parikalpana - kiit school of management · simple but appealing answer (out of 1400 contributions)...

KIIT School of Management, KIIT UniversityBhubaneswar - India

Theme-based Special Issue on”Dynamics of Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities and Challenges”

[Selected papers of NMC - 2014]

KIIT Journal of Management

In this issue

Changing dynamics of Hospitality & Tourism Education and its Impact on EmployabilityAmrita Pani, Biswajit Das, Mahesh Sharma

Youth and Education: An Invisible hand for development Ananya Mitra, Swati Mishra

Time Fusion: Education and Employment A. Bhattacharya, S. Tripathy

Professional Education for Employability:A critical ReviewBiswa B. Das, R. N. Subudhi

Modern Technology & Professional EducationGayatri Panda, Sumita Mishra, Sisira Kanti Mishra

Competent Teams for Challenging TimesHema Harsha, L Shri Harsha

Transforming Management Education in Line With Youth ExpectationManas Kumar Pal, Anamika

Challenges Faced By Educators In Management EducationPallabi Pal Sarkar, Rajendra Prasad Sharma

Redefining Education to Employment Journey: Changes in Commerce & Mgmt EducationShivram Krishnan

Education to Employment : A critical model to bridge the gapSushri Samita Rout

Paving the Path from Education to Employment is a challenge to ExploreJayant Panigrahi, Biswajit Das, Sushanta Tripathy

Talent Search: A Challenge for EmployersHara Prasanna Das, Ms Malabika Sahoo

ISSN 0974-2808

V o l u m e - 11 (I) Jan-June, 2015Parikalpana

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Parikalpana:KIIT Journal of Management

[ISSN – 0974-2808]

Board of AdvisorsProf. N.L. Mitra

Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. P.P. Mathur

Vice Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. Anil Bajpai

Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

Members of Journal Committee, KSOM, KIIT University

BCM Patnaik Pooja Mohanty Biswajit Das Snigdha Tripathy Ipseeta Satpathy

Editorial Board Artatrana Ratha, St Cloud State University, USA Ashish Dwivedi, Hull University Business School, Hull, UK B. K. Mohanty, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India Badar Alam Iqbal, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India Colin C Williams, Damodar Suar, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur – India Hemanta Kumar Baruah, Vice-Chancellor, Bodoland University Kokrajhar-Assam Rajen K Gupta, M.D.I. Gurgaon, India Sailabala Debi, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India Saswata Narayana Biswas, Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, India Sushanta Mallick, School of Bus. & Management, Queen Mary, University of London Vinit Parida, Luleå University of Technology , Sweden Wee Yu Ghee, University Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

EditorR. N. Subudhi

(Professor, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University)e-Mail: [email protected]

© KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, BhubaneswarPublished by Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.

Disclaimer: The publisher and or editors cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising out

those of the publisher and editors.

Parikalpana:KIIT Journal of Management

NMC Special Issue

CONTENTS

Changing dynamics of Hospitality & Tourism Education and 1-12its Impact on EmployabilityAmrita Pani, Biswajit Das, Mahesh Sharma

Youth and Education : An Invisible hand for development 13-22Ananya Mitra, Swati Mishra

Time Fusion : Education and Employment 23-31A. Bhattacharya, S. Tripathy

Professional Education for Employability: 32-45A critical ReviewBiswa B. Das & R. N. Subudhi

Modern Technology & Professional Education 46-55Gayatri Panda, Sumita Mishra, Sisira Kanti Mishra

Competent Teams for Challenging Times 56-60Hema Harsha, L Shri Harsha

Transforming Management Education in Line With 61-73Youth ExpectationManas Kumar Pal, AnamikaChallenges Faced By Educators In Management Education 74-87Pallabi Pal Sarkar, Rajendra Prasad SharmaRedefining Education to Employment Journey : 88-98Changes in Commerce and Management EducationShivram Krishnan DeanEducation to Employment : 99-112A critical model to bridge the gapSushri Samita RoutPaving the Path from Education to Employment is 113-119a challenge to ExploreJayant Panigrahi, Biswajit Das, Sushanta TripathyTalent Search: A Challenge for Employers 120-124Hara Prasanna Das & Ms Malabika Sahoo

Editorial

Egitim or ogrenim: Education verses SchoolingIn any professional education, there is a need to have the ‘educational-system’

industry or market oriented and to have the ‘products’, industry ready. This was thegeneral feeling, one could get from the academic discourse and deliberations, the expertshad, during 7th National Management Convention (NMC), on the theme,‘Dynamics of the Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities andChallenges’, organised by KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, duringFebruary 21-22, 2014.

This special issue is based on the selected papers, presented during that NMC.

In such a situation, what the teachers should do for that kind of, need based‘education-system’? Suggestions could be many. One can find debates at different fora,at different places. One such long debate, with over-whelming quality contributions fromscholars from across the globe, was there in ‘ResearchGate’*.

To a similar question of a research scholar (Helia Jacinto of Lisbon University),hundreds of quality inputs/ suggestions were recorded in ResearchGate. One of thesimple but appealing answer (out of 1400 contributions) was from Leyla Tekul, fromUniversity of British Columbia, whose student life was spent long back, far away inIstanbul. She differentiates ‘education’ from ‘schooling’, with a touching difference.

“In Turkish we have two different words for ‘education’. One of them translatesrather like ‘education’ the other only ‘schooling’. Egitim and ogrenim. I think the formerone is a term which incorporates the learning of skills for life, together with experience,ethics, do’s and don’ts in general. I believe even a math teacher can ‘model’ a human, ofwhom students learn ‘life’ other than sheer formulas. Especially in our ‘new World’,where parents mostly work and have less time for their offspring, teachers must ‘model’an ideal (well almost) person with outlook even “look” and encourage their students tobecome not only knowledgeable but also ‘ethical, useful, well mannered etc, people fortheir societies. .. usage of appropriate humour eases the pain of serious work andachievement stress. ….”

Apropos the NMC-theme, cited above, we can put the question on the very‘education system’, what actually happens there: ‘education’ or just ‘schooling’ (or simplycompletion of college degree, just for the certificate). Egitim or ogrenim? Answer tothis could perhaps answer the main issue, taken as the NMC theme.

