The results of recent survey conducted, by a talent assessment organization for the India, says that almost 85% of those who had completed higher education were not equipped with enough information to take a career decision. According to the respondents, 50% of them seek information to make career decisions for employment from colleges, followed by 21% from online resources, and 17% sought help from immediate and extended family members. 85% of the candidates also admitted that internships with different roles and in different industries will help their career take a better direction.
Many also felt that Employer Connect or Job Fairs at colleges are the best approach to land their first job. 37% were of the view that excellent communications skills would give them an edge in starting a great career, whereas 30% believe it is industry exposure. 19% of the respondents believe that co-curricular activities will help them kick-start a great career post-college.
Higher education should include job- friendly syllabus
Another study on higher education suggests that 67 per cent of Indian students feel that their existing university curriculum fails at relevant training and development. Moreover, 59 per cent of the surveyed students denied having any access to employability and career services at their institution. The study looked at the Indian Higher Education framework from the perspectives of the five major educational stakeholder groups — higher Education leadership, students, employers, policy-makers and NGOs.
E-Learning can transform education
India needs a massification and vocationalization of higher education at a cost that only online learning can do. Many educators agree online learning can transform education, but they don’t know how. Textbook and PowerPoint repackaged e-learning—the digital equivalent of paving the cow path rather than building a highway—mean that, so far, online offerings have not been able to blunt the obvious downsides of physical classrooms (one size fits all, huge costs, uneven teacher quality, etc.) despite obvious advantages (teaching with different speeds to people with different backgrounds and different starting points, class of one, cost, on-the-go, on-demand, crowdsourced and gamified.
Will private academies expand job prospects?
As per the All India Survey on Higher Education 2014-15 report, private sector accounts for 76% of higher education institutions in India. Though this keeps the cost of education relatively high, experts say it also boosts quality and competition as private universities are more flexible in designing industry-oriented courses, thereby boosting employability.
Autonomy status to higher education institutions not the right path
The common psyche behind implementing an autonomous regulation is to privatize and commercialize education and mimic the behaviour of private engineering colleges. Raising the fees and privatizing education under the garb of “we are freeing you” would eventually filter out the meritorious from the non-deserving. Class is not a new category to be introduced as a deciding factor in this overarching determination of who gets to study; it has been a pivotal part of the education system in India.
Transforming stage of technology in the education sector
Technology is transforming education in multifarious ways in India. There is a marked shift from book learning to smart digital / e learning. E-learning helps students to learn more and better anytime anywhere, empowering teachers to develop innovative instructional aides and methods, to driving educational institutes to cross the digital divide – technology is underpinning the edu-tech revolution in India. A new world of learning for students in an empowering way with technology support is round the corner.
India is all set to become the world’s youngest country by 2020 with 64 per cent of its population in the working age group. With an increasing number of graduates entering the market every day and limited job opportunities, only those with value-added resumes will pass muster with businesses and employers. Virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence-based platforms are still 2-3 years away from becoming ubiquitous in learning. However, the trend will get more potent in 2018-19.