Skill development necessary to ensure jobs for all, say experts.
Educational qualifications get you the job, to find out how to develop the skills that will take you ahead of others. As for the employers, the biggest challenge today is getting the right can didate with the right skills for a particular job role. According to the Ficci Ernst and Young ‘Knowledge paper on skill development in India, published in September 2012, for India, the difficulty level for organizations to fill up the jobs is 48% which is above the global standard of 34% in 2012.

Making yourself employable So how can this challenge be addressed? The obsession with degrees has to stop. The lure of a degree at any cost irrespective of whether its possession would lead to jobs and increase employability needs to be replaced by the mindset of acquiring a set of skills that would enable the person to find jobs or be gain fully self-employed,;’’ says Dilip Chenoy, CEO and MD, National Skill Development Corporation. To become employable, RCM Reddy, chairman, Ficci Skills Development Forum says

‘’You ought to have deep understanding of the domain you plan to work in with both theoretical and practical skills in place. Soft skills, functional knowledge of English and basic digital literacy are also necessary across all sectors and levels. Students must also remember not to go for juat any degree. Identify your own skills first and then go for the sector and programme. You must choose courses than can be linked to good placements.’’

Thumbs up to skill development Skill development is one of the priority agendas of the government for the Twelfth Five Year, Plan. The government had doubled the allocation of funds for skill development under the National Skill Development Fund by Rs.10 billion. In the Union Budget 2012-13 The total corpus of funds has been increased to Rs.25 billion. Setting up a virtual skill development resource network linking 50,000 skill development centres is also on its agenda.
(Via- HT, Dec-12, 2012)