INCREASING EMPLOYABILITY

AMONGST YOUTH

o RISHI KUMAR RANA-TEAM COORDINATOR

o NITIN CHOUDHARY

o MANAS KUMAR

o PUSHKAR CHOUDHARY

o VIKRAM KUMAR

TEAM

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT : AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Unemployment is the inability of labor-force participants to find jobs.

To make full use of available production capacity, the labor force must be fully employed..

Youth unemployment and underemployment is prevalent around the world because young people lack skills, work experience,

job search abilities and the financial resources to find employment.

In developing countries, this situation is exacerbated by poverty and the competitive pressures that result from a rapidly

growing labour force.

Globally, young people are, therefore, more likely to be unemployed or employed on more precarious contracts or in the informal

sector.

These challenges are evident in India, which has the largest youth population in the world with around 66 per cent of the total

population under the age of 35.

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Causes of unemployment in india

With a population as big as ours, with wealth distribution as it is, pointing out a generalized list of things that cause unemployment in

India is an affront to good economic study, Instead of focusing on the causes, it is infinitely more beneficial to study the different factors

that contribute to the double digit unemployment in India. Working with such a framework lets us study bot the contributing factors as

well as their interconnected consequences.

Nº1. There aren’t enough jobs

The most obvious, yet the biggest defining symptom of the state of unemployment in India is the fact that there aren’t enough jobs.

The major contributing factor to this problem would be the one-two punch delivered by the slow pace of development and the recent

shift in resource allocation for existing resources. Case in point, the decline in manufacturing jobs in the Punjab and the rise in services

jobs in Gurgaon & the NCR.

Nº2. Fewer new jobs & Youth Unemployment In India

If the problem of the existing workforce being benched wasn’t bad enough, the unchecked (and still rising) population of the country is

putting a heavy load on the infrastructure of the country which includes the capitalist and industrial mechanism as well.

The growth rate of the population wouldn’t be so bad if a considerable portion of them weren’t plagued by malnutrition, rampant

,illiteracy and succumbing .While the economy might be growing by a decent sum, the population, more importantly the uneducated

and unhealthy are growing at a faster rate. This is something we, as a country just can’t work our way out of.

A good lead in this direction, one that has been promised by the Indian government, would be similar to China’s ‘One Child, One

Family’ Law. The Indian motto of ‘Hum Do, Hamare Do’ was an unequivocal disaster compared to the Chinese initiative.

Nº3. Shifting Industry Priorities Have Exacerbated the Problem of Unemployment in India

The times, they’re a chaining. And for once, India is managing to keep up with the rest of the world, even lead the charge if you ask

some economists.The world’s industrial hubs have been divided between the BRICS countries and the demarcation of the where the

industries are heading is clear as daylight to anyone paying attention.

India, obviously has become the software and services out-sourcing hub of the world. If you’re looking for India’s Brazil, then you’ll

have to go beyond the confines of the BRICS. The Philippines comes in at a distant second. If India were to ever lose out place as the

leader in services and software outsourcing, it would be of our own according.

Nº4. Unemployment Problems in India as a result of the commoditization of the green revolution

Hooray! There is new demand in the country. All the programmers and call center employees have to eat don’t they? The local farmer

is about to strike gold!Unless Monsanto comes in. Or if the farmer with the larger bits of land decides to import American combine-

tractors by the score. What do you do then? Since you can’t afford the money for the tractors, or get a loan, you decide to put everyone

in your family on the job.The slow growth rate of agriculture and the influx of larger corporations has lead to a form of unemployment

endemic to India and is one of those things that truly characterizes poverty and unemployment in india.

Nº5. Educated Unemployment in India – Can read and write but unable to find a stable job?

The thing about the educated unemployed is that they’ve been served up the short end of the stick. The state of W.E. literacy in India is

so dismal educated and literate are used interchangeably. While education and unemployment in India, along with poverty have long

been the proverbial albatross around our nation’s neck, the dynamic that these three problems share is evolving rapidly.

This is a problem that has however become limited to Tier 3 cities over the last decade. In many cases, as long as you can read and

write, you should be able to start at about twice as much as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police form the leading paragraph is offering up.