[Note: Though over 60 research papers were presented during the last NMC, wecould only select a few for publication in this journal.]

1Parikalpana - KIIT Journal of Management

Changing Dynamics of Hospitality & TourismEducation and its Impact on Employability

Amrita PaniResearch Scholar, KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar

mail:[email protected]

Biswajit DasProfessor of Marketing, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University Bhubaneswar

mail: [email protected]

Mahesh SharmaResearch Scholar, KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar

mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTChange is the only constant factor in the world. This statement applies to thechanging dynamics of tourism and hospitality education in India; to generateemployability of young mass in the global competitive scenario.21st centuryexperiences a radical change in the fashion of education in the knowledgeeconomy. In order to fulfil the required skill set and employability of thegennext youth in India present education system tries to patch up with theindustry requirement. It plays a major role in reducing demand supply gap ofemployable youth and employability. Tourism industry is one of the mostemerging sectors in India. Success of tourism and hospitality sector dependsupon the skill set of the human resources; quality training & education shallgenerate real professionals in this sector. Tourism education is a specialbranch of education in India to train and nurture individual for providingworld class hospitality services.

The main objective of this research paper is to focus on how education tries tofill up the requirement of tourism sector in India. This paper tries to evaluatevarious scopes and challenges for the education system in tourism andhospitality. It also proposes a multi-disciplinary education design for tourismeducation in India and highlights the changing role of tourism education ingenerating youth employability.

On the basis of secondary data analysis this study tries to examine thedevelopment of hospitality & tourism education in India .The study discussesthe initiatives by the government for enhancing the youth employability inthe tourism sector.

Keywords: Tourism education, design thinking, employability, mass orientedteaching, pedagogy.

NMC special issue of Parikalpana : KIIT Journal of Management2

dynamics of modern tourism education.Leiper (2000) advocates ‘tourology’ tocheer up research in this ‘cross-copulatedfield. However, Tribe (2001) put moreemphasis on realistic, humanistic andtechnical interests to devise a program fornon-vocational concerns. The concept isshowcased in the existing condition oftourism and hospitality education. Thoughmost courses included domains ofknowledge, need for a central body ofknowledge to uplift the value of tourismeducation is pivotal.

Efficiency in hospitality and tourismbusiness entail upon the human capital;together with technology too. Educationand Training institutions in Indian marketare a basis of the supply of skilledmanpower to the hospitality and tourismindustry. The success of tourism dependson the effective and efficient trainedmanpower. Proper training & educationcan help to create the real professional inthe emerging field of tourism.

It suggests that tourism as anemerging field need of higher study, policymakers, administrators, and researchersbecome aware of the importance. Positiveimpacts of tourism education in Indianhigher educational intuitions will raise publicawareness and preferences will change.This research is a blend of descriptive and

The world has experienced a radicaltransformation over the past two decades.The Changing dynamics of demographics,shifting lifestyles ,travel patterns andvolatile global economic conditions aremounting pressure on tourism industryplayers and educational institutions todevelop effective, innovative and incredibleapproaches. More recently, socialinclusivity and global competitivenessmanifested by tourism experts haveamplified the necessity for industry.

Tourism is the foremost socioeconomic happening of a modern countrylike India for a giant competitive edge. Itis a device for prosperity, employmentcreation, socio-economic progress andentrepreneurship. It is a significantmovement for building sustainable, socialup-gradation of the weaker sections andgreen business through the eco- friendlyand socially responsible tourism. In theinternational scenario, tourism resourcesin India have become one of the principalattraction to the global tourist community.Travel and Tourism is one of the leadingjob creator in the world ;for employingmore than 98 million people directly,representing over 3 percent of totalemployment (Rochelle Turner and ZacharySears, 2013).Tourism connoisseurs both,from Asian and western countries havefittingly understood and evaluated the

Introduction

“India does not have the problem of Unemploymentbut un-employability”

- Dr. A .P.J. Kalam

3Changing Dynamics of Hospitality & Tourism Education and its Impact ...

analytical approach based on theevaluation and interpretation of thesecondary data on the dynamics ofTourism education in India. Indeed, fewresearchers have visualized tourism as aholistic and inclusive discipline.

This article tries to evaluate theprogress of hospitality and tourismeducation in India with a specific focus onthe approaches, nomenclatures, offeringsand their modules in hospitality and tourismeducation system of India. Furthermore theneed of innovative programmes arediscussed along with curriculumdevelopment. It also discuss on the roleof government as a policy regulator andits interface with educational institutions,local and national bodies for the sustainableprosperity of tourism. The paperconcludes by examining the future of

hospitality and tourism education in thisgrowing industry.

Rising Trend of Hospitality andTourism Education in India: A ParadigmShift.

According to World Travel andTourism Council (WTTC) report the

Indian travel and tourism industry isthe major employment generating sectorcontributing 7.6 per cent share of thewhole economy employment in 2014 andwhich is expected to create 30,631,000jobs by 2023. As depicted in Figure 1.0and 1.1; Travel & Tourism generated25,041,000 jobs directly in 2012 whichare 4.9% of the total employment.However there has seen a fall by 0.6% in2013 to 24,899,000 which is 4.8% ofthe total employment.

Figure:1.0 Contribution of Travel andTourism to employment

Figure:1.1 Contribution of Travel andTourism to Whole economy employment

Source : WTTC Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2013

Hence, tourism and hospitality havehuge employment scope both directly andindirectly in hotels and restaurants, travelagencies and transportation services, etc.The sector being highly labour intensive;

tourism industry creates a high proportionof employment and career opportunitiesfor low skilled and semi-skilled workers,particularly for poor, women and youth(Ashish Dahiya, 2013)


Presently tourism sector in India isthriving in a sky-scraping manner. Thus,to provide services there is an urgent needof quality man power at various parts ofthe country. For awareness of tourism andhospitality education Indian universitieshave to provide different courses to cre-ate trained professionals. UGC approvedtourism courses has been included in thecurriculum of many Universities to providebachelor as well as Master degrees. Thereare number of National Universities facili-tating tourism education, ranging from di-ploma to Ph.D. They are imparting HotelManagement Graduate/ Post Graduate /Degree, PG Diploma’s and One Year Di-plomas both in regular as well as distancemode. Some of the popular courses intourism are BSc./B.A./BBA and MSc.,MATA (Master in Tourism Education),MTM (Master in Tourism Administration),MBA with Tourism Specialization and PGDiploma in Travel and Tourism, etc. Someprivate institutes also run short term anddiploma courses too.

