Aligning Skills With Jobs

If things progress as they are, India is certain to face a 'talent gap'- the lack of right skills for the job required - of more than 5 million by 2012, as existing educational institutions do not impart employable skills. If training has to deliver job-level skills in an increasingly globalised world, strong industry leadership and engagement with skills training, qualification and assessment framework is essential.

India has a huge brand name internationally in supplying skilled manpower. According to one estimate, at any point of time, around five million Indians work abroad. With its demographic advantage and the large pool of English speaking people, India can well provide the solution to the world's skills shortage problem. But, what is needed is a holistic approach to address the problem of skills shortage within the country.
At another level, if India is to attain its goal of becoming a global economic power, it needs people of calibre to power and accelerate growth, be it in manufacturing, services or even agriculture now. Development is dependent on proper infrastructure like power, roads, irrigation, etc., and on social upliftment in terms of health, sanitation, and so on. And for all this India needs qualified people. Even doctors are scarce, says a recent Planning Commission report. India needs 600,000 doctors, 1 million nurses and 200,000 dental surgeons. Health ministry estimates that India needs 2.1 million nurses if there has to be one nurse for a population of 500. But only 1.1 million are available.

A recent report published by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has estimated that India would face 'talent gap'- the lack of right skills for the job required - of more than 5 million by 2012, as existing educational institutions do not impart employable skills. The report titled, 'India's Demographic Dilemma' brings out the fact the $1.1-trillion economy will have a shortfall of 750,000 skilled workers over the next five years. On the other side, there will be a surplus of 1.3 million unskilled and unqualified school dropouts and illiterates. Though a large part of the report was written before the current financial crisis started affecting India's growth rate, the numbers still look worrying. Post the financial crisis, new concerns have emerged.

As Bhaskar Chatterjee, Principal Adviser, Planning Commission, says, "unemployment among educated youth may be caused by a variety of factors. It might be that the economic - more specifically the job market - conditions are such that enough jobs are not created to absorb all the educated manpower. This may happen under recession, slow-down or even under job-less growth."

Alternatively, the number of educated unemployed may rise due to a mismatch between knowledge and skills that are imparted by the educational institutions on the one hand and what is required by industry on the other. "It is this second situation that puts the blame squarely on the education sector and that is, in fact, the phase through which we are passing in contemporary times. We are saddled with a situation where industry is lamenting skill shortage and at the same time we have educated youth complaining of non-availability of jobs," he adds
Admittedly, in one sense, the year gone by was a watershed year in the area of skills development initiatives as it has been recognised that bridging the skills gap is essential if India is to maintain the current pace of growth.

The National Skill Development Policy, approved by the Cabinet, under the National Skills Development Mission aims at empowering all individuals through improved skills, knowledge and internationally recognised qualifications to enable them access to decent employment and to promote inclusive national growth.
Apart from upgrading the existing government ITIs, the government has also launched the Skill Development Initiative Scheme to train one million people in the next five years and then one million every year. Training will be provided in demand-driven, short-term courses, based on modular employable skills and the cost will be borne by the Central Government.
Giving an overview of the latest policy initiatives, Sudha Pillai, Secretary, Labour & Employment, says the government is committed to creating quality employment and equipping the labour force with relevant skills in an age of intensified competition and technological diffusion. Towards this end, two major schemes totaling US$1,340 million have been launched for upgradation of all Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the country, of which 500 ITIs are being upgraded into Centres of Excellence.

However, the issue of aligning skills with jobs has been a recurring one for quite a while. There are clearly still many concerns and challenges. Many of the people we spoke to had definite and valuable perspectives on the way forward, but a holistic approach is absent; one that synthesises the many strands that our education system has developed into over the years.

Diversity
India has one the largest education systems in the world, but there is an urgent need to modernise it. We need more institutions in diverse fields like agriculture, biotechnology, and human resources, among others, if we have to reap the advantages of our demographic profile.
In a country like India, it is also important to ensure equitable distribution and access to skill development opportunities. Says Pillai, "the employment exchanges are going to be drastically altered during 2009 and are going to be converted into web-based employment portals." The state governments run them but the Central Government has now got in the mission mode, a programme under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) where all the 1,000 odd employment exchanges will be so altered that you can actually give vocational counseling and guidance to make sure that people are employed, she adds.