LABOUR FORCE

Different labour market indicators provide various insights into the overall situation facing young people in a country like India that,

despite the strong economic growth rate, continues to be dominated by the unorganized sector

AGE

CATEGORY

RURAL URBAN

Male Female Person Male Female person

youth 15-19 39.0 19.5 30.4 26.3 8.5 18.3

20-24 81.3 31.4 55.7 68.2 19.7 45.0

25-29 97.5 40.4 67.5 94.7 22.2 59.1

15-29 68.0 30.2 49.6 61.0 16.8 40.1

Non -youth 30-59 98.2 47.2 72.8 96.9 24.4 62.0

total 15-59 84.8 39.9 62.6 80.9 21.0 52.3

Labour force participation rate (%) of youth and adults, 2009-10

WHY WE SHOULD SHOW OUR CONCERNS TOWARDS THIS PROBLEM?

As in this modern world our country is totally dependent on its resources , and as we know that “youth” is one of the biggest

resources a country has. In order to develop in every field a nation needs to enhance the level of practical knowledge among the

youth. Unemployment is the major problem that youth is facing nowadays, thus the government should show there concern

towards this chronic problem.

In order to invoke the interest of the government we should acknowledge this fact to them and convey them in every way as

possible. The government of India was not even measuring the unemployment rates before 2008. Yes, there were statistics but

they were all guesstimations sprinkled with data gathered form the Statutory and Voluntary Returns that were blended into the

Usual Principal Status Basis. As far as internationally accepted norms of unemployment measures go, the Labor Bureau of the

Government of India put out its first ratified report with a survey on the unemployment levels in India in 2009. This is the first

report of its kind both in scope of process and with regards to casting the statistical net wider than what the National Sample

Survey Organization, which would provide data to the Labor Bureau in the past would have done. The most obvious, yet

the biggest defining symptom of the state of unemployment in India is the fact that there aren’t enough

jobs. Compound that with the fact that there aren’t enough new job vacancies being created. Let us see

some of the surveys done by the NSSO of India.

Usual status: unemployed for the major part of the year, chronic

Weekly status: no work even for 1 hour during survey week

Daily status: unemployment for a day (>4hrs) or few days in survey time.

according to PC, fully employed person is the one with work of 273 days and 8 hours per day in a

year.

64th survey round of NSSO , during 2007-08.

STATUS %RURAL UNEMP RT %URBAN UNEMP RT

USUAL 2.2 4.5

CURRENT DAILY 3.9 5.0

CURRENT WEEKLY 8.4 7.4

Saksham - A youth employment initiative for skill development and livelihood promotion Saksham is a Plan Initiative to support youth, especially young girls from disadvantaged families/communities in India to be able to

realize their dreams by equipping them with essential life and vocational skills, which not only helps them to access decent employment

Decent Work (as def by ILO) but also makes them representatives of a gender just society. Plan India has a strong strategic emphasis on

youth employability. In its 5 year country strategy from 2011 to 2015, Plan’s India aspires to prepare all young men and women to get

formal employment or self employment through market oriented vocational, business and life skills training. It has even gone a step

further and committed through its work over Country Strategy Program (CSP) peri:od. CSP targets for vocational training under

overarching

Household Economic Security are

•50,000 girls will receive market-oriented vocational training

•500,000 women will work their way out of poverty

•Support youth, particularly girls and disadvantaged youth in accessing job oriented vocational and life skills training and job placement

services

•• Support and complement the implementation of government initiatives for promotion of SHGs and other microfinance services

targeting women and disadvantaged households

•• Engage men to create more space for women in decision making in families, communities and local governance

Plan India has launched a number of initiatives which help in enhancing young people’s access to market driven vocational skills.