Growth of Tourism & HospitalityEducation in India:

Today Institutes providing tourismand hospitality education are mushroomingin India. Few of them are pioneers togenerate high quality human resources. Dueto rising trend of tourism, Ministry of

Tourism is now focusing on thedevelopment, promotion and research ofhospitality and tourism education. With thegrowth & development of hospitality andtourism in India, various programmes are

gaining tremendous popularity amongstudents. Tourism and Hospitalityeducation was initiated by Govt. of Indiain 1962 by establishing four institutes ofHotel Management Catering Technologyand Applied Nutrition at New Delhi,

Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatarespectively. Then, National Council for

Hotel Management and CateringTechnology (NCHMCT) was establishedin 1982 by Ministry of Tourism for the

Human Resource Development inhospitality sector to provide hospitalityeducation to compete with the changingneed of the industry. Presently there areof 21 Central IHMS, 8 State IHMS and12 private IHMS and 5 Food Craftinstitutes following National council’scurriculum.

Indian Institute of Tourism andTravelManagement (IITTM) is one of thepremier institutes to provide tourismeducation since 1983 by Ministry ofTourism. This multi-campus Institute offersvarious programmes in tourism and relatedfields as well as Regional Level GuideTraining Programme. Amongst theuniversities Masters Degree in Tourismwas firstly initiated in 1990s byKurukshetra University afterward by HPUniversity Shimla, HNB GarhwalUniversity, Bundelkhand University Jhansi,and Jammu University. The success trendmotivated other 20 -25 Indian Universitiesto run tourism courses at different levels.Amity Institute of Travel & Tourism


(AITT) is a unique institute established toprovide the best Travel & TourismManagement education. Aptech Aviation& Hospitality Academy is the Aviation,Hospitality and Travel & Tourismeducation brand of Aptech Limited. Thereare also food craft Institutes offeringspecialized courses in food production,housekeeping operation, front officeoperation and bakery & confectionarymanagement ,behavioral and etiquettetraining ,etc.Craft and Vocational coursesin different departments and disciplines likefood and beverage, production, bakery,house-keeping, chef training and otherhotel operations are provided.

Many crash courses are alsostrategized for the people having directcontact with the tourists. Ministry ofTourism also initiated skill enhancementprogrammes under the scheme of “HunarSe Rozgaar Tak” to provide hospitalitytraining to young mass of India. Theprogrammes helps the young mass to beplaced in various fields of tourism industry;starting from Railways, Aviation to Tourand Travel Services, Polo Grooms, SpaTherapists, Beauticians and Nutritionists,Nature Guides, Porters, Taxi Drivers, TourOperators, River Rafting Guides, SecurityGuards, Mountain and Eco-Rural Guidesat Select Destinations.

Hotels Offering Courses:

Apart from these many Hotel groupsare trying to start their own hotelmanagement colleges to avoid the problemof recruiting qualified hotel staffs. ITC

Hospitality Management Institute (ITCHMI) offers the best HospitalityManagement Training in India forsupporting the organizational growth.Students after passing out from ITC-HMIare successfully placed as ExecutiveDirector, Vice Presidents, GeneralManagers, Food & Beverage Managers,Front Office Managers, Executive Chefsand Executive Housekeepers across anumber of hotels all over the country.

Hotel giant Taj Hotel Group providesworld class training and developmentprograms to ensure their employees learnand continuously grow. Taj Hotel Groupoffers Taj Management TrainingProgramme (TMTP) and HotelOperations Management Trainee(HOMT) Program which are equivalentto MBA in hospitality to nurture youngtalents. The Oberoi Group also offers a3 years training programme known asSystematic Training and EducationProgramme (STEP) for young students.The Oberoi Centre for Learning andDevelopment is based in Delhi offers atwo year post graduate managementprogrammes in Guest ServiceManagement, Housekeeping Managementand Kitchen Management. Jaypee Hotelsgroup also has their own Training Centreto provide high quality training in variousnomenclatures of hospitality services.

Tourism Education on Talent Creationand Employability Among Gennext

About 120 million gennext youthenter the labor force with a massive


prospective to lead secured and occupiedlives and help make economic progressacross the world. More than around 75million of them encounter major hurdlesto hunting upright work. Today’scorporate houses require to employ skilledyouth to compete in the global competitivemarket and the gennext Indians wantdecent jobs. Until now there is a mismatchbetween on companies manpowerrequirements and the demand skills amongprospective human resources. Viewing therising need of accomplishment, HiltonWorldwide has collaborated with theInternational Youth Foundation to lend ahand to furnish Indian youth with skill setsand equip them for jobs in the tourism &hospitality industry. With the launch ofBright Blue Futures and other stirringinitiatives tourism firms are leveraging themammoth skilled capital and proficiencythat the hospitality companies require fromgennext across the globe. The mainpurpose of the firms are to work unitedlyto unlock the talents from Indian gennextto develop, flourish, and go ahead. Thetourism industry is undergoing anelectrifying stage.

Ministry of Tourism under the schemeof “Capacity Building for ServiceProviders”, has supported Institutes toconduct Skill Development Programmesknown as “Hunar Se Rozgar Tak”. Theprogramme has been aimed at targetingrural youths with not much means and inneed to gain skills to employment andensure social inclusion.

The hospitality sector has revivedfrom 2009 slowdown and is estimated toswell by more than 45 percent, from $584billion in 2010 to $848 billion by the endof 2015. The tourism industry as a whole( of which the hospitality industry is acomponent) continues to be one of India’smost vital drivers of socio economicdevelopment, covering nearly 9 percentof global GDP. It is also the globe’s biggestemployment creator. More than 255million people across the globe at presentwork in the tourism industry, and by theend of 2022, hospitality and tourismindustry will employ 328 million humanresources; creating 73 million fresh jobopportunities.

