Young people have not woken up as yet to the advantages of diploma courses in a number of professions, such as in the para-medical, technical, hospitality and other sectors. A number of seats in ITIs, etc., remain empty, every year after school results come in. In a scenario where youngsters are desperate for good jobs, it is strange that this should be the case. It is possible that in many newly opened courses there are teething problems and bureaucratic delays resulting in aspirants taking admission elsewhere. Also, the reason for the shortfall in private colleges is probably the courses not having the desired quality.
Jobs like radiologist, lab technicians, OT staff, etc., provide young people the opportunity not only to get decent salaries, but become part of an important service to society. Compare this to the numerous ‘worthless’ degrees that students opt for in run-of-the-mill colleges merely because these provide them the graduation status that allows them the chance to appear for hard to get government jobs. So many of them spend almost a decade in this search for India’s holy grail, only to end up disappointed. Then they have to ‘retrain’ themselves to find a place in the job market.
There are a number of technical skills that can provide youth a decent living. It seems there is a lack of awareness about these opportunities that keeps them from becoming employable persons. On finding a certain level of excellence, they can even go on to become self-employed and help build India. And it is not just in the S&T sector that the opportunities exist, many areas are also opening up in non-conventional areas of the arts, such as foreign languages, music engineering, technical aspects of film making, design, etc. Advances in technology have made these available to youngsters even in ‘small’ cities like Dehradun – one no longer needs to go to Pune, Mumbai, etc., for an opportunity to learn. Government must inform youngsters in the schools about these potential jobs at the school level, so that the choices can be made based upon personal preferences. Tourism and the service sector require skilled personnel even more urgently for small and medium enterprises to grow, but so many people, even today, have to learn on the job. There has to be information flow up and down the stream so that companies can get the kind of personnel they want. There is a huge gap at the intermediate level in India’s economy, which if not filled soon, will never allow the required wealth generation to happen.