Objectives of Saksham

•To enable 3,000 girls and boys from poor and disadvantaged communities of Delhi to access decent employment through vocational and

life skills training and get job placement

•To influence government to take it up as an input to revised modular employability scheme Saksham strategies

•(a) Promote job oriented vocational training for young girls and boys through partnership

•(b) Sensitise parents, communities and employers about gender equality, equal opportunity, and economic empowerment of young girls

•(c) Encourage young girls to take up vocational training and develop a trained workforce

•(d) Capacity building of NGO partners to on youth employment and vocational training

Saksham intervention approach

•Saksham focuses on ‘Promotion of market driven job oriented vocational training’. Key intervention approach include

•• Identify potential trades for vocational training through a thorough market study

•• Identify potential employer (of identified vocational trades) closer to each targeted area of operation

•• Create awareness amongst youth about job opportunities in the market and provide career counselling

•• Mobilize/identify suitable youth for appropriate vocational course

•• Provide vocational and life skills training to identified youth

•• Provide job placements to the trained youth

Proposals eligible for funding – The proposals having the following objective

shall be eligible for funding under the scheme :

(i) To provide employable skills to the youth of the region

(ii) To provide them with entrepreneurial skills

(iii) To provide competencies that will enable them to become self-employed.

(iv) To organize job fairs within and outside the region that will specifically involve

the youth from the region.

(v) To disseminate information and counseling on options relating to career,

education including vocational and technical education, both in physical and

electronic form.

(vi) To assist in surveys, evaluation in the field of skills and competencies.

(vii) To assist institutions/organizations in the public/private/non-profit/joint sector

who can assist in testing of competency levels and certification so as to enhance

employability especially in the unorganized sector.

(viii) To assist in providing any other specialized inputs required for human resource

development for building of skills and capacities in any sector that is critical for

the development of the region. To provide technical assistance for development of human resources and

capacity building.

(x) Capacity building of mid level officers of the State Governments,

organizations and institutions under the control of the State

Governments in critical areas where there is poor absorption capacity

such as civil and public health engineering, e-governance, fiscal

management, WTO and export promotion, modern agricultural

practices especially in post harvesting, value addition in agri products.

(xi) Emphasis of the scheme will be on actual delivery of skills and not only on

sensitization or advocacy.

(xii) Any proposal which in the view of Ministry of DONER poses an innovative and

creative way of enhancing the skills and competencies of the people of the North

Eastern Region.

(xiii) In the interest of mainstreaming and integrating the North East, the Ministry will

encourage proposals that seek to train student/youth/officials from the North

East in a common group with participants from other States.

Udaan' for increasing employability of JK youth in corporate sector A high level 2 member team of Tata Consultancy services visited Kashmir university today for the launch of its second TCS Recruitment

drive under Udaan project. Ranjan Bando Upadyay Vice president and Global Head TCS and Monimoy Das Gupta Associate Vice

president and Head Udaan TCS initiative today visited the campus and interacted with Vice - Chancellor Kashmir University

Prof Talat Ahmad , KU students and faculty . The visit was coordinated by Prof Shabir Ahmad Bhat Director Centre for career planning

and counselling. Later while interacting with the local and National Media at KU today the visiting team informed the press how under

the big banner Udaan TCS is focusing on increasing the employability of Kashmiri youth in the corporate sector. They said that

both the government of India and the state government are promoting entrepreneurship amongst the unemployed youth of the valley and

there are various schemes offered by both where in young entrepreneurs can give shape to their creative ideas and conceivable plans of

management”. They informed the press that this year the preferences will be given to graduates and also to encourage women

participation a special women batch will be recruited.

While replying to a question from press , Vice chancellor Kashmir University Prof Talat Ahmad said that under Udaan project there is

provision to provide jobs around 30,000 youth of the valley in various multi national companies (MNCs) across India and the only thing

which these young people need now is to develop taste for mobility so as to travel to various parts of the world.

Prof Talat invited the students to participate in various campus recruitment drives organised by the University and said that several

companies are coming to recruit potential and quality manpower from the valley.

Prof talat said that Udaan aims to enhance the employability skills set and consequently provide employment to 8000 youth over a

period of 5 years. UDAAN seeks at providing well paid jobs to the trained manpower in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode between

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the corporate houses He said . The Centre, State and the Corporate are working in

coordination to make ‘UDAAN’ a success, Prof Talat added.

Prof Shabir A Bhat coordinator of the programme said that his focus will be on enhancing the employability of students through

development of appropriate skills and align higher education with the current and future requirements of industries, enhance

competence and character, building academic partnerships with the reputed institutions and

universities, creating a vibrant academic environment and facilities for pursuing various competitive courses.”

