Is higher education in India preparing our students for the real world? Surveys in the recent years have time and again revealed that less than one-third of the young population joining the workforce has the employability skills that employers are looking for. Two things are clear. First, that there is a significant gap in demand and supply. Second, that if things are to change, the change needs to occur on the supply side.
So what defines ‘employability’? According to the widely quoted India Skills Report 2015, which surveyed 125 employers across India, the top five skills that employers are looking for are domain expertise, integrity and values, learning agility, interpersonal and communication skills. Other reports in the past have mentioned similar traits, including problem-solving and adaptability.
The need for these qualities is born out of the new world we live in. This is a world that is defined by fast-paced change, tougher competition, constant innovation, a deluge of information, ambiguity, continuous strides in technology and problems more complex than ever before.
Most academic institutions, however, have either not recognised that they are out of sync with the real world or have not yet understood how to reinvent themselves. No wonder at the end of an expensive programme, which takes up the best years of their lives, students are bewildered and frustrated when far from landing their dream jobs, they find themselves unemployable.
Why Is Domain Expertise A Challenge?One answer to this is that most of our education still relies on rote as opposed to real learning. The curriculum is limited to academic rather than practical knowledge.
Another answer lies in the fact that people today do not stay in one job or one industry throughout their lives. One could start by studying economics, become a data analyst, work in agriculture, and end up doing 3-D printing. While a student would have reasonably deep knowledge of the one discipline he has studied, it is virtually impossible to have the same depth across sectors or functions. This is where learning agility comes in.
Students need to be able to constantly unlearn, learn, and relearn. They need to have the skills and mindset to adapt and quickly build expertise in new areas.
Why Smart People Struggle With Problem SolvingMany students who score high grades during their school and college and ace admission tests suddenly find themselves out of their depth when solving problems at the work place.
Challenges that organisations face today require employees to absorb and sift through vast amounts of data, recognise patterns, and fix issues that lie at the intersection of disciplines. Every situation is unique and a solution that works in one might be completely unsuitable for another. There are no right answers.
Problem-solving that schools teach is still tailored to a world that is black-and white. Problem-solving that organisations need straddles the whole spectrum.
Are Integrity And Values Teachable?At first glance these appear to be outside the domain of an educational curriculum. One would imagine these would be part of a person’s upbringing, and to a large extent, they are. However, education can and must play a role in creating awareness about the importance of leading oneself.
What this means is imparting a code of ethics, teaching the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions and learning how to make judgments especially when faced with tough choices, and helping students introspect to become conscious of their individual behavioral patterns and the potential consequences of these patterns.
Leading oneself also has an element of making a contribution to others, to your country, and to the world. This requires being sensitive to issues such as discrimination and exploitation.
Why Is There So Much Emphasis On Soft Skills?At all times, we are part of an ecosystem where we have to work with others. Almost every role in every field relies on teamwork and collaboration. Students have to learn to listen to others, communicate their views effectively (both verbally and in writing), influence, build trust, establish relationships, motivate and inspire.
The fact is, yesterday’s soft skills are today’s hard skills. They are a must-have. Employers assess candidates on their interpersonal abilities. Sadly, very few educational programmes take this into account.
How Do We Close The Gap?It is obvious that higher education in general and MBA and career-focused programmes in particular, need to rethink their purpose. If they are to fulfil their stated objective of creating leaders of the future, they must change their traditional approach of imparting knowledge and focus on a holistic development of individuals.
We need curricula that incorporate practical knowledge, critical thinking through reading, writing, research, discussions and debates, emotional intelligence, experiential learning, and self-awareness. Students must get exposure to a range of real world scenarios from the grass-roots in villages to the corner offices in glass buildings.
Equally, if not more important, is mentoring and guidance that helps students identify their strengths and discover their area of passion, which could lie in the more obvious choices such as fintech or healthcare or in less often considered opportunities in the public or social sectors and even politics. Finally, giving them an opportunity to interact with successful professionals and leaders from various fields who share with them their journeys can help students draw inspiration and better prepare for what lies ahead.
New programmes such as the ‘reimagined MBA’ of the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women are beginning to do this. But we need many more such courses if we are to realise India’s huge potential for economic growth and the crying need for social development by tapping into our biggest asset — the youngest population in the world.
The author, Pramath Raj Sinha, is founding dean of ISB and a founder and trustee of Ashoka University(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 14-12-2015)
