We Indians celebrate National Youth Day on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, i.e. 12th January to encourage as well as inspire the youth of the nation to embark on a journey that’s difficult but leads to success. UNESCO defines ‘youth’ to be the stage of transformation from the dependent childhood to independent adulthood along with an awareness in the interdependence that characterizes our community. India is a developing nation and around 50 percent of its total populace is aged below 25. According to the reports of the United Nations, India has the largest proportion of youth population across the world and therefore, they should be channelized in the positive direction for bringing home individual as well as national success.
Treading on the road to Progress
Developing the skills of the country’s youth is the key to making the much awaited transition to a developed country. Being the second most populated nation in the world, India has around 93 percent of its population engaged in informal tasks and therefore, encouraging them to invest in skill development is definitely an arduous challenge.
In the last five years, the country has taken a number of steps to progress towards the goal and it has started with raising awareness of the stakeholders, mostly the ones in business and government. All the concerned parties are now being awakened on the need of the young men and women to have the requisite skills that can aid them to earn substantial living either through self-employment or conventional jobs.
The role of the Vocational Institution
The initiatives taken by the institutions of vocational training and education in both private and public spheres have become much focused and goal-oriented. As a result, they are more aligned to the needs and demands of the industry and connected to employability and jobs. Quality standards and capacity building is now given much attention. Industries are now taking up bigger roles in shaping the skills and expertise through the involvement with development of curriculum and setting new standards in the process of assessment and certification. Also, several measures have been taken for increasing the financial accessibility to initiatives concerning skill-training.
The continuous rise in the voluntary unemployment has led to the higher rate of employment in 2018. India is a country in which 65 percent of the total population is aged below 35 years and most of it is unemployed, particularly among youth is restricting the country’s ability to reap the demographic dividend. When the experts are able to recognize this challenge, all the stakeholders right from the various companies, civil society organisations, government, organisations and non-profit concerns are working in their independent terms or as a cohesive force for enhancing the employability of youth.
Academic qualification is the Initial Requirement
Having a degree from a well-known institution is definitely an added advantage and it serves to be an initial impetus. When you sit for interviews from reputed companies on campus, it is an invaluable experience which opens the door to vista of opportunities for projecting yourself as a prospective candidate. But when you are a student, it is extremely important to be aware of the context in the present scenario. Being aware of the context means that the candidate should be aware of the impediments and challenges that are directed towards the profession and possess the foresight to be able to face it.
Impact of Technology and its effect on the Candidate
Regardless of the skills possessed by a candidate, there is no denial that technology has a direct influence on everyone’s career. Technology today is casting its impact on each and every field and its profession, right from support functions of the finance, human resource, administration and many others. It goes without saying that the impact of client facing roles is huge within each firm. Thus, a candidate should look for various certification courses that will aid him to be more apt and relevant in the industry as those are the best skill investments that one can make today. For instance, if a candidate is willing to invest in social media marketing skills in order to be ready for the future requirements, then he is definitely much ahead of his competitors.
Behavioural Readiness and it’s Importance
Complexity increases as soon as one starts climbing upwards in his ladder of career. A lot of areas need to be managed such as building relationships, managing teams and dynamics and much more. Each of these areas might take a toll on someone if he is not behaviourally prepared. If you believe that you will be able to choose any skill as you gain experience and go with the flow as far as your career is concerned, then it will be a risky affair for the development of your career. A candidate should always try to work for achieving behavioural excellence in his respective field, like investing in technical or management expertise, for instance. It is important to be aware of the behavioural requirements of the concerned field and the roles that a candidate needs to fulfil and work for mastering those skills.
The choices that the learners of the nation are left with today are quite transparent. It has become a necessity to take a pragmatic look at the future of the profession and see it under the light of the candidate’s strength and weaknesses and determine the extent of contextual edge that he has. The answers should also have an updated knowledge of the latest technologies and the intensity of dynamism faced by the field.
It will help the youth generation of the country to be prepared for all kinds of behavioral requirements and adaptation. Empowered with the requisite skills, a candidate will be better able to navigate all the challenges and complexities that he is going to face in the near future. It is of utmost importance to be constantly ready with the needful skills in this world characterised by immense disruption and continuous technological interventions.
