The document discusses India's employability problem and skills gap. It notes that only 25% of graduates are employable and there is a lack of important soft skills among professionals like communication, teamwork, and cultural adaptability. The education system has focused on technical knowledge over skills development and there are too many low-quality colleges. It recommends reforms like vocational training, internships, industry collaboration, accreditation, and allowing foreign universities to improve quality and employability. Overall the employability situation is challenging but initiatives like RUSA provide hope if quality of teaching and continuous upgrades can be effectively addressed.

1. Employability Skills
Hariprasad Lectures
(Soft Skills Series)
Lecture - 79
Hariprasad Kunapareddi IIS
State Project Director, RUSA,
Government of Andhra Pradesh

2. • In this era, employability is a big problem
• The level of employability is just 25% today
• Even in 25% also, some are underemployed
• India’s economy has been growing at a steady rate
• Booming economy means that the production and
consumption is going steady ---- rather it is continuously
improving
• With growing economy, jobs are also getting created in all
sectors
• Jobs are being created, there are not enough suitable takers

3. • There is no guarantee of a job commensurate with the
qualifications
• The number of colleges and Universities have increased
exponentially
• Govt. has allowed mushrooming of institutes everywhere, with
a resultant dip in quality
• Employability levels of the students passing out from these
institutes is less than 25%
• The organizations which restricted their search to top
engineering colleges or B – Schools, are now moving towards
tier -2 and tier-3 colleges

4. • Skill gap has become very pronounced
• Now professionals are required to communicate, work in multi-
cultural, multi-lingual teams and show high emotional maturity
• But Indian professional stands exposed, not just in India but also
internationally
• On quality front, Indians have been to be lacking
• Countries like Malaysia, Macau, Philippines, Russia, Ireland,
Brazil, Thailand offer cheaper services

5. • India shifts to services economy from manufacturing now
• The professionals are found wanting in non-technical skills
• These skills are now known under the umbrella term
“employability skills” as they ultimately impact both the
employability as well as continuity employment of a person
Present Scenario:
• Big employability issue among the educated youth
• Jobs in village secretariat filled recently in AP with a salary of
Rs. 15000/- p.m is an eye wash which can’t be called creation of
jobs.
• At least Rs. 20,000/- salary p.m for a job in Indian village can be
defined as a job

6. • Today 30% of all engineers, 25% of all finance and accounting
professionals and 20% of the general graduates from Colleges
and Universities are employable
• Several surveys, out of every 100 students passing out from our
engineering and business colleges, only about 25% are actually
employable, rest are unemployable
• Only 23% graduates from Tier -2, Tier -3 are found employable
• NAAC graded 90% of colleges and 70% of Universities as poor
quality
• The picture looks gloomy, whatever way you look at it

7. • Medical seats are sold for lakhs
• The scenario is gloomy in other disciplines be it, management,
pharmacy, engineering, law, architecture
• So rot in the system is across
• Before we used to take pride in the fact that India had one of
the largest pool of engineers and trained professionals
• Today world-wide we receive flak over the quality of our
professionals
• Mushrooming of Management and engineers colleges across
the Country, especially in AP

8. • Less focus on quality of education, students’ holistic
development, industry relevant research, quality of faculty,
latest technological and business inputs, institute-industry
interface etc.
• Thus, the students who pass out of these institutes are not
industry ready
• Most get rejected at the first interaction stage itself
• And even when they get placed, in many cases they are
underemployed
• To address this gap in employability, finishing schools have
sprung up which provide the middle layer between the
institutes and the industry

9. • They train students on the employability skills and make them
ready to face Interviews
• Even in campus selections, provisional offer letters are issued
• Post this short-listing, the students are supposed to undergo
rigorous training with a training partner and clear exams
• Only when they clear this second step, final order is made or
withdrawn as the case is

10. Employability skills students lack are:
• Focus shifted from manufacturing to services
• Customers buy product and implicit assurance attached to it.
• The availability and quality of after-sales service has became
more important than ever
• Consumer protection Act has given more teeth to customers
• Those in service industry are directly involved with the
customer
• Thus, their interpersonal communication became important

11. • Students focus on clearing exams
• Teacher focus on completing the syllabus
• No one has time to go to beyond the framework of the syllabus
• The industry has moved from IQ to EQ to SQ (Spiritual Quotient)
to HQ (Happiness Quotient)
• Practically one can’t do the job. Team required
• Interact with others in formal or informal ways
• Today industry requires technical knowledge (domain
knowledge) and soft skills also

12. • Collectively these two are employability skills
• Hard skills for getting Interview call
• Soft skills for success in employment and continuation in it
• The following are the employability skills
1. Hard skills (Knowledge)
– Technical knowledge
– Functional knowledge
– Domain knowledge
– Core skills
– General Aptitude
– English writing skill
– Basic IT

