Creating Employable manpower

There is an on-going debate that is getting better day after day, and is the subject of hundreds of conferences, seminars, workshops and what have you. It is simple -- it is the subject of the lack of employable educated manpower, whether it is in Manufacturing, or in IT or the BPOs, or in service or wherever else.

So, what is really going on? There are several reasons why this has happened. Each of the reasons need to be probed in-depth, and something has to be done, and very fast at that.

* The first reason is that there is a yawning gap between those educated in English-medium schools and in other vernacular schools. Reading through the English medium is excellent and a very good command over written and spoken English in hundreds of thousands of educated Indians has given India a good competitive advantage, the results of which are now showing by the superior performance of hundreds of Indian organizations. The vernacular students lack in communication and presentation skills, and are rather slow in reacting and adjusting to changes in the external environment.
* The education system is totally outdated, and does not produce products that the manufacturing sector needs in thousands.

This should change through public-private sector collaboration. For example, the private B-schools have taken a lead and have very quickly changed the curriculam, syllabus and methods of teaching to cater to particular industry segments. For example, in retail, there has been a tie-up between a leading retail chain and a few B-schools to teach and train younsters through a Post-graduate diploma in retail management. This is the only solution. All Universities need to do this very quickly and very fast. For example, there are over ten Deming Award companies in the country. If only some engineering colleges were to strike a collaboration with these organizations, there could be a healthy marriage between theory and practise, and the real-world executives could teach all the principles and practices of Total Quality Management(TQM), and also arrange for practical on-the-job training, so that the young men and women, would be ready for employment. The Universities concerned should also encourage this, and may be, the best self-financing colleges can be selected to strike a collaboration, and based on that experience, others can follow.
* The third important reason is the lack of exposure in both semi-urban settings and rural settings, when compared to the urban settings. Quite apart from the best or even the highest marks produced by school students in the Public examinations, in various States, what really matters is that these students lack the knowledge of the wider external world, and are rather weak when it comes to the crunch. For example, how many rural or semi-ruban students successfully crack the presitgious CAT examination for admission to the IIMs, and make it? The reason is not only English, but what may be called, "reaction time". Unfortunately, those in smaller centres do not have the skills to take on a prestigious examination like the CAT. "Finishing schools" may be one answer, but we need to find more customised, area-specific solutions. For exmaple, as part of their corporate social responsibility, why not convince corporates that they should spend, compulsorily on recruiting trained teachers, who could teach on the weak-ends one hundred needy children, written and spoken English, every week-end,right from standard eight, in every small town, nearest to any manufacturing location, be that Hosur or Gurgoan, or Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu or Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh?

* Lastly, why not impress our own State Governemnts, to teach more of the street-smart stuff that will help youngsters find their jobs, at least in class eleven or twelve?

Well, the solutions are very complex, but we need to do something urgent. Here and now.

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