus should be given on this sector to make them competent enough and reduce the divide.
The first thing to be inculcated in every individual is “Dignity of Labor” which is very common to see in any developed countries. If I say I want work as a truck driver, hence I’ve obtained HTV license, people laugh at me, thinking I’m joking. The point is one should work. No matter what the nature of job is, to start with. One always has the option to switch jobs once the right moment comes. But we see that most of the people reject the job they get saying “this is too low for my potential”
Second goal should be to focus on practical application of knowledge. Our education system prepares us to face exams, not life. A 90% score in electrical engineering is no use if he/she can’t fix a ceiling fan. A gold medal in commerce is good for nothing if he/she can’t tell the difference between fixed interest and floating interest. I hold a mechanical engineering degree but end up paying 7th standard failed auto mechanic to fix my bike. So it’s essential to come out of “I should study to clear my exam” perspective and attain “I want to gain knowledge” attitude.
Third is to focus on global expectations. Industry needs people with communication skills, leadership abilities, open minded and innovative minds. The default Indian education system hardly considers any of the above as something important.
If above three are looked into, the proportion of employable graduates increases significantly and the demand supply gap narrows. Talent replacement becomes easy for HR people. This should eventually reduce the attrition rate as well.
While the best brains should be used for nation building activities in organizations like say ISRO, IISc etc, these brains often work on some billing software for a US supermarket (just an example). The inability to attract bright talents by these research organizations will eventually hinders the growth and prosperity of the nation, another factor that needs visionary attention.
Disclaimer: Above are fully my personal opinions.
Thanks for reading. If you've liked the above post, you might like following similar posts as well:Check them out:
Do we need unions in IT companies?
Orkut and Employee Productivity
Best Employer Surveys-How reliable they are?
Indian youth today can be broadly divided into three segments- One: Jobless graduates sitting idle hoping that their dream jobs will land in their hands one day, Two: Techies working for IT industry and MNCs jumping from job to job more frequently than our politicians changing parties. Three: Others who don’t fall into either of these two.
This post aims to compare the first two and gives my opinion on demand supply gap in talent market.
Why there’s one section of youth who have NO job while there’s another section whose skills are in such a demand that retaining them is a challenge to their employers?
This difference is mainly due to the fact that Industry finds that only a part of today’s graduates fresh out of college are employable. This is the single largest concern our education system should act upon today. Hence only a part of students are absorbed into the industry with a pay packages exceeding that of their parents while rest of the student community is left behind, feeling betrayed by the educational system.
Human aspirations never end (They should never end, lest there won’t be any achievements). At college our concern was to get placed in any company. Once placed comes “who’s giving more” analysis; where focus is diverted to secure multiple offer letters so that one can go for the best option. Once in job other ambitions take over-better designation, challenges, ownership, and higher pay so on. This is common across all levels from entry level to top management. Because of a huge gap between talent supply and demand, head hunters often target techies whose aspirations are not met in their present company, hence the high attrition rates in Industry.
While the other unattended half of student community finds it a lot embracing to take up conventional jobs, remunerations wherein are no where in comparison with that of their batch mates placed in IT companies.
Immediate focus should be given on this sector to make them competent enough and reduce the divide.
The first thing to be inculcated in every individual is “Dignity of Labor” which is very common to see in any developed countries. If I say I want work as a truck driver, hence I’ve obtained HTV license, people laugh at me, thinking I’m joking. The point is one should work. No matter what the nature of job is, to start with. One always has the option to switch jobs once the right moment comes. But we see that most of the people reject the job they get saying “this is too low for my potential”
Second goal should be to focus on practical application of knowledge. Our education system prepares us to face exams, not life. A 90% score in electrical engineering is no use if he/she can’t fix a ceiling fan. A gold medal in commerce is good for nothing if he/she can’t tell the difference between fixed interest and floating interest. I hold a mechanical engineering degree but end up paying 7th standard failed auto mechanic to fix my bike. So it’s essential to come out of “I should study to clear my exam” perspective and attain “I want to gain knowledge” attitude.
Third is to focus on global expectations. Industry needs people with communication skills, leadership abilities, open minded and innovative minds. The default Indian education system hardly considers any of the above as something important.
If above three are looked into, the proportion of employable graduates increases significantly and the demand supply gap narrows. Talent replacement becomes easy for HR people. This should eventually reduce the attrition rate as well.
While the best brains should be used for nation building activities in organizations like say ISRO, IISc etc, these brains often work on some billing software for a US supermarket (just an example). The inability to attract bright talents by these research organizations will eventually hinders the growth and prosperity of the nation, another factor that needs visionary attention.
Disclaimer: Above are fully my personal opinions.
Thanks for reading. If you've liked the above post, you might like following similar posts as well:Check them out:
Do we need unions in IT companies?
Orkut and Employee Productivity
Best Employer Surveys-How reliable they are?
Good Article dude...
ReplyDeleteI think its high time that our educational system looks into what you said
Sensible article
ReplyDeleteI don't think any educational system can address 100% real world needs. But this gap should be kept as minimum as possible. Unfortunately this is not happening with our Indian educational system.
Anonymous 1: Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteReddy garu,
Glad to see you writing comments at my blog.. Your first one so far and you chose this particular article to comment...
I am honoured...
ICA Infotech strives hard to churn out the market and extract the finest job opportunities for students. It is a great help for them as they get an option to save time of finding a suitable job and also gives a kick start to students’ career. The biggest strength of ICA it guarantees the jobs to every student. By providing world class education and finest jobs to students ICA is striving towards being the best accounting institutes of the country.
ReplyDelete