By Dr AK Srivastava
Education & Skill Development
Your earning ability today is largely dependent upon your knowledge, skill and your ability to combine that knowledge and skill in such a way that you contribute value for which customers are going to pay. – Brain Tracy
Education means transferring knowledge from one individual to another or a group of pupils in order to develop their potential and inherent characteristics. Every individual is born with some qualities and talents. Education sharpens or enhances those talents so that an individual can lead a successful life. When we discuss the education of an individual, it can be formal or informal education. As people grow in this world, they interact with numerous people and circumstances and keep learning from interaction with parents, friends and society. Education is a lifelong process. Formal education means going to schools and colleges or universities and studying diverse subjects like languages, mathematics, the sciences and many other subjects. Education means mainly a theoretical approach to gaining knowledge. It is also the transfer of teachers’ personalities, values and qualities which students learn in a subtle way without being conscious of the fact that they are learning many traits of life from their mentors.
Skill is acquired practical training to handle any particular work through practice. Practice makes a person perfect. It is said that knowledge gained in schools and colleges is brought to day-to-day use by practicing skills. Education and skill development are complementary to each other as they shape the personality of individuals in a balanced way in order to make these suitable for their livelihood. Education means acquiring knowledge and skill means processing that knowledge with perfection in real life situations. Language learning, swimming, driving, cooking, computing, automobile repair, etc., are skills. The more you practice, the better results you get from learning any skill. Many times theoretical knowledge is not useful unless it is really implemented in a real life situation. One may read many books about swimming but one will learn how to swim when one jumps into a pool. The same is the case with driving, cooking, plumbing, and cycling. Bookish knowledge needs practical experience to accomplish skills. Education can develop one’s understanding, but practical experience and training make that understanding useful for on-hand jobs.
The world and the job market are changing faster than we could imagine. Now employers want educated skilled young men and women to handle their business. In other words, India cannot progress unless we have job-oriented and skill-based courses. No government can provide jobs for such a vast population unless the coming generation is not skilled and career-oriented. Self-employment is the reality of today’s world. The government wants young men and women to get an education that can provide them with jobs and also helps them to provide jobs for others. Instead of being a job seeker, youngsters should learn to be job providers. That is possible only when they have a skilled-based education and are endowed with the spirit of entrepreneurship. Now, three factors are most significant to achieve this mission:
- A suitable IT/AI-based education.
- Trained professional staff in educational institutions.
- Introducing vocational and job-oriented courses in schools and colleges.
UNO has declared July 15 as World Youth Skill Day in order to encourage youth to change their traditional thinking and education. The government of India also introduced the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on 15 July 2015. The Modi Government is very keen to make education skilled-based and job oriented. A big amount of money is being spent to set up institutions providing diverse types of skill-based education. These skills can be both technical and non-technical, ranging from AI and computer programming to plumbing and automobile repair.
The more we give importance to skill development, the more competent will be our youth. – Narendra Modi
The new education policy is focusing on job-oriented skilled-based education. Now, the government is in the process of opening thousands of schools, polytechnics and colleges that will offer IT/AI and skill-based education in urban and rural areas. It is seen that employers don’t get trained employees for their business set-ups and many positions remain vacant in the absence of suitable employees. New trends in education will facilitate both employers and employees to find each other. This situation will bring a revolution to our villages where poverty forces youth to take up many jobs which are against their dignity.
Another initiative of the government, “Make in India” is directly linked to the skill development plan. The idea is to employ both trained and skilled youth in the “Make in India” scheme, which is both feasible and successful. The government wants to take this scheme to villages and cities. This will encourage local craftsmen and artists and also help in eradicating unemployment and poverty.
Trained and skilled young men and women can also explore job possibilities overseas as many developing nations lack suitable employees that can help them in coming out of poverty. Proficiency in English and other foreign languages also opens many doors for unemployed youth.
“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways,” Robert Greene.
In conclusion, we can say that skilled-based education can really enhance the employability of our youth. Our education system has to be tailored according to the needs of a fast changing and dynamic world. Right from primary education to higher education, emphasis has to be given to technical job oriented and skilled based education. Continuous learning and up-skilling is mandatory to remain relevant in highly competitive job market of modern times. It requires an enormous amount of funds and will power from our government and all sections of society.
Skills are the currency of the future; the more you invest in them, the more valuable you become. – Anonymous
(Dr AK Srivastava is Principal, DAV Inter College, Dehradun)
