Introduction
The famous unemployment problem among youth is an alarming phase for any nation and the situation is dreadful when the unemployed youth holds a degree. This leads a country towards a temporized and submerging economy.It’s quite natural to expect something fruitful from any sort of investment in your day-to-day life. When it comes to investing in education it’s even more important to receive an outcome that matches your expectations since it’s more of a long term investment. When it’s a high involvement service resulting in unemployment, it is not only disappointing but also affects the growth and development of an economy, both in monetary and social terms.
Who is accountable for the problem of declining employment?
Some of the major reasons for educated unemployment are discussed below. Besides the following reasons, there are things like neglection of entrepreneurship, a decline of small scale industries, a hitch in thought process etc that account to this important concern.
#1 Competition and Unemployment
India is a young nation. The youth below 20 years of age is 54 crore which contributes to 41% population of India’s total population. There are 6.8 crore Bachelor degree holders in India. Every year 30 lakh students become a Bachelor or Master degree holders. One out of every three graduate in India is unemployed, 25% and 17% of job searching aspirants are in the age limit of 20-24 years and 25-29 years respectively. The mounted applicants make it tough for the recruiters to judge the right candidate for the job.
#2 Inefficient skills
Every year recruiters visit institutions for hiring the suitable candidate to fill a vacant position in the company but they taste disappointment as the applicants lack the required skill sets which the hiring authority expects from the job aspirant. This is another problem since the applicant lacks the caliber that the employer wants in the employee. The employer looks out for someone who is a trouble shooter, team player, and problem solver. Toyota created a list of 170 skill sets that an employee must know and understand in an auto manufacturing context.
#3 Education system
The Indian education system promotes the practice of reservation where students belonging to lower and backward caste (SC, ST, OBC) get educational, financial, employment concession. The central-government funded higher education institutions provide reserved seats to 7.5% STs, 15% to SCs and 27% reservation to OBCs. In India, every year thousands of students apply for JEE (one of the toughest exams in India) and the reservation system hits the winning shot for the STs, SCs and OBCs as they need to score only around 25, 32 and 47 marks to indicate their ability for admissions in engineering institutions but the GC (General category) students have to score around 110 marks to secure a seat in the engineering colleges.
The education system in India has multiple educational bodies viz. CBSE, ICSE and state boards. Each board has its own syllabus pattern and grading system which creates a big gulf in acquiring knowledge.
#4 Mentality
The young minds in India are suffering from a comic ailment. They have been brainwashed that for a blissful life they need to have a high revenue job which only an engineering or a medical degree can give them. The theory of having a degree for a happy and successful life is annihilating young souls. The degree bullet has impaired virgin minds and made them believe that a bachelor degree is a basis and basic mantra of life. Students combat for something which they mightn’t even need ever in their life but The Great Indian Society nails the fear of survival in the death of a graduate degree and the real passion of the student remains buried in the inside. This recalcitrant attitude drags the student into the wrong field and they lack the actual potential and skills expected.
What can be done?
- One-third employers do not interact with the educational institutions and 15% of employers communicate once in a month. The employers and institutions must communicate and step into each other’s world to fill up the gap and sort out the inefficiency in the procedure of hiring the students.
- The youth feels unprepared because they believe that institutions teach skills not matching with those needed in the corporate sector which leads to an inferiority complex in students. The students lack the appropriate training skills that the recruiter demands when hiring a job applicant.
- Majority of the masses are not aware of entrepreneurship, the advantages, and prestige that is vested in the term. Going around and spreading awareness through campaigns could be a great initiative to tackle this issue.
- A variety of subjects and employment opportunities need to be accepted as regular in the society. This is where the root cause to a lot of issues lies.