Training – The need of the hour

 

Training – The need of the hour

-   Thalari SanjeevKumar

S

uccess lies in transforming learning into a super power. Individuals have to master both technical and non-technical skills. This will help them upright and augment their competence in terms of learning, explore and implying knowledge to get preferred output.

As per the Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2018, the student’s learning capacity is poor and they cannot do basic math at their expected level. While India is at the edge of becoming the youngest nation in the world by 2020, with 64% of its populous coming under working age, the country can resolve its burden of over population by empowering the youth. To take full benefit out of this growing young population of India, we need a robust education system to not only improve literacy rate but to also help the youth becoming employable in the competitive market.

In this time skill training along with formal education should be a must for students to adapt the industry dynamics and sustain their position during the job crisis. A fine blend of skill education with formal training will make a candidate capable of meeting industry standards. Similarly, there are various factors to validate why future employers would prefer skilled workers over ordinary graduates or post graduates. [Source: www.indiatoday.in]

India is dreaming towards a fully developed country needs its fullest support from its major population youth. in the process of making skilled youth country is taking enormous steps and active programs like Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) which help Indian youth to take up industry – relevant skill training that can help them secure a better employment.

But in reality the growth rate of skilled youth in India is still in tight spot. Every corner of the Indian industry is suffering in finding adequate skilled individuals who are capable of converting their dreams into reality. There may be several reasons for this state in India. I am writing here few of the reasons for the skills gap in Indian youth from my research.

3I Pyramid

The above picture explains the most important elements of developing skilled individuals in a country Industry – Institution – Individual.

Industry

Industry is the back bone of every country’s economic development. The growth of the world’s economy will primarily come from developing countries, the IMF predicted that economic growth in the US would be 2%, in the Euro Zone it would be 1.3%, the UK. 1.4%, and Japan, 0.7%.  This can be contrasted to expected economic growth for developing countries, which are expected to be 5.8% in India. The growth rate of developing regions of the world is higher than those of developed countries.

Skilled man power is very essential to carry out several development activities, every company plans to hire and retain the right amount of top talent in the industry and a management team that supports the company to reach set goals. Industry prepares a list of specific skills expecting from its hiring employees and announces them to education centers through industry – institution interaction. Based on these expectations the apex bodies of higher education system i.e. Universities have to design its curriculum (Content of Knowledge),

University

Now the ball moves to the court of Universities, the top bodies of higher education system needs to prepare such curriculum which aims in producing skilled individuals exactly expected by the industry. Below are few issues recognized:

1.      Our existing system of education blatantly copies the industrialization model to mass turn out students who fulfill to some values defined and forbidden by authorities.

2.      The present curriculum is in fact not allowing, but hinders students.

3.      Social intricacy and different outlook poses various challenges to rule makers to come to conditions with what comprises a good quality body of knowledge.

4.      Outdated curriculum which does not meet the needs of industry.

5.      Lack of academic investigation by the higher authorities while developing curriculum

6.      No involvement of teacher in developing curriculum, who are actually meant to deliver it to the students at institutional level.

Since universities are encompass such limitations they are not developing 100 percent best fit curriculums. So they compromised here with 80 percent. So the gap between expected to actual becomes 20 percent. Once curriculum is ready then it will be handed over to institutions for delivering to the target group effectively. Now the ball moves to the court of Institutions.

Institutions

Institution or college is a miniature society where students and teachers meet and transfer of knowledge takes place. As per the directions institution has to deliver the given curriculum to the students with the help of eligible faculty. But lot of limitations hit upon in every academic institution which hold back the right delivery of given curriculum in class room. Few limitations are:

1.      Poor receiving aptitude of students

2.      Students are not well focused

3.      Poor Infrastructure facilities

4.      In eligible or lack of expert faculty

5.      Universities position in monitoring the knowledge delivering structure in institutions turn out to be like a tiger on paper.

6.       Parents association in student’s learning day by day becoming near to the ground.

Because of these issues institutions are failing to deliver the prescribed curriculum exactly at the institutional level and only 60 percent of the curriculum been delivered (Percentages may vary from one institution to other). Now the gap between expected to actual becomes 40 percent. Now the ball moves to the court of Individual, who ultimately receive the delivered knowledge for practice.

Individual / Student

The ultimate seeker of the knowledge failing to receive the delivered knowledge by the faculty in the classroom. Few issues identified around students which are hampering them to fail in the class room are:

1.      Lack of interest

2.      No impactful teaching pedagogical tools

3.      Old teaching methods

4.      Lack of objective

5.      Faculty eligibility

6.      Outdated curriculum

7.      Exams and percentage oriented delivery etc.,

Due to above issues student is failing to receive the delivered 60 percent knowledge in the classroom and finally end up with 40 percent of knowledge (again percentage vary from student to student). Now the gap between expected to actual rose to 60 percent.

Soon after finishing school students decide on employment and now the problem rise. Here is a simple calculation about the problem:

Expected Knowledge & Skills percentage at Industry level               =          100

Planned Knowledge & Skills Percentage at University level             =          80

Delivered Knowledge & Skills Percentage at Institutional level       =          60

Received Knowledge & Skills Percentage at Student level               =          40

Now the formula for Problem is

Problem           =          Expected – Actual

                        =          100 - 40          

                        =          60 Percent

This 60 Percent gap creating problems to the industry in achieving its goal with the help of its employees, as they are getting no skilled or semi skilled individuals from the academic institutions. Now the question is how to bridge the gap? Answer is only training.

Training – Need of the hour

Now the industry is realizing the need of quality individuals through whom they can achieve their goals, giving more priority to training its men. But it is now becoming cost load and time taking process. So here are few recommendations to the higher education authorities to solve this problem at its grass root level.

1.      Establish and encourage regular academic research and change curriculum according to the changing needs of Industry

2.      Design multi facet curriculum which can produce multi talented individuals

3.      Add training as part of curriculum

4.      Strengthening the industry and institutional interactions

5.      Recognize and encourage training industry

Finale

Training may not be ultimate solution to overcome the problem but quality of training is very important to bridge the gap. Due to covid-19 and the space marketing the thickness of the training industry drastically increased, it impacts on the quality of training. It is the time to differentiate training and popular lecturing. If the government and higher education authorities really focused on the need of training to bridge the gap between what is expected and what is acquired India can fulfill its dream to become SKILLED INDIA.

Jai hind

 

About the Author

T

halari SanjeevKumar is a consultant in Learning – Skills training – Development – Coaching, working at different levels of individual personal and professional development. Having aroung18 years of industry and academic experience, worked at different level of teaching and skills training. A Master graduate in Business Management and also submitted PhD thesis, Master graduate in Psychology, Train the Trainer certified, e-Trainer certified, qualified in UGC National Eligibility Test, Qualified in State level eligibility test of Andhra Pradesh and also a certified soft skills trainer.

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