Employability and transition to labour market in emerging

economies: An Indian perspective on Higher education

Ambili Gopalakrishnan Christ Nagar College of Education INDIA

CONTACT DETAILS Christ Nagar College of Education (affiliated to the University of Kerala), Chavarapuram, Thiruvallom P.O, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - 695027, India. E-mail: ambili.sree@gmail.com 1

Paper presented in track 4: Seeding and harvesting; students in mass higher education EAIR 33rd Annual Forum in Warsaw, Poland

28-31 August 2011

Introduction

Young people account for one fifth of the world’s population

• Young people aged 15-24 constitute 18% of world’s population

• They constitute about 1.1 billion people

• Emerging economies with high population size and density face

unprecedented challenges.

• Inefficient educational system, underemployment and

unemployment are among the major challenges.

2 Source: UNFP and Lam (2007)

Source: World Bank, 2006

Educational qualification levels of the people in the age group 15 to 29 are expected to improve significantly in the next decade

India’s case

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Introduction contd……

Status as on 2010

• 308 Public universities (42 central, 266 state) • 81 Private universities across 19 states

Note:-Others include Agriculture, Veterinary & Fisheries, Medical, ITI,MCA, Vocational Education , B.Ed etc. 4

Source: MHRD (India), Tata Strategic Management Group (2011)

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Source: Tata Strategic Management Group (2011)

Labour market and employability of Indian students

Notes : 1Grades of Colleges as per National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) Source: EIU, NASSCOM, Mckinsey Global Institute Report (2007), MeritTrac Services 6

• 25% of fresh engineers and a mere 10% of fresh graduates are actually employable.

• The educational and skill profile of existing workforce in India is very poor

• The percentage of people having marketable skills is woefully low in the country

Are Indian youth unemployable??

Yet more than 25% of world’s workers are Indians

7 Source: Kishore (2009) and NASSCOM-McKinsey report (2005)

Outlook on demand and supply

Notes : Demand based on GDP growth rate of 8% Source: National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), 2008

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Lessons to be learned

• The demographic differentials provide a distinct advantage to India due to the young profile of its workforce

• Country has weak infrastructure and lacks quality educational system

• A deskilling economy without a reskilling higher education system and work force

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Strategies to be adopted

1. Ensure faculty control over governance in universities that are presently maintained in a complex and bureaucratic environment.

2. Reforms are needed in labour laws and active labour market policies to deliver better outcomes.

3. Aligning higher education and labour market by : curricular and policy reforms value education promoting entrepreneurship education improving life skills and soft skills, increasing industry interface and building partnership with foreign universities

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To sum up..

• India, an expanding economy requires large sum of qualified work force.

• Aligning India’s higher education to this demand is the challenge.

• India has an examination system instead of good educational system.

• Current focus is on producing work force employable in information and

communication industries.

• There exists gap in the employability of higher education graduates in other

sectors.

• Too many courses and programmes without properly assessing the market

demand and employability.

• Laggardness in incorporation of recent nuances in science , technology , art

etc. into curriculum.

• Impaired quality control and the existing system being corrupt.

• Lack of policy, institutional and financial support for promoting higher

education and employability of the passed outs. 11

THANK YOU

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