Indians are half literate, says study

If there is no change in the present system of post-graduate education, India is certain to face a ‘talent gap’ — lack of the right skills for the job required. According to a study by Nasscom, most educated Indians are only half-literate, meaning that they lack employable skills. The findings reveal that tech companies reject up to 90 per cent of graduates and 75 per cent engineers because they are considered “not worth training”.

Agreeing that there is a need to build bridges between industry, education and skill providers, Ashok Srinivasan, VP, operations support, Expertus, points out that there is an urgent requirement to build skills, as they need to keep up with the global culture. These include up-to-date technical ability, problem-solving and analysis, self management, and knowledge about one’s field.

He says, “Most of the college graduates are not good enough because of a lack of job-oriented training. In fact, that’s why a majority of engineering colleges today are investing in C2C (Campus to Company) programmes so that the students become more employable.”

R. Jagdeep Kumar, a student feels that more field training will help them gain an edge during recruitments. “It’s not that we are not trained by our educational institutes. It’s just that colleges need to provide us with more field-based projects and internships which will help us understand our industry better,” he says.

However, Vijay Kumar Jayaram, CEO, Simer Corporation, feels that it’s the educational system which needs a revamp. “We need to distill skills for employability and put them on top of the agenda for inclusion in the curriculum. It’s the mentors who need to play an active role in bridging the gap between book knowledge and practical education.”