Role of Skills in Employability of Youth

Today India is among the fast developing economies in the world and with liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation it is poised to grow further. But the question arises whether we are really ready for this growth? Whether our students are skilled enough to compete worldwide and be a partner in this growth mechanism? The answer is big ‘No’. It is a fact that education, lifelong learning and training are essential, but by themselves inadequate to help individuals gain good and decent jobs. The employability scenario of graduates in India is undoubtedly an area of great concern. One thing is missing in Indian education system that it fails to help students recognize why they are studying a particular subject and what are their strong points and how they will go to impact the society. So, training and skills development should be an important part of broad policies relating to labour market, economy and social in order to have sustainable job growth & social development. Policies relating to skills development as well as training should be framed in such a manner that they promote equal opportunities for male and female candidates and help in eliminate poverty. The industry, for its part, blames the educational institution for passing out graduates who have very restricted interaction and interface with the real environment of work, making them ‘unemployable’ unless they are re-skilled and re-trained. The present study attempts to highlights the reasons of low employability and analyse the skills which employers need in his organisation. The study tries to highlight the steps to develop the skills among the students. At the end the paper puts up concrete suggestions for improving the employability among the graduates of Indian colleges and universities.