The Planning Commission has also sanctioned the setting up of 5,000 Skills Development Centres under the Skill Development Initiative. In a move to widen outreach, the Initiative does not require Class 8 pass; it has brought the educational qualification down to Class 5. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which are engaged in non-formal education, can utilise this opportunity to skill their pupils after Class 5. For any training, one should have the ability to read a little. Hence, NGO programmes, will ensure that the children are literate and numerate.
MC Pant, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), says "when we talk of education and employability it is not enough to address the challenges of the formal system which compels everybody to go to the school and study a structured curriculum that is not suited to their requirement."

Upon being asked for a solution, Pant asserts: "We need flexible systems, modular approach and small units of competency-based courses. In the open schooling system, we are trying to provide modular courses where we have multiple entries, multiple exits, and facilities for-on-the job training. The institutions have to develop the courses as per the requirements of the employers, the competencies have to be mapped, evaluation systems have to respond to the requirements of the assessment of competencies which have been acquired by the learner and not simply knowledge domain. These are the challenges before us."

In order to meet the burgeoning requirements of skilled and unskilled labour, a massive increase in quantity of training is needed. As suggested by the National Knowledge Commission, the government can explore new delivery models to increase capacity such as public private partnerships, decentralised delivery, distance learning and computerised vocational training. At the same time, the government must introduce certain minimum standards as a measure of quality and ensure that these are adhered to by all public and private Vocational Education and Training (VET) institutions.

Quality
India has 350 universities, 18,000 colleges and 6,000 ITIs, which every year come out with about 500,000 technical graduates, of which, according to NASSCOM estimates, 75 per cent are not easily employable, and 2.3 million graduates, of which 90 per cent are considered unemployable. These are statistics which can vary from panel to panel but they are essentially true. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission says that of the 90,000 odd MBAs that are produced each year, only a miniscule percentage are found to be worth employing.
Most of the college graduates remain unemployable because of lack of job oriented training. If training has to deliver job-level skills in an increasingly globalised world, strong industry leadership and engagement with skills training, qualification and assessment framework is essential.

Agreeing that there was need to build bridges between industry, education and skill providers, Vijay Thadani, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Ltd, points out that there is also need to build soft skills as demanded by the new evolving global culture. Importantly, he advocates "synchronisation between knowledge and application".

These soft skills, according to MM Pant, Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, are communication skills, good team working skills, information seeking skills and logical skills. All these skills are not taught at university. "So, we need to distil skills for employability and put them on top of the agenda for inclusion in the curriculum."

Focusing on the twin imperatives of quality and competitiveness, Ravi Pillai, Country Head, City & Guilds (South Asia), pointed out that funding is no longer a constraint given the increased commitment levels of the government, but the institutional structure to deliver quality of output has still to come alive.

Across the globe, industry skills councils work actively to address the skill gaps, provide training and enhance employability. A sector-specific approach was imperative to determine curricula and training outcomes. Putting in place an institutional arrangement for training, certification and placement is critical to meeting industry requirements and improving the nation's productivity levels. It is learnt that testing at the new Skills Development Centres will be done by mostly industry-oriented testing entities and it is likely to be quite rigorous.

Navin Bhatia, COO, Bharti Airtel, says the future requires close cooperation with and among industry players to define a 'look, see and feel' curricula, create assessment guidelines and partner ITIs.

Planning for the VET sector should specially take into account the needs of emerging sectors like retail, automotive, IT, construction, and financial services. These sectors have no fixed training courses currently and a new beginning allows for evolving sustainable solutions.

Setting up special auto training institutes and development of special training modules catering to the needs of the auto industry is already on the cards. The auto industry has indicated its willingness to adopt 100 ITIs. In the construction sector, it is essential that a seamless supply chain of placement, retention and career progression is set in place if the country's infrastructure needs are to be met. For the financial services sector, training assessment can be conducted in different languages so as to widen outreach and incorporate the rural population into banking and financial services. Investment in healthcare, which would include not infrastructure but development of human resources, could be incentivised.

The role of ICTs in education is well recognised the world over. If we look at it from the perspective of employability, then as Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation (India) says "we need a second information revolution."

The first information revolution in India was about the successful export of IT services where we leveraged low-cost developer resources. There are over 1.5 million software developers in India today, which has now become the largest developer community in the world.
The second revolution is about where we need to learn how to use IT to power job creation, to leverage IT to accelerate education where we can actually educate 500 million plus youngsters below the age of 20 and the remaining 500 million, many of whom who actually need further enhancement of professional capabilities. "This revolution will require several paradigm shifts. It will require IT companies to innovate for India instead of simply innovating from India," explains Anandan.

