Why more young people are employable today
CHENNAI : The quality of our higher education, and resultant employability of young people, has been a topic of tempestuous discussions for several decades. About 20 years back, IT industry body NASSCOM said that only 25% of engineering graduates were readily employable in the technology industry. While there were debates on the methodology adopted to arrive at this number, the findings set the tone for serious introspection among different stakeholders—the government, academia, industry, parents, students and trade bodies.
Cut to the present. A recent Wheebox India Skills Report, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry, the All India Council for Technical Education, the Association of Indian Universities and Pearson, reported that 50.3% of young people were employable, overall. Importantly, the percentage of employable women increased to 52.8%.
While the two reports aren’t directly comparable—as one is limited to engineering graduates and the technology sector and the other cuts across industries—the drift of the narrative cannot be missed. Importantly, on a massively expanded base, more and more young people are becoming employable, some readily, and some with appropriate interventions. What has changed in the past 20 years to make such a large canvas of talent employable? Seven significant developments have reshaped the educational and skilling landscape, enhancing the quality of talent and making India a powerhouse of global talent.
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