Education For Employment – Addressing The Employability Skills Gap

 

By Prof JA Kulkarni

“What is employability? ‘Employability’ refers to a person’s capability of gaining employment. On the one hand person’s employability depends on the knowledge, skills and attitudes of this person. On the other hand labor market rules and institutions have significant impact on the ability of an individual to gain employment.

Employability remains a difficult concept to measure and define. In simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work. For the individual, employability depends on the knowledge, skills and attitudes they possess, the way they use those assets and present them to employers and the context. There are two types of individuals entering the labor market – those who will do anything to get a top job are classified as ‘players’ whilst those with more of a moral code are called ‘purists’.

Increasingly, individuals can no longer expect a ‘job for life’, with careers anchored around single jobs and organizations. Employees instead have to take a more flexible and proactive approach to their working lives, involving the management of their own employability.

‘Employability’ as a criteria is relatively simple or measurable in areas such as IT&ITES wherein the knowledge and interpretative capabilities of the students are well-defined and help decide their suitability to a job opportunity.

The employment capability or suitability in case of specialized aspects in certain branches of engineering & medical studies pre-decides the eligibility for employment supported by the merit displayed by the candidates in their internships & practical examinations.

The major problems for employability are encountered in disciplines of business management subjects, wherein, much of the job related knowledge is acquired after employment gets only roughly scrutinized initially is the flare, interest, core knowledge of the area of operations besides capabilities in communication and suitability to organizational culture etc.

It is very difficult for the recruiter to decide on the suitability or employability of such students merely based on their certificates and their makeup for the interviews. Employment decisions have to be based on the consistency of merit in the examinations, the candidate’s ability to grasp and answer effectively the questions which help in ascertaining the basic suitability and the minimum time the candidate will take to learn in and start contributing on the job.

Addressing the Employability Gap

It is therefore very necessary that all the elements (especially students) involved in creating this capability for employment, understand the fundamentals which need to be strengthened during the process of education for employment. No amount of puppeteering, or window dressing is likely to help create employment capabilities unless the fundamental & specific needs of the Industries who provide employment are clearly understood and are inculcated as reference points & as a major part of the curricula and assessment tools for capability building through formal business management studies. Periodical interventions from industry experts to evaluate the process and progress of capability creation exercise (MBA Studies for e.g.) is essential to understand the critical gaps and initiate corrective steps in time to avoid wrong or unsuitable product reaching the market and getting rejected by the employer.

The Indian Scenario

A World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 report said that India will face huge skills gaps in some job categories due to low employability over the next 20 years and also warned of a looming global labor crisis. The report said that increasing mobility among countries will be a key part of the solution.

Despite high unemployment, the global economy has entered a decade of unparalleled talent scarcity, the report added. If left unaddressed, it will put a brake on economic growth in both developed and developing countries, the report said.

Today’s high unemployment rates mask longer-term talent shortages that may affect both developing and developed countries for decades,” said Piers Cumberlege, senior director, partnership, at the World Economic Forum.

In addition to fueling their countries of origin with remittance funds, many expatriates eventually decide to return home armed with skills and business acumen developed abroad. Receiving countries benefit from the contribution of highly skilled migrant workers to their economies. The report calls on governments, companies, educational institutions and international organizations to collaborate systematically to address talent shortages and increase talent mobility.

Countries need to prepare for demographic shifts and a fast-changing labor market environment by defining adequate education and migration policies. Assess current and anticipate future skills shortages through strategic skills planning. Governments and industry associations should analyze capacity and productivity risks for each job type, such as mechanical engineers, and develop policies to mitigate anticipated shortfalls. Develop skills recognition mechanisms for native-born and migrant workers. Governments should invest in workforce development and ensure migrants are properly employed given their skills and work experiences. Design inclusive and comprehensive migration policies from students to experienced workers. Governments should ensure the proper integration of migrants, provide them with employment and language support and facilitate the portability of pension and social benefits. Companies should make talent planning and management a priority and invest in global leadership development and management training.

Stronger Education & Skills Required to Fight the Employability Crisis

Youth unemployment and underemployment have reached critical levels and are expected to continue to rise in most G20 economies. Yet many employers cannot find enough people with the skills they need to grow their business and enable the economy to recover, according to a recent report by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) titled ‘Addressing the Employability Crisis’.

The report says this is threatening the global economic recovery and could lead to a “lost generation” of young adults. It talks about a need to forge stronger links between academia and business, education and skills, theory and practice, supply and demand to fight the employability crisis.

High levels of unemployment coincide with skill shortages, and talented people will be in short supply in many economies. Significant talent gaps are expected by 2020 and beyond.

There’s a disconnect between education, skills and jobs. For many young people, education is not providing the skills they need to gain the employment they aspire to. Many job aspirants lack the technical and professional skills demanded by the changing job market. This disconnect is impacting a range of stakeholders – young adults, employees, employers, educators and policy makers – the greatest impact being for the young people.

Underlining the responsibilities of stakeholders, young adults need to make informed choices about further education, based on realities of the labor market and must aim to obtain the education skills and experience employers expect. The current workforce needs to undertake continuing professional development to maintain or advance career. Employers need to compete to attract the most talented individuals with leadership potential. They should attract, ‘onboard’, develop and retain talent for all job roles, not just future leadership.

Conclusion

Educators need to integrate employability skills into courses and work more closely with employers to complement academic learning while society and policy makers need to ensure they have right data to make decisions and stimulate economy and foster job creation and also ensure young people have skills employers expect and link education to business.

Also read:

The Employability Conundrum: Understanding The Skills-Job Gap

 

About the Author:

Prof J A Kulkarni is Associate Professor at ASM Group Pune and International Director – International Society-Organization Development & Change (ISODC) USA. He has rich industry experience of over 30 years at senior management level in Operations, Quality & Process in companies including Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Whirlpool and Bajaj Auto.

Prof Kulkarni is a visiting faculty for MBA and has presented over 25 research papers in international conferences and has authored three books on management. He has also developed about 200 case studies including 25 field search case studies on Indian and Mexican industries.   

His awards and honours include ‘Academic Excellence Award 2017 by ICBM AMP as Best Professor in Strategic Management’. He was listed in the ‘World’s Who’s Who 1996 edition of Marquees USA.

Besides a successful faculty, Prof Kulkarni has been a meritorious student and top ranker through school and college. He earned a gold medal for his BE in Mechanical Engineering and went on to pursue MBA (General Management) from Germany followed by advanced courses in management from ASCI Hyderabad and IIM Kozhikode.