Jobs Galore, No Takers

- Nimal C Namboodiripad

One of the unique banes of the Kerala job market has been what we call the educated

unemployed. The graduates and post graduates who have not found a job. Or cannot hold

on to one, once they find it. While lots have been written about this phenomenon less

attention has been paid to the other side of the picture, whether these youth are

employable and how many jobs have had no takers.

Lack of job oriented courses

Kerala lacks genuine attempts at counseling students and youngsters in the matters of

their career choices and jobs. Which means that youngsters pursue the same line of

action. Medicine or engineering if possible, otherwise into some obscure degree. The fact

that there are not many job oriented courses also ensure that they have not much choice in

terms of other career options. Taken together with the government policy of a degree for

all, this makes for a poorly skilled workforce. Which means, we have Hindi, History and

Arabic degree holders trying to decipher the nuances of accounting and book keeping in

nationalized banks.

Ayurveda and the stock market

There are many companies in different sectors who are finding it difficult to get the right

candidate. Compromises have to be made which rarely find success in the long term. For

example two areas which need lots of skilled personnel, in two completely different

categories in Kerala are the stock market and Ayurveda.

There is a paucity of trained Panchakarma Therapists which Ayurveda companies are

facing. In order to plug the gap companies like Birla Kerala Vaidyashala and

Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala are conducting Therapy courses at different levels.

Unfortunately even the seats in these courses are never filled up despite the fact that all

successful candidates have found jobs in India and abroad.

“We have courses in our centres in Harippad, Aluva and Vadakara, says Dr.Das of Birla

Kerala Vaidyashala, “the difficulty is not in getting jobs for the successful candidates, but

getting the candidates itself. In fact there are enough and more opportunities in the

market”

The fact that the basic qualification is only SSLC and most of the placements are done

outside Kerala should have encouraged more applicants but has not done so.

The same is the case of School of Asset Management(SAM) in Kaloor. “We have tie ups

with a number of stock broking firms who are in urgent need of qualified and efficient

personnel” says Dr.Sasidharan, Dean of the School “We have courses designed to teach

the participant the basics of finance, specifically the stock market. We also give guidance

to the participants to write the NCFM modules of the NSE and the BSEs certification

which is a basic qualification to become a stock trader.” Again there are hardly any takers

“We are left holding a number of jobs for which there are no qualified hands. The

companies compromise by taking fresh graduates with no experience in the field at less

than half the salary and try and train them, which usually result in at best a half baked

job.”

Perception and prestige

The problem could also be one of perception and prestige in the case of Ayurveda.

“Therapy could bring out images of massage parlours. And since there are any number of

illegitimate operators nobody is really sure what to go for” says Jayakumar Karunakaran

whose brother in law is a famous Ayurveda physician.

The prestige factor has a very different perspective in the case of SAM.“We charge very

low rates and maybe that could be the deterrent.” says Girish Warier of SAM. “People

are willing to spend huge monies and join posh institutes who advertise a lot. Our course

was floated by like minded professionals from the field who wanted to give something

back to the industry which had served them well for so long. So the objective was very

different. We have the best of people from the industry coming and taking classes and we

have as the backing of all major broking firms and the Cochin stock exchange. But we

don’t charge much and don’t advertise much. Maybe we should also seriously think of

changing tracks.”

Whatever be the perception, there are many similar jobs out there waiting for the right

candidate. It is high time students were taught the basic skills required for jobs than

outdated degree courses taught by outdated professors. And hopefully more students

joined for those kind of courses.

(Published in One India)