There is another perspective which holds that quality should be looked at from the primary school level itself. Non-governmental organisation Pratham publishes an annual report on the state of education, and the most recent one shows unacceptably low learning outcomes in the country. The public schooling system is shown to be grossly deficient, with students unable to read, write or solve arithmetic problems prescribed for far lower grades. Consider this: 44 per cent in Class 5 cannot read Class 2 text or 42 per cent in Class 7 cannot divide!

Capacity
There is a shortage of capacity in the Indian education system. India today needs at least 1,500 universities, but has only 370. There are more than 550 million young people in need of education but do not have educational institutes to go to. India also needs around 1,500 IITs, 1,500 management institutes, and 1,500 medical schools. A million good schools are also required.
But, due to tight regulation by the government, private sector entry into the education sector has been stifled. Equally valid is the opinion that the country's education system needs greater autonomy along with more inclusive private sector participation. Educationists ask, for instance, why should there be a single monopoly body in the sector granting deemed status to universities.
Sharda Prasad, Director-General Employment & Training, Government of India, says an institutional structure at the state level has already been suggested in the National Skill Development Policy. To achieve the objectives of developing skills, raising productivity and income levels, the states have to be on board, he said. Therefore, State Skill Development Councils headed by the Chief Minister and State Skill Development Corporations to serve as funding mechanisms have been envisaged. The Government has made large allocations but this funding should be viewed as a catalyser, to jumpstart the programme, suggested Prasad.

Capacity also needs to be upgraded in terms of human resources. In other words, we need to also train more teachers, re-skill them according to today's requirements. Young people should be motivated to train as educationists and trainers. This will partly solve the unemployment problem and add to the system a large number of people who can then transfer those skills to students There is a need for faculty enablement, faculty development and faculty recruitment. There is a need for blended training which is part ICT-enabled training and part faculty-driven. Clearly, the list of things to do is not small.

Some More Strategies
The theme of the 11th Five-Year Plan is inclusive growth and it not merely the backward areas and regions that are economically and social deprived and also people who are economically and socially backward. The biggest initiative being taken is in the area of education. A huge amount of money is being spent all over the country, not merely in the IITs and IIMs, but also in primary and secondary education and expanding the scope in the area of vocational education.
"Work-oriented education should begin right from pre-primary education and go up to high school where along with general education the children are taught the dignity of work," says Subhash C Kunthia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development. "We are in the process of reformulating this higher secondary vocational stream with an element of general education so that children will have more choices if the want to go for higher education."
Subas Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission, points out that one of the critical shifts in philosophical approaches is that in the first meeting of the National Skill Development Mission, it was recognised that skill is not an end in itself. "So, it is essentially an employment mission."
"We must try and rework the training programme in such a manner that it is both demand and supply driven. Skilling is required to leverage employment and to give empowerment to those who get skilled for a sustainable living," he adds.

The problem and therefore the solution to the entire issue of unemployability vs. employability rests on one word, matching.

What does 'matching' mean? First, look at each vertical sector of the Indian industry and assess the numbers at each level in terms of manpower requirements. This kind of knowledge exists all over the place, in many studies. The second step is to create courses which answer the needs of the skill requirements. There are lots of courses but they do not exactly match the skill requirements and, therefore, the assessment which may lead to a certification the industry will find of use and accept. The third step is to find skilled teachers. One way is to retrain the existing faculty so that they are able to impart the needed skills to the students. The roadmap should incorporate the following:
• Initiate a comprehensive change process driven by innovative approaches for skill development, in terms of outreach, flexibility, labour market relevance and transparency. In addition, we need to:
• Implement policy direction and utilise allocations effectively so as to build a skill infrastructure.
• Channel investments and global partnerships for skill development to sector-specific needs and opportunities.
• Strategically align vocational training to higher education providers and also allow coherent, seamless transfer between various education sectors.
• Undertake reforms in both the supply and demand side of the training sector.
• Identify specific issues related to delivery and administration of skills, and then dovetail the same in a revamped education system.

