SKILL DRILL: FROM EDUCATION TO EMPLOYMENT

Skill-imparting companies are introducing diverse programmes to train youth for the evolving job market demands

- INDIVJAL DHASMANA

Skill-imparting companies and those working in the field of education, aware of the challenges faced by the youth in finding suitable jobs, are coming out with innovative solutions to make undergraduates, graduates, technical hands, and informal workers more employable.

According to data compiled by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) on the basis of the periodic labour force surveys (PLFS), the unemployment rate for graduates and those having higher qualifications has been declining, along with that for lower qualified people (with one exception for below primary level people for 2018-19) since 2017-18 (July-June). However, the rate of decline is faster in the case of the latter. The data is censusadjusted.

Though technical education is supposed to make the youth employable, the recent India Employment Report, 2024, prepared by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and IHD, reveals that graduates with even such skills have a higher unemployment rate than merely bachelor degree holders in India during 2022-23 and the pace of joblessness in this category has increased over 17 years.

However, the former got better quality jobs than the latter. Besides, those with less than graduation degrees see less unemployment rate than witnessed by graduates and higher qualified people, but those jobs are usually low-paid. As such, all kinds of youth workforce face problems in finding the right kind of jobs.

Shantanu Rooj, founder and CEO of TeamLease Edtech, the employability wing of TeamLease responsible for upskilling and reskilling at corporate and university levels, says there is a mismatch between what employers expect from higher qualified people and what colleges and universities are preparing them to be. "That is the challenge because of which we see higher unemployment in that segment than faced by others," he explains.