The International Labour Organizationmade an approximation that every newemployment fashioned in the tourismsector supplements 1.5 jobs along theHospitality supply chain, with a balancedeconomic boost. The tourism industry’sestimated progress will ensure andencourage economic prosperity Economicgrowth denotes more job, and jobs bringmuch more than a paycheck; they yieldhonour, social status and dignity to humanbeing, fiscal and tax revenue togovernment and new consumers tobusiness firms.

Opportunities and Challenges forTourism Education

According to WorldTravel andTourism Council (WTTC), 2005 report8.3 per cent of the total global labor forceis employed in tourism. According to


IBEF report, 2013; Travel and tourismsector is estimated to create 78 jobs perUSD 18 ,3666 of investment ascompared to other sectors. India seemsto be enhanced employment potentialwithin the country through tourism sectorand foster economic integration throughdeveloping linkages with other sectors.Growth and development of TourismIndustry paves the way for employmentgeneration at different departments. Withthe rise in aviation sector, Travel portals,Luxury Hotels and resorts the need fortrained professionals also increased.Hospitality sector is manpower oriented;growth and development is highlydependent upon the service qualityprovided to the customers. Therefore,professionalism and positive attitude ofthe staffs appointed plays a vital role. Inhospitality services they always needcommitted staffs having customer friendlyattitude. Hence, candidates with goodcommunication skills, linguistic expertiseand empathetic towards clients mostlysuitable for hospitality sector. At presentTourism and Hospitality having diversifiedcarrier option is gaining popularity amongIndian youth. People have also realizedthe significance of the career growthopportunity in this sector. Tourismeducation also has huge scope for self –employment generation. Trainedprofessionals can start their own businessas tourism and travel consultant, traveljournalist, language interpreter, onlinetravel agents, web designer, marketing &sales team and training instructors.

Table -1.0 Total employments in HospitalitySector

Year Employment (Lakhs)

2011-12 43.84

2012-13 47.26

2016-17 63.79

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.in/writereaddata/Uploaded/ImpDoc/020220120146055.pdf

Table -1.1 Requirement Supply Gap inTourism Sector

Year Requirement Supply Gaps(Lakhs) (Lakhs) (Lakhs)

2011-12 5.83 0.52 5.32

2012-13 6.26 0.56 5.70

2016-17 8.29 0.75 7.54

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.in/writereaddata/Uploaded/ImpDoc/020220120146055.pdf

Table 1.1 shows the requirement –supply gap in the tourism and hospitalitysector in 12th 5 years plan. It illustratesthe supply of manpower from HospitalityEducation through youth trainingprogrammes by the Ministry of Tourismand the total supply in Lakhs from 2012to 2017.

Employment of Local Community:Poverty Alleviation

National Tourism and HospitalityPolicy is an integral part of poverty

According to the study conducted byMinistry of Tourism, the total employmentrate in Hospitality Sector in 12th 5 yearsplan are depicted in Table-1.0.


reduction strategy of 12th plan whichensures flow of benefits to the local ruralcommunity. Pro poor approach of tourismaims for exploiting natural resources andculture developmental linkage betweenstakeholders and government authorities.States have to take a massive role in skilldevelopment ,quality of infrastructure,carbon neutral initiatives and for balancingcompeting demand and supply. During12th 5 years plan a budget sum up of USD2.8 Billion has been approved for theMinistry of Tourism for the developmentof tourism infrastructure projects includingrural tourism and HRD Projects. It hasalso targeted to create additionalemployment of about 2.5 crore in thetourism sector during 12th 5 years.According to The Times of India, 2013sustainable employment to train and equipgennext youth in the next 5 years will be amajor challenge for the Government. TheseProgrammes also involve PPP and SHGmodels in various states of India.

Besides professional development,providing employment to local communityhas also an impact on the growth of Indianeconomy. For this reason, to harness directemployment generation facilitation startsfrom the local community development.With the emergence of rural tourism, ecotourism,village tourism and medical tourism,etc. the local community can be benefited.In recent past many ecotourism projectsare operating in Odisha, Karnataka,Kerala ,North East India, Tamil Nadu andGoa, etc. Rising levels of awareness forheritage, culture and environmental

consciousness plays a significant role inpropelling rural tourism. Rural and villagetourism has broader scope for the benefitof the local community.

Hospitality sector has opportunity forpoverty reduction ,improvement of localcommunity and society. In Gujarat thereare 335 ‘Kaushalya Vardhan Kendras’providing vocational skills to rural youthin various sectors including tourism.

In general, there is a lack ofunderstanding of the potential businessbenefits and shared value arising fromimproving community relations. In orderto improve employment opportunities forlocal communities there is, therefore, aneed to understand effective approachesto improving capacity within localcommunities.

Issues and Challenges:

Tourism and Hospitality sector hasbeen acknowledged as a key agent forsocial and economic development. But inspite of such recognition, the growth is notadequate for the development of a stronginfrastructure. Though Tourism andHospitality sector having remarkable jobscope till there is shortage of skilled humanresources and there is a huge gap betweenthe demand and supply of manpower.

According to Market Pulse study,2004 the annual supply of skilledmanpower to the hospitality sector was ofabout 18000 persons which further camedown to about 12000 after attrition.Tourism education in India only emphasis


on generating employment to meetindustry requirements, but limited attentionis given for the development of qualityhuman resources. Therefore, an urgentneed for the remodelling of coursecurriculum in hospitality & tourismeducation in India is essential. Thematerials available and the teachingpedagogy are not adequate to bridge thegap between the demand and supply ofquality manpower. Lack of industry-academic collaboration in TrainingInstitutes leads to mismatch between skillset of students and industry requirements.

Universities providing tourismeducation also needs to run vocationalcourses in the regions having tourismprospective. The education should be in amass oriented teaching format; so that itcan help to reduce skill shortage andsupport local youth. Training should begiven to the local youth at the tourist spotsto make them employable in form ofTourist guide, Porter, Life guard, CameraPerson and Vending Zone owners, etc.