Skills development is major initiative that tries to reach out to those people who need the most. All they need is to get some skills so that they stand on their own feet. They are willing to work and improve their life through their own efforts, but they need that little help of giving them some skills with which they can carve their own destiny. Let us all note it is not just about creating 10 million jobs within the country but it is actually skilling 47 million people to work not only in India but also abroad
(A Team Inclusion analysis)

4 Mindsets Of A Successful Leader

The author is Keith Ferrazzi, Author of book"Who's Got Your Back"

Have you found yourself thinking of starting your own business? Are you trying to climb the corporate ladder while the company is working through the recession? In other words, are you aiming to be a leader?
Well, behind every great leader, at the base of every great tale of success, you will find an indispensable circle of trusted advisers, mentors and colleagues. These groups come in all forms and sizes, and can be found at every level and in nearly all spheres of both professional and personal life. What they all have in common is a unique kind of connection with each other that I've come to call "lifeline relationships."

In order to build these all-important lifeline relationships, there are four core mindsets that can be learned and practiced, and help lead you on a path to personal and financial prosperity. They are:
Generosity: This is the base from which all the other behaviors arise. This is the commitment to mutual support that begins with the willingness to show up and creatively share our deepest insights and ideas with the world. It's the promise to help others succeed by whatever means you can muster. Generosity signals the end of isolation by cracking open a door to a trusting emotional environment, what I call a "safe space" -- the kind of environment that's necessary for creating relationships in which the other mindsets can flourish.
Vulnerability: This means letting your guard down so mutual understanding can occur. Here you cross the threshold into a safe space after intimacy and trust have pushed the door wide open. The relationship engendered by generosity then moves toward a place of fearless friendship where risks are taken and invitations are offered to others
Candor: This is the freedom to be totally honest with those in whom you confide. Vulnerability clears the pathways of feedback so that you are able to share your hopes and fears. Candor allows us to begin to constructively interpret, respond to and grapple with that information
Accountability:Accountability refers to following through on the promises you make to others. It's about giving and receiving the feet-to-the-fire tough love through which real change is sustained.
The real key to establishing close relationships with people you consider your trusted advisers in your career and in your personal life is how these four mindsets work together.
The process starts with generosity. It jolts people out of traditional transactional do-for-me-and-I'll-do-for-you relationships. Actively reaching out to and helping others gives us the opportunity and permission to take a relationship to a deeper level. This allows us to explore intimacy, ultimately to the point of being vulnerable and open with one another.
If we've created a safe space, a place where we feel safe enough to say candidly what we think and feel, we can take greater risks in the relationship. It can lead to making a commitment to mutually support one another through thick and thin and to hold one another accountable for doing the things that will allow us to achieve our dreams and destinies. Taking such risks can lead us to create more than just friendships -- we can create lifeline relationships to a better future.
This process is iterative: The more you give, the deeper you get and the more profound your sharing becomes. That strengthens your safe space, and provides more freedom to be vulnerable and candid -- which opens the relationship even more deeply. Trust builds incrementally, by stages, growing deeper and stronger as the mindsets are practiced more sincerely and passionately.
Once you work within the four mindsets, you will see it's a truly inspiring experience. Whether you're working with an experienced sales team or building a business from scratch, the lifeline relationships you build will become more than your colleagues or assistants. They will become you're a trusted circle of advisers and your peers.
That's worth repeating: peers. Equals. Even though one of them may have clear organizational authority -- and the title and decision-making power to go with it -- each member functions as a highly respected equal, offering up creative ideas, candid feedback and criticism voiced with authentic concern for the others' interests, and rigorous attention to accountability around goals, goal setting, follow-through and, of course, results. Each member has free, open and respectful permission to call the others out when they are falling short (because we all fall short, and most of us, as I know well, tend to do so repeatedly).
Do you want to be more successful in your career and more fulfilled in your life? Then let's get started.

Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, has counseled the world's top enterprises on how to dramatically accelerate the development of business relationships to drive sales, spark innovation and create team cohesion. His most recent book is "Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success -- and Won't Let You Fail" (Broadway Business). You can find more information about him at www.keithferrazzi.com.

Employability Skills - Types

In my earlier blog, I had mentioned about employability skills and the need for it. Let us discuss the various employability skills.

Employability skills can be categorized into three skill sets:

(a) Basic Academic skills which includes reading, writing, science, maths, oral communication and listening skills.
(b) Higher-order thinking skills which includes learning, reasoning, creativity, decision making and problem solving, and
(c) Personal qualities which includes honesty, integrity, team spirit, adaptability & fexibility, good work attitude, social skills, cooperative, self motivation, self confidence and self control.

