Educated but untrained

Two separate studies, conducted by two different organisations, have come to the same scary conclusion: that a small percentage of those who pass through the portals of our vaunted institutions of higher learning is employable.

Barely 21% of MBAs in the country meet the expectations of recruiters, according to a nationwide study conducted by MBAUniverse along with MeritTrac. For engineering graduates, the number is an even more dismal 12%, according to the Industry Readiness Index study conducted by PurpleLeap, a Bangalore-based talent management firm. Worse, while 52% of new engineers have to be trained in basic concepts that are already supposed to have been covered in college, 36% are beyond help, that is to say they cannot even be trained.

Not only is this a matter of great shame for a country that never tires of boasting about its ‘human resources’ and how it has a vast pool of ‘educated’ talent, it is also bad news for the economy.

While there are various economic units to measure growth, the only real driver of growth is people. If the country cannot find the right people for the right jobs, growth is bound to be a casualty.

Moreover, if half of all those people who spend the better part of two decades in various educational institutions remain unemployable at the end of that period, it is bound to add to the social and economic turmoil and frustration that is already quite apparent.

Perhaps it is time for us to bury our collective obsession for so-called higher education and degrees and pay more attention to the need to foster useful skills among the younger generation.