Employed persons and Higher education
Present day education system
The most tragic failure in our education system, whether we agree or not, is the lack of employability empowerment. This is associated with lack of career guidance and career planning. Most of the students now a days run for degrees which are more popular in the market rather which they want to excel. In many cases most of the people will have I might have done that, feeling and believe every thing is fate.
The success is for the persons who are ready to understand and accept the present situation and ready for change. Here comes the requirement of post employment learning.
An analysis of present day education and employment
For the last 10 years most of the students are running behind two major segments in education,
Engineering mainly IT
Management mainly MBA
Initially the market was ready to absorb all graduated, as there was huge demand against the availability. All were recruited and earned irrespective of their ability to execute and derive results. But as education started becoming more business than information sharing and equipping , more institutions came up with facilities and students started lining up there. The supply increased against demand , competition started playing a big role. The situation has come, where the prospect is interrogated, not interviewed, on their ability to accomplish a business goal on a most competitive environment, the students started feeling the heat.
There were a sudden increase in the supply and the quality was questionable. Most of the institutions were running on information sharing basis and the students will complete the course with marks. Most of them failed in jobs and employers fired them. The basic reasons for such a situation were
Lack of skills :
Most of the students opted for management courses without even knowing why they need that? and what they are going to do with that? Most of them simply went for such courses, still doing, only because others are going. People with proper planning cannot use effectively the qualifications they have, so they will fail.
High competition :
when the number increased the competition also increased. There were many applicants for lesser opportunities. Employers started asking for the name of institutions from where they graduated, internships undergone, projects done, candidates started getting sidelined. Candidates from elite or good colleges started getting employments others started getting sidelined or got only jobs which can only by others.
Failure to adapt :
As the education system adopted by the institution remained more or less on information sharing style, the candidates were not trained to adapt fast changing corporate atmosphere and requirements. The demands from corporate were more and more result oriented and practical, the candidates were not able to cope with. Most of the candidates at this juncture surrendered to their fate and started adjusting. Colleges who were more responsible for such a failure, were also not ready to change and continued with the same teaching method with academicians. Corporate world continuously made it more clear that they are not ready to take mere certificate holders on employment, they need people who can deliver and adapt to different situations. Continous interaction with the corporate world enlisted the following minimum requirements for equipping the students for the challenges
career guidance should be curriculum activity and should not be a time pass
soft skills training is a must by experts, more importance should be given on communication.
career planning and fine tuning should be done , so that the students will be able to focus on the future.
The mix of faculties should be more industry experienced and necessary academicians.
Industry interactions and intern ships should be part of learning process.
The learning style should not be teaching style , it should be guidance style. The faculty should be a coach not a teacher.
Explore, try, do, fail/succeed, correct, learn method should be adopted rather than writing the answer and securing marks.
Training should be focused on making them understand the real life management encounters and the ways to handle.