Yet tourism and hospitality sector isstill unable to recruit the best talents dueto lack of proper training and education.On the job training for the hospitalityemployees are not always successful toprovide quality service. Hence there arehuge requirement for a more focusedprofessional education programme toenhance employability. Moreover highlystructured curriculum should be redesignedto provide industry oriented training to thestudents. Thus universities have to

restructure the traditional course patternand modernize the syllabus as per thecurrent market scenario. To make thecourse more appealing experts fromtourism and hospitality sector cancontribute their experience. Qualified andresearch oriented faculty resources arealso required to impart quality education.On the basis of industry-academiapartnership universities can re-organize thecurriculum based on the expertise andresearch inputs. Additionally a value-based tourism curriculum has to bedesigned to face the new challenges of theindustry. Furthermore, there is an essentialneed for grooming and communicationskills enhancement programmes andforeign languages training to the younggeneration.

Influence of ICT on Dynamics ofTourism education

Today, Information andcommunication technologies (ICT) hasrevolutionized every aspects of modernlifestyle. Over the last few yearsInformation and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) has transformed theworld into a versatile global village wheretechnological revolution has broughtenormous reduction in time, distance andcost. So all the organizations from banking,manufacturing, media and entertainmentand education, etc. are rapidly adoptingthe latest technologies to thrive in the fiercecompetition. The growth and developmentof ICT has brought significant changes tothe education landscape . Internet


revolution along with digital media are nowwidely used in education system.Customer’s preference and demand arechanging in global competitive scenario.So, tourism education also needs toreframe the course curriculum. Gennexyouth can excel in the field of hospitalityindustry being properly trained. Simplyredesigning the course curriculum is notsufficient but the way of teaching alsomatters.

Progressively the job profile foremployment in tourism sector is verychallenging, so educational institutes haveto update their syllabus time to timeaccording to industry requirement.Moreover there is need for value basededucation with the touch of technology forthe development and dissemination ofknowledge in sustainable tourism.

Conclusion

Academic barter and researchpartnerships between tourism industryand higher educational institutions willadvance to generate synergy. Holisticdevelopment can benefit from a sharedlearning of the existing concepts,networking, practices and jobopportunity. Progress of innovativetourism can benefit all sections of thesociety. Knowledge transfer interface willaugment tourism development in India.The Demand and supply gap of skilledmanpower will best be filled up throughthe close partnership of both public andprivate sectors in the tourism educationindustry .

The scale, size and speedy escalationof the hospitality and tourism sector needseffective, innovative and feasible solutionsto this gennext employment crisis. In orderto attain the predictable target of 5 millionglobal tourists and 170 million in-housetourists by the union tourism departmentwe have to focus on the value centeredtourism education in India. The tourismstrategists and pundits in India shouldendorse top priority to the widespread oftourism education in rural India. Indianbusiness giants can invite scholars fromnext-door nations as well. Eveninternational students and researchers fromabroad may be fascinated to know Indiathrough the tourism online education. Yetin India semi urban areas have very lessscope of E-tourism educationinfrastructure.

The arguments will not only lessen thethick fissure that subsists between thedemand and supply dynamics for trainedand skilled tourism resources in India; butwill also facilitate the tourism industry inIndia to come forward as a workable toolfor economic, cultural, environmental andsocial developments in a radical fashion.In a nutshell, it can be expressed that atthe dawn of 21st century Indian tourismstrategists, educationists, professionalsand consultants, etc. should not opt forconventional pathway to the widespreadof tourism education; but employinnovative, non-traditional and vibrantapproaches to connect tourism educationto gennext employability.


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17. h t t p : / / w w w. i n d i a e d u c a t i o nr e v i e w. c o m / a r t i c l e / n e e d -focusdeveloping-employability-skills-ourengineering-graduates,Accessed on 6th December,2013

18. http://www.adam-europe.eu/prj/7017/prj/Tourism%20Education,%20Employability%20%26%20 Mo b i l i t y % 2 0 i n % 2 0 4 % 2 0Mediterranean%20Countries.pdf,Accessed on 6th December,2013

19. http://tourism.uq.edu.au/docs/GenY_Report.pdf, Accessed on 6th

December,201320. http: / /www.kpmg.com/IN/en/

I s s u e s A n d I n s i g h t s / A r t i c l e sPublications/Documents/KPMG-C I I Tr a v e l - To u r i s m - s e c t o r -Report.pdf, Accessed on 6th

December, 201321. http://www.britishcouncil.org/

dr_patrick_kalifungwa_youth_development_in_tourism_sector.pdf,Accessed on 8th January, 2014

22. http://www.assocham.org/the-india2013/, Accessed on 8th January,2014

23. http://www.wttc.org/site_media/uploads/downloads/india2013_1.pdf,Accessed on 8th January,2014

24. http://www.trcollege.net/articles/74deve lopment -and- impac t -o f t o u r i s m - i n d u s t r y - i n -india,Accessed on 7th January,2014

25. http://www.wttc.org/site_media/uploads/downloads/Economic_Impact_of_TT_2013_Annual_Update_-_Summary.pdf, Accessedon 8th January, 2014

26. h t t p : / / w w w . d n b . c o . i n /T r a v e l _ To u r i s m / I n d i a n_ T r a v e l _ a n d _ T o u r i s m _Industry.asp, Accessed on 8th

January,201427. h t t p : / / w w w. i i t t m . o rg / m a i n /

aboutus.htm, Accessed on 6th

February,201428. http://www.mdurohtak.ac.in/pdf/

No t i c e s _ P d f / n e w _ n o t i ce / N a t i o n a l % 2 0 S e m i n a r%20 on%20Hospitality.pdf

29. http://www.tourism.gov.in/ T o u r is m D i v i s i o n /AboutDivision.aspx?Name= Human%20Resource%20Development,Accessed on 6th February,2014

30. http://amity.edu/aitt/ Accessed on 6th

February,201431. http://ihmctan.edu/PDF/MSc2010/

Brochure.pdf , Accessed on 6th

February,201432. Tourism Report 12th five year plan

(2012- 17) ,Ministry of TourismGovernment of India, http://www.tourism.gov.in/writereaddata/U p l o a d e d / I m p D o c /020220120146055 .pdf, Accessed on8th December,2013

13

Youth and Education :An Invisible Hand for Development

Ananya MitraResearch scholar, Utkal University (A&A Economics)

[email protected]

Swati MishraResearch Scholar, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

[email protected]

ABSTRACTIndian education has come a long way from its typical gurukul system to moderne-learning technique. With time the format, courses of studies, scope of syllabus andeven the tenure of disciplines has been modified. Broadly the various faculties canbe segregated into 4 groups- general or traditional education, technical education,management education and medical studies. All with their own pros and cons arestill preferred by various sections of pupils.

