'Education should be in sync with industry needs'

NEW DELHI: Barely 20% of Indian engineers are found employable by India Inc. ITeS industry filters through thousands of resume to find barely 3-7% of graduates who could be hired. Even as India Inc gears for the big growth, out-of-sync education system, poor grounding in colleges and poor employability skills is making a farce of the country’s workforce.

Perhaps, we should not forget that India’s education system, its middle class’ fascination with degrees and academics are in some way responsible for the country’s sizzling growth.

“One thing that makes India stand out is the education levels of its people,” says Peter Bakker, CEO, TNT Netherlands. Mr Bakker was speaking at a session on “Building a skilled workforce”, at the India Economic Summit. He said such a fast pace of growth, in any economy, will stretch resources, no matter how many people there are.

But there is no denying that quality of education will be a bigger issue going forward as the Indian economic engine zips ahead.

“There is a huge diversity in education standards — across various education institutions,” said Soumen Basu, executive chairman, Manpower Services. And that needs to be urgently addressed. The education system will also need to be more in sync with the industry’s needs, he added.

Imparting softer skills, some kind of vocational training for school/college dropouts will help unemployed Indians find jobs and ease of talent pressure for corporate India, the panelists said.