Pertinently TCS was the first company which has signed MOU with national skill development corporation under Udaan project and

also again the first one to recruit the first batch of 80 to 100 youth from the valley where as this year they plan to recruit 200 or more

students.

Expected results

•3,000 youth (at least 1600 girls out of them) from poor and socially excluded families in 5 target areas of Delhi access and complete local

market demand driven vocational and life skills training

•60% of total youth enrolled are girls

•70% of trained youth (70% girls and 70% boys) have access to dignified jobs

•Government department would be sensitised about the ‘market oriented vocational training approach’ which they may adopt for modular

employability scheme.

The complete spectrum of telecom practical skill learning shall be covered by 7 certificate programs (as launched by BSNL training centres on 25

Feb 2013) that are based on dual mode of Learning:

•Broadly, the learning of students shall be certified as below: 1. BSNL Silver Certified Engineer: Successful completion of Digital Switching System, Transmission Switching System and Telecom Support Infrastructure certificate programs in fifth semester. 2. BSNL Gold Certified Engineer: Successful completion of Broadband Technology and Optical Fibre Technology certificate programs in sixth semester. 3. BSNL Platinum Certified Engineer: Successful completion of Mobile Communication and IP Networking

Expected Outcome :

After undergoing these trainings the students would be able to

Confidently individually handle live Telecom switching, transmission and IP network equipment

Understand comprehensive integration of all telecom equipment

Design switching, transmission and IP networks for SME for wireline and wireless networks

Become industry ready as they will have the working exposure to latest industry equipments

1.

BSNL Silver Certified Engineer: This course is for the students of fifth semester.

2.

BSNL Gold Certified Engineer: This course is for the students of sixth semester.

3.

BSNL Platinum Certified Engineer: This course is for the students of seventh semester.

CHALLENGES THAT MAY OCCUR FOR THE PROPOSED SOLUTION :-

Lack of information among the masses of any such running project or solution which may increase their employment perspective.

Lack of funding from the government and the concerning parties.

Lack of measure to filter unadulterated talent.

Lack of educating staff in any such organizations.

Corruption-The root cause of all evils has its upper hand in all such organization which results in meritious masses not getting the

fruitful benefits.

The one of the major problem that we would have to come across with is that the political parties will not show their interest in such

programs for minimizing the unemployment in India. we have seen that various programs has been launched for enhancing the practical

knowledge of youth and for giving the value additions. Like such value addition programs should have to be proposed by the common

people to the government and make them think over it. Some of the major mitigations factors are as follows:-

GOVERNMENT’S CONCERN ABOUT ENHANCING EMPLOYMENT AMONG YOUTH

The National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework

National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework enables horizontal and vertical mobility between general and

technical education, recognition and certification of competencies irrespective of the mode of learning. NVQF, with an

open/flexible system, will permit individuals to accumulate their knowledge and skills, and convert them through testing and

certification into higher diplomas and degrees. NVQF will provide quality assured various learning pathways having standards,

comparable with any international qualification framework. NVQF will support lifelong learning, continuous up gradation of

skills and knowledge . The Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGE&T) had the initiated Craftsman Training

Scheme in 1950 by establishing 50 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) for imparting skills in various vocational trades to meet

the manpower requirements for technology and industrial growth of the country. Since then the demand for skilled manpower

has increased substantially due to rapid economic growth, changes in technology and work process, and globalization of

economy. As on 01-01-2007 there were 1896 Government ITIs in the country. Out of which 500 ITIs are being upgraded into

Centres of Excellence under a Scheme launched in 2005-06. The Up gradation of the remaining 1396 Government ITIs has been

done through Public Private Partnership since 2007-2008.

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme(PMEGP)

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana(SGRY)

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY)

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY))

Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM)

Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS)

Employbility enhancement training programme(EETP)

Shaksham

Udaan

REFERENCE:-

International Labor Organization (ILO). 2006. Global

Employment Trends for Youth 2006 (Geneva). 2012. Global

Employment Trends for Youth 2012 (Geneva).

Ministry of Labor and Employment. 2009. National Skill

Development Policy (NewDelhi,Government of India).

Google

Wikipedia

THE TIMES OF INDIA Newspaper.