Effective Education for Employment

Creating A Culture Of Learning

It is vitally important for learners and employees to have a passion for self-development. It is unreasonable to expect education to provide individuals with all the technical and functional skills employers need as they change so rapidly. If employees are able and keen to learn, businesses are often happy to take on the burden of training.

The Increasing Role Of Women

Women are playing an increasingly vital role in meeting the skills demands of business and industry in India. They are also considered to be stronger than men in some of the soft skills areas that are so vital, for example team building, leadership and communication. This trend is particularly noticeable in service-oriented sectors.

Business Leading The Design And Delivery Of Education

There are a number of reasons why businesses are increasingly becoming educators. The education system in India is generally viewed as being ineffective, bureaucratic and over-regulated. The only way to fill the talent gap is for businesses to educate people themselves. It means they can design the teaching programme; they also have greater access to the right tools and technologies and can offer a much more productive learning environment (i.e. the workplace). There are some issues, though. Levels of investment and work vary across sectors and companies. Also, many of these qualifications are not currently certified, which means it is difficult for employees to exploit the value of their qualification outside the company where they learnt them. Furthermore, companies will inevitably focus on harder skills that arespecific to the job at hand rather than developing vital soft skills.

The Value Of Certified Education And Training

A lot of education (particularly vocational) is seen as too theoretical with not enough of a connection to the workplace. Employers can be suspicious of the value of a particular qualification as it may not be a good measure of whether the individual can do a job. There are also few high-quality courses in specialised areas such as gaming or animation, which means these types of skills either need to be taught from scratch by employers or individuals need to go overseas.

The Cross-cultural Challenges Of The New Economy

Rapid growth and unprecedented change has created some new cultural issues. For example, the significant increase of women in management level roles has caused some issues in sections of (male) society where it is not acceptable for men to be 'subservient' to women. There is therefore a general need to develop more managers who have the ability and sensitivity to deal with cross-cultural issues.

Focusing On The Creative, Ideas And Knowledge Economy

It is generally accepted that India needs more 'knowledge workers' and that, for economic growth to continue at current levels, there should be a greater emphasis on creativity and innovation. These skills are in extremely short supply and, while the need to develop such skills is clear, what is less clear is the extent to which these skills are successfully being taught through education. India needs to equip itself more effectively in order to develop and exploit this new emphasis on 'cognitive capital'.

The Perishable Nature Of Skills Values

The sheer pace of change in the Indian economy is forcing people to rethink the way professional education is designed. There is a sense that the traditional pathways from education to work no longer apply. Individuals change careers throughout their working lives, and the requirements within a particular role also change regularly. There is, therefore, a need to retrain continually in order to 'top up' required skills. This situation may necessitate different types of training courses - perhaps shorter 'nano-training' - which can be accessed whenever it is needed and delivered in a flexible and personalised way.

The Value Of Soft Skills But A Difficulty In Measuring Them

Vital elements in the ongoing development of the workforce include good communication skills, the ability to work in a team, confidence in your own ideas and the capability and attitude to continuously learn. However, there is some debate around soft skills, how (and even if) these skills can be taught, where this teaching should take place and how skills can be measured and certified. There is a notion that the employer should not necessarily be the one to develop basic soft skills in employees but that one of the best places to develop such skills is on-the-job. Also, respondents stated that it is often difficult to know whether a recruitment candidate has these skills. The skills are difficult to test, and there is little in the way of certified training to prove a candidate has them.

The Lack Of Talented Managers

The rapid expansion in business numbers and size across India has led to an increase in demand for management-level individuals. Individuals who may have taken 10 years or more to progress in an organisation now reach the level of middle or senior management much quicker. Managers are younger than ever and, as a consequence, they often lack the necessary experience.

Qualities Valued By Employers In India

• High aspirations
• A sense of responsibility for oneself and others
• The right applicable domain knowledge
• An ability to handle information, extract meaning and make decisions
• A desire to learn
• Visual communication and observation skills - recognising visual clues, body language
• Creative and innovative
• A great team worker
• Precision and accuracy in work
• The ability to multi-task
• Honesty and integrity
• The ability to have ideas and communicate them