The findings of this paper can be used effectively while framing new syllabushenceforth. The upcoming students can use the results to mark their choice forgraduation and post graduation courses. A demanding syllabus can improve theefficiency and productivity in turn.

Introduction

The definition, nature and concept ofthe term ‘education’ have undergone achange with the shift in social, economicand cultural environment of the society.Education for today’s generation is ameans to earn their livelihood. The greaterthe expected future earning is the more themarket demand and value of the course.When the auspicious and divine value ofthe education as jotted down in ourscriptures is measure against it beinganother mode of investment, it surely is asetback for the older generation. Ratherthan indulging in the debate between whichgeneration’s view is appropriate or for the

matter of fact profitable, it will be easierto analyse the usefulness of this ‘education’from various aspect as of today. Educationattained by one generation should providebenefit to all the three generations- past,present and future.

The importance of education can beestimated from the fact that out of the 5basic needs of life, most of which arefreebie for general public, it is one of them.Definitely this education does not involvehigher education. Elementary andsecondary education is mostly subsidized,on the contrary higher education in the fieldof engineering, medical and managementstudies are not. The question then arises is

Parikalpana - KIIT Journal of Management


why are people themselves or governmentinterested to spend for higher education.Obviously they expect something in returnof it. If it’s a private individual then theyexpect to add a few more zeros to theiraccount. If its govt. – may it be central orstate- it too expects to generate greaterrevenue in the near future. The nextquestion that pops up in mind is, if everyoneis concerned with the return of highereducation then what exactly is the ‘return’(both private and social) worth of? Is thatreturn proportional to the investment ineducation? If not then is it more or lessthan proportional to the invested amount?

EDUCATION POLICY-2013

According to Annual Status ofEducation Report (Aser) 2013, publishedby Pratham, scenario in higher educationis not rosy. In terms of researchproductivity, India has 7.8 scientists per1000 population compared to 180.7 inCanada, 53.1 in South Korea and 21.2 inthe US. Harvard University’s endowmentstands at $32 billion whereas the totalextramural grants provided to Indianuniversities put together is about Rs 12billion. There should be a three-prongedplan. One evolution of Right to Educationshould have greater emphasis on qualityat the ground level with achievable goals.Second the investment in higher educationshould be more than 2 per cent of GDP infive years. Important Bills such as TheProtection and Utilisation of Public FundedIntellectual Property Bill and The HigherEducation and Research Bill are pending

in Parliament. These Bills need to becleared in order to provide better financialincentives for talented scientists.

Finally, there has to be a renewedcommitment to greater public-privatepartnerships in the higher and lowereducation systems.

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

People usually invest where theexpected future return is positive-high orlow matters next. So if we assume that itis positive for private individual then thedebate will turn towards the motive of govt.investment in higher education. In ademocratic country like ours govt. is usuallymotivated towards welfare. A society canfollow the trail of progress only througheconomic boost, which in turn depends onvarious factors like factor endowment,environmental factors, political stability,human capital etc. Human capital hasalways been a part of both theoretical andempirical analyses of development inneoclassical and endogenous growthmodels. Thus is the importance of humancapital in classical theory.

So what exactly is the relationshipbetween higher education anddevelopment of a nation, for which GOIis spending quite an amount towardshigher education? Many researchers havealready established the fact that educationhas a positive relation to the economicdevelopment of a nation. In the short runit may not be so evident but in the long runit’s definitely going to yield a greater

15Youth and Education : An Invisible hand for development

impact. Since the relation has already beenestablished and an accepted fact, thesuspense that remains is to what degreeor to what extent do they respond to oneanother? Most of the research papers haveused Mincer’s equation to justify theirviews. According to Jacob Mincer theorythe amount of human capital can becalculated by using the years of schoolingand experience combined in one equation.Here the basic assumption - formaleducation is to be included restricts thestudy within limited boundary. At the sametime ignorance of quality of schooling andindividuality of learner acts as a hindrance.Apart from the limitations it’s still thefavourite of research scholars in this arena.

OBJECTIVE

To study different parameters thataffects the quality of higher education.To analyze & interpret eachparameter and the position of itamong others.To rank these parameters accordingto their contribution among threefaculties.To suggest different measures thatwould help in the academicdevelopment of the state.

METHODOLOGY

The paper will focus only on technicaleducation, management education andgeneral education. This paper shall bebased on questionnaire collected fromprimary sample survey, consisting ofstudents who are taking various courses

along with the immediate pass outs. Thequestionnaire was framed with the intentthat students can put their desired valueagainst each variable. The range of thevalue was 0% to 100%, based on theiragreement that signified a full 100% ordisagreement of 0%. After the collectionof the data, each observation was noteddown against their respective class intervalof gap 10. Then average was calculatedusing arithmetic mean formula. Once thesub parameter were averaged then grandmean of the groups were calculated. Grandmean here is the mean of means ofvariables under one heading. Same issueswere raised to the immediately passedouts. Taking into consideration that ‘timeis money’ for them instead of % patternthey were asked to express their feelingsin Yes/No style- saving time and fulfillingthe purpose simultaneously.

QUALITY OF EDUCATION

With India ranking 3rd largestacademic system and with formulation ofnational policy on education thefundamental problems of higher educationhave come into limelight. Education in itselfis not sufficient for the overall developmentof the society. It has to be backed by strongquality. By quality what we mean is thekind of study which will help the studentsto get a productive job in the world ofcompetition. The quality should be suchthat its participants that are the degreeholders can bank upon.

There is some extent of confusion(many left the question unanswered)


regarding the quality of education in theB.Tech course. Still students have not lostall there hope with respect to the qualityaspect (Grand Mean is 60.92). Currenttechnical education fails to help in retentionof topics completed within the past twoyears (42.63)*. Present evaluationmechanism of university/institution is alsoquestionable (56.12). As with the scopeof the present syllabus students think it tobe too diversified (52.36). There was atie up on the issue of memorizing of thecontents versus understanding of thecontents (67). Higher education yet in agood way helps in reducing the stress(52.63) and also strengthens emotionalintelligence (deal with emotionalbreakdown 65.52). There was a strongpositive response to the point that withhigher qualification technical peopledevelop differences in attitude (82.89).