13. 2. Soft Skills
– Personal management
– Professional skills
– Positive Attitude
– Employee needs
– A – Attitude
– S – Skills
– K – Knowledge
• Technical and domain are knowledge areas
• English and IT are skill areas

14. • A person’s behaviour is reflected through his soft skills
• Knowledge enhancement can be measured
• Skill enhancement can be measured
• Behavioural change is very difficult to measure
• It can be experienced
• Technical / functional skills are acquired in the Institute as part
of curriculum
• Domain knowledge can be acquired through industry exposure

15. • Core skills are general aptitude, basic English and basic IT skills
without which, a person may be considered illiterate
• General Aptitude can be acquired through reading newspaper,
magazine, Internet, TV
• Basic spoken English is must have skill
• Basic written English is must have skill
• Basic IT skills must possess
• Computers have pervaded every business and being able to use
word processing tools, spread sheets, presentation tools,
send/receive mails and surf internet are considered part of being
literate

16. • General Aptitude can be acquired through reading newspaper,
magazine, Internet, TV
• Basic spoken English is must have skill
• Basic written English is must have skill
• Basic IT skills must possess
• Computers have pervaded every business and being able to use
word processing tools, spread sheets, presentation tools,
send/receive mails and surf internet are considered part of being
literate

17. • Personal management skills enhance the productivity of a
person. They are:
1) Time Management
2) Stress Management
3) Work life balance
4) Personal quality
• Professional skills help a manager perform his role in a
professional manner

18. The following skills are a must for professionals:
1) Goal setting
2) Problem solving techniques
3) Customer orientation
4) Performance Management
5) Business writing
6) Presentation skills
7) People Management
8) Coaching
9) Business Etiquette
10) Conducting effective Meeting

19. 11) Negotiation skills
12) Art of delegation
13) Strategic planning
14) Selling skills
15) Telephone handling skills
16) Decision making
17) Basic Business Metrics
18) Conflict handling
19) Change Management

20. • Soft skills are behavioural skills
• They are important which impact employability
20) Positive attitude
21) EI
22) Communication skills
23) Positive personality
24) Interpersonal skills
25) Motivation
26) Leadership skills
27) Team work
28) Social etiquette
29) Assertiveness

21. • The above skill sets are required for employment
• Institutes focus on technical knowledge as part of the syllabus
• Some institutes also teach personality development, facing
interviews, group discussions etc. in addition to domain
knowledge
• Soft skills help students to be able to cross the selection hurdle
• That is why, I say firmly that lot still to be done to make sure
that the students become employable and remain employed
• With Govt. resources, the challenge can’t be faced

22. • Concerted effort on the part of all stakeholders in the
education process required ------ the students, the educational
institutions, the Govt. bodies and the industry
• Recommendations:
1) Bring vocational courses:
• This will address knowledge and skill gap in the vocational
streams
• China has 4000 different courses at the school level which
provide opportunity to students to choose and develop skills in
the area of their interest and aptitude from an early age

23. 2) Start internship that gets students confident
• The earlier they start, the better would be their personality
development and acclimatisation with the world
3) Involve private sector as it is practically impossible for the govt.
to give employment to all
4) Teach employability skills to students
• Modify the syllabus for more hands-on, practise based skill
development
• List competencies required across industries
• This could be the basis for designing the right syllabus

24. • There is a need to supplement the knowledge being important
in our institutions with practical knowledge, exposure to
Industry, real world issues, skill based trainings, behavioural
skills, IT skills, communication etc.
• Create right diagnostic tools to identify the skill gaps vis-à-vis
competency framework, so that appropriate learning
interventions could be designed
• The gap analysis would throw up areas where groups of
individuals could be imparted specific learning support
• Create syllabus for different industry needs

25. • There should be more choices available to students to pick and
choose subjects of their own choice, rather than doing what is
available
5) Massive, planned, regular FDPs (Faculty Development
Programmes) must be undertaken
• Faculty are the most critical component
6) Make it attractive for Industry people to join academics
7) Better industry – academia relationship:
• The Industry is direct customer for the products of education
institutions
8) Have an accreditation system to allow professional agency to
accredit Institutions

26. • Make it mandatory for all the colleges to get external, industry
led accreditation and not by Govt. bodies
9) Modernise Institutions:
• So that students find it interesting to go there
• Create a level playing field
• Develop technology infrastructure and tools to make learning
interesting
10) Allow foreign Universities to set up shop here
• Increased competition will lead to better quality of our own
colleges

27. • To conclude:
• The road ahead is not rosy
• The kind of activism shown by our present leadership like RUSA,
SSA, EQUIP, signs are positive
• The real challenge is to improve the quality of education to
students
• There is a long way to go before we turn around the corner
• High time to address quality of faculty, the continuous upgradation
of syllabus, the teaching methodology etc.
• With RUSA, the signs are positive now
• Let us keep our fingers crossed

29. Thank You
Carpe diem
Seize the day, make the most of today, enjoy the present.