Basic Academic skills are essential at all levels of the job, but more so at mid and senior levels. At the entry-level jobs, basic academic skills are essential for high job performance. Ideally, employees at the entry level jobs should have the ability and desire to learn. They also need the ability to listen to and read instructions and then to carry out those instructions. These individuals should be able to respond appropriately both orally and in writing. Reading ability includes comprehending what has been read and using a variety of written materials, including graphs, charts, tables and displays. Entry level employees also need the ability to complete basic math computations accurately.

Higher-order thinking skills refer to the ability to think, reason, and make sound decisions, which is very crucial for employees. A person who can think critically, act logically, and evaluate situations to make decisions and solve problems, is a valuable asset to the company.

In addition to basic academic skills and higher order thinking skills, personal skills are also very important. It is difficult to utilize workers effectively who lack personal skills. Entry-level employees with good personal skills have confidence in themselves and deal with others honestly and openly, displaying respect for themselves, their co-workers, and their supervisors regardless of other people’s diversity and individual differences. They view themselves as a part of a team and are willing to work within the culture of the group. They have a positive attitude and take the initiative to learn new things to get the job done. Rather than blaming others when things go wrong, they are accountable for their actions. They also have the ability to set goals and priorities in their work and personal lives so that resources of time, money and other resources may be conserved and managed. These individuals practice good personal habits, come to work as scheduled, on time and dress appropriately, and are agreeable to change when necessary.

Employability Skills

• The two greatest concerns of employers today are finding good workers and training them. The difference between the skills needed on the job and those possessed by applicants, called the skills-gap, is of real concern to CEO’s and HR managers looking to hire competent employees. While employers would prefer to hire people who are trained and job ready, they are usually willing to provide the specialized, job-specific training necessary for those lacking such skills. However, certain skills, referred to as employability skills, are mostly found missing in most of the applicants, especially at the entry level. Employability skills are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job. These are the skills, attitudes and actions that enable workers to get along with their fellow workers and supervisors and to make sound, critical decisions. Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are generic in nature rather than job specific and cut across all industry types, business sizes, and job levels from the entry-level worker to the senior-most position.
  In a recent survey carried out, following were the Top 7 skills which the employers were looking in employees:
   Communication
   Team Working
   Integrity
   Planning & Organization
   Good writing
   Numeracy (good with nos.)
   Analysis & Decision making
  
  These skills are transferrable or teachable skills and the earlier the person is trained in the skills the better. Governments all over the world are siezed with the problem and are taking steps to ensure that these form a part of school curriculum rather than being taught at a later stage, as is being done now.

Old Age Home

I am a frequent visitor to the Old Age Home at Hyderabad run by a Christian missionary. The center is home to around 135 old people. These include people who have worked through out their life taking care of their children and when it was the time for the children to take care of them, they abandoned them. This also includes people who do not have any close relative to take care and thus have taken shelter in the old age home. There are married couples as well as old people who have lost their spouse. I have been greatly impressed by the manner in which the Sisters take care of the inmates. Each and every inmate is given individual attention and care. They try to shower as much love as possible so that the old person does not feel the pain of not having a loved one. If an inmate is sick, they are not only given proper medical treatment but also the love and care which only a family member can give. The very old and sick inmates are even fed food by hand by the Sisters.
During a recent visit to the Home, I expressed a desire to go around the Home and meet the inmates. The Sister took me around the Home. Since it was lunch time, the inmates had gathered in the dining room. I was really stunned by the converastion that the Sister was having with the inmates. She addressed every one with whom she had a conversation, by their name. If some one was sick, she would ask them about their sickness, knowing exactly what the disease was. She introduced me to the inmates and told them that I had sponsored the lunch. I could see the happiness in the old eyes. I could feel the blessings they were showering on me – some said it in words, others by their eyes, some by raising their hands for blessing and some by their smile.
After the lunch was over, I thanked the Sister for giving me an opportunity to meet the old people. I thanked them for the excellent work which she and other Sisters were doing in taking care of the old people. Specially, if you realise that some of the Sisters are old. While leaving, I asked the Sister what I could do to make the life of the inmates slightly better. The Sister paused for a moment and then said,” there are many people who come and give donations. Some sponsor meals, some donate clothes and some donate money. But do you know – not many come forward and donate their time. While we require the money to run the Home, the Old people require people who come and talk to them, listen to them and make them feel that they have some one with whom they can share their feelings. They require some one to share their solititude”.