There is some concern amongmanagement students regarding quality ofeducation (61.80). Management educationhelps in retention of information to a greaterextent (57.22) compared to other two.MBA students are well satisfied withevaluation mechanism of university(71.66). Many of them do find the scopeof the present syllabus is too diversifiedthough (57.22). Numbers indicate that,management education do not reducestress for most of them (48.33). butmanagement course does strengthenemotional intelligence (69.44).Management syllabus too focuses on thememorizing (51.66) and simultaneouslyunderstanding (62.77) of the contents.

Management people also like technicalpeople develop differences in attitude withmore qualifications (76.11).

The situation is better among generaleducation students. They have more faithin their own syllabus (Grand Mean is 65.72). General education do helps in retention oftopics completed within the past two years(55.52). Students are also quite ok withevaluation mechanism of university (68.68).But there seems to be some problem withthe scope of the syllabus. Students find ittoo diversified (69.21). Though syllabusmainly focuses on the memorizing (65) ofthe contents, yet understanding of thecontents scores more points (67.11). Likeengineering general education also reducesthe stress among the pupils (66.58),strengthens emotional intelligence (69.21).General line students agree with theircounterpart in technical line but vary indegree to the issue of differences in attitude.They are less aggressive (65.62).

USEFULNESS OF EDUCATION

Education is a kind of service whichnot only benefits the individual purchasingit but also the entire surrounding. The spillover effect of education is too strong andmostly positive in nature. Higher educationbenefits the individuals pursuing it monetarilythrough higher productivity and netearnings, better job opportunities, highersavings and personal and professionalmobility; and nonmonetary througheducational enrichment, better labourconditions, higher personal status, better jobsatisfaction, better health and life


expectancies, more hobbies and leisureactivities and personal development. At thesame time education being a ‘quasi- good’can spread from one generation to anothergeneration without much of a cost.

Engineering students perceive theireducation to be most useful in their futurelife (Grand Mean 72). Their syllabuscompleted during academic years shall beable to help them in their practical workinglife (62.36), in building a strong team(82.36) and completing various projectsplaced under their team. The coursecontent shall also increase skill andefficiency in the technical market (62.10).They have faith that higher education shallhelp in gaining self motivation andincrement in salary (72.63).

There is 46% concern among generalstudents regarding usefulness of education.Usefulness of general education in practicalworking life raises a few eyebrows(62.89) . General graduates seem to beless confident while answering to be ableto work in group (62.89) than technicalstudents. But they are much confident thattheir course content shall increases skilland efficiency in the job market (64.47).According to the educates education helpsin gaining self motivation (66.31) andincrement in salary is governed by higherqualification (70.26).

Management education appears to beuseful to the individual (Grand Mean68.33) . Management candidates thinktheir syllabus shall help in day to day life(66.11) by motivating them (73.88),

building team (69.44), increasing skill andefficiency (71.66) and ultimately highersalary (60.55).

SOCIETY AND EDUCATION

Man is a social animal. Deduct ‘social’and we are left with man is an animal. Sono matter how much criticism we have toface we still have to live with the society.Actually not live ‘with’ the society but live‘in’ the society. So it won’t hurt much ifwe are able to beautify this society of oursa bit little by little with time. A society runsthrough its faith, belief and customs. Allthese are not permanent. They are subjectto change. It’s more or less a mind-set thatpulls the string. So changing the mind orits thinking process can be a great help.With this belief

There is highest (Grand Mean 69.04)concern among these engineering studentsregarding society and education thangeneral (Grand Mean65.06) andmanagement (Grand Mean 65.69). At thesame line they accept that westernizationof education is a setback to traditionalbelief and culture (61.31). but it’s themanagement youths who care most forbelief in traditions and its loss (65) thencomes general(60.26). Technical youth aremost materialistic than spiritual in thought(83.42), general boys and girls are thelowest in this aspect (57.10), managementis in middle (69.44). Technical studentsbelieve greater education reduces crimerate in a region (67.10). They support thethinking that higher education can providesafety to women (66.05) and education


as a necessary condition for womanempowerment (87.10). but it’s the generalstudents who placed more faith (70.26)on their education in safeguarding thesociety against crime, unlike managementstudents (56.11).

Green banking is the slogan of thetime in the banking sector. Saving everypiece of paper is the most we can do tosave our planet from being barren. So thepaper tried to find how much aware wereour present generation to this fact.Technologically upgraded engineeringstudents should and does find using plasticmoney easier than withdrawal or depositforms (87.10) compared to general(63.42) or management students (79.44)thus saving paper. Looking fromtransportation along with fuel prices andits impact on the environmental pollutionit’s the same engineering students (73.94)who mostly preferred public transport thanpersonal vehicle. Whereas management(71.66) and general students (66.57)showed less interest in public vehicles.Cutting down trees to widen the roads isessential. But strangely managementstudents topped in protecting the trees(71.63) by not agreeing to chop downtrees for better infrastructure followed bygeneral (67.66). Engineering studentsshowed least bothered about the fallingtrees (26.31) may be because their mindsare working differently.

IN SERVICE

There is multifaceted concern amongin-service students regarding quality of

education which includes education helpsin retention of topics completed within thepast two years(8%), Present evaluationmechanism of university/ institution issatisfactory(8%), Scope of the presentsyllabus is too diversified, Higher educationhelps in reducing the stress(6%), Educationstrengthens emotional intelligence (dealwith emotional breakdown-7%), Syllabusmainly focuses on the memorizing of thecontents(0%), Syllabus mainly focuses onthe understanding of the contents(7%),With higher qualification people developdifferences in attitude(7%).

There is diversified concern amongthese students regarding usefulness ofeducation which includes The syllabuscompleted during academic educationhelps in practical working life, Theeducation attained helps in building teamwork, The course content increases skilland efficiency in the job market, Highereducation helps in gaining intrinsicmotivation or self motivation (8%),Increment in salary is governed by higherqualification (5%).

There is various concern amongthese students regarding society andeducation which includes Higher educationprovides safety to women(7%),Westernization of education is a setbackto Traditional belief and culture(7%),Educated youth are more materialistic thanspiritual in thought(3%), Education anecessary condition for womanempowerment,


Education reduces crime rate in aregion, Using ATM is easier thanwithdrawal or deposit forms (5%), Publictransport (Bus or Auto) is preferable thanpersonal vehicle, Cutting down trees towiden the roads is essential(5%).

CONCLUSION

We can conclude that managementstudents have balance preferences forquality of education, usefulness ofeducation and concern towards societyas they have to manage these resources.General students are inclined towardsboth quality of education and usefulnessof education as they have to select theircareer looking into the both. Engineeringstudents are more inclined to usefulnessof education as they are from technicalfield. Service holders have differentviews regarding quality of education,usefulness of education and concerntowards society as they are coming fromdifferent sources. This paper does notlook into the affordability of the technicalor management courses because thesamples have already a part of theprograms. Affordability is a majordebatable topic when it comes to thehigh profile courses. Equitabledistribution of a product like educationwith strong sense of spill over effectcannot be neglected for long.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONSetting up of Central Universities,with high quality of infrastructure forteaching and research

Setting up IIT and IIM, which areleaders in Technical and ManagementEducation in the country and haveearned very high reputation for theirgraduates internationallyOpening up the ProfessionalEducation Sector to large scaleprivate investment and permitting theinvestors cost recovery from studentfeesEstablishing Indian Institutes ofInformation Technology both in thePublic and Private sectors, andcrating a new phase of public/ privatepartnership in the IT area with theInstitutions given Deemed UniversityStatus and ensuring active Industryinvolvement in Governance.Implementing the plan for producingthe required human resource for therapidly growing InformationTechnology Industry permittingprivate sector to establish a worldclass institutionPermitting private sector to establisha world class institution inManagement (ISB at Hyderabad)with linkages with world classinstitutionsPermitting some deemed Universitiesto open campuses both in otherstates and abroadTo narrow the scope of syllabus andmake them more practical oriented

(*) number in the bracket shows themean value.


REFERENCE

Afza, T. and Nazir, M.S. (2007).Economic Competitiveness and HumanResource Development: An FDI

Perspective. Pakistan Economicand Social Review, 45(2): 167-180.

Agrawal, T. (2011). Returns toEducation in India Some Recent Evidence.http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2011-017.pdf

Bhandari, L. and Bordoloi, M.(2006). Income Differentials and Returnsto Education. Economic and PoliticalWeekly, 41(36): 3893-3900.

Dutta, P.V. (2006). Returns toEducation: New Evidence for India,1983–1999, Education Economics,14:4, 431-451.

h t t p : / / d x . d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 8 0 /09645290600854128

Mincer, J. (1996). EconomicDevelopment, Growth of Human Capital,and the Dynamics of the Wage Structure.Journal of Economic Growth, 1(1): 2948

Psacharopoulos, G. (2009) . ReturnsTo Investment In Higher Education AEuropean Survey. An contribution to theHigher Education Funding ReformProject. CHEPS-led consortium for theEuropean Commission.

Psacharopoulos, G. and Patrinos, H.A. (2004). Returns to Investment inEducation A Further Update. EducationEconomics, 12(2): 111-134

ANNEXTUREGraph 1- Response of engineeringstudents towards usefulness of educationto society and its quality

Graph 2- Response of general studentstowards usefulness of education to societyand its quality

Graph 3- Response of managementstudents towards usefulness of educationto society and its quality

21

Graph 4- Showing response towards parameters of quality of education.

Graph 5- Showing response towards parameters of usefulness of education.

Youth and Education : An Invisible hand for development

Graph 6- Showing response towards parameters of education and society.


Graph 7- Response of recent pass outs in job towards usefulness of education tosociety and its quality

23

Time Fusion :Education and Employment

A. BhattacharyaFinal Year MBA Student, KIIT School of Management

KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, [email protected]

S. TripathyAssociate Professor,

KIIT School of ManagementKIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

[email protected]

ABSTRACTThe Challenges faced by today’s growing Economy and Population are Employabilityand Education. And the convergence of these two parallel paths can only beginthrough positive incremental human capital development thoughts converted intooutput. And for this the Central Government of India, State Governments and thepeople in private sector, academics, and citizens at large are jointly responsible. Inthis Volatile and Competitive Era, it is the clarion call for us to understand thedynamics of sustainability through productive Employment- which incidentally isalso rooted back to Education as its node. So we need to discuss the bottlenecks inthe path of 21st century demography based appropriate education from childhoodto adulthood, into employability. And to avoid disguised unemployment we need toidentify the relevant skill-sets for the right opportunities in employability as well.This paper is an analysis about the differences in mind-sets of the “to do & to act”types given our current socioeconomic conditions in this modern era of InformationHighway.

Keywords: Economy, Population, Education, Employability, Sustainability.

Introduction

India the biggest democracy in theworld has a huge growing population. By2020 it is expected that average Indian agewill be 29 years and almost 116 million ofthe population will be below 20-24 years.65% of India is under the age of 35 yearsand 600 million are below 25 yearspresently. Over the next 15 years theworkforce of the entire world will reduceby 5% and the Indian workforce will grow

by 32%. This huge number will define theframe work for the next generation andwill create the world a better place to live.But question here arises that can thesegenerations over the time frame sustainthemselves in this era of globalization andmake a stand for a greener productivityon the surface of mother earth? Cancivilization continue with minimum pollutionand resource depletion? All such question



will be answered through a processtransformation of animals to human beingsis called “Education”. Every human beingcan be said to be the superior animal onlyif he or she can have the ability to thinkand produce the output through a designof aesthetic. This ability to think andproduce can only be obtained byeducation. Education is a wholesomepackage, which imparts knowledge,Character, Personality, Behaviour, Skillsand moulds the thinking patter whichmakes a difference not just creatingemployment.

Literature Review

Sean Worth 2002 1 stated that theincreasing importance of work-lifeflexibility and lifelong learning toemployment requires flexible approachesto career and education choices, startingat school-leaving age. The empiricalresearch in this area represents lack ofacademic and political consideration aboutyoung people’s attitudes towards theirprospects in the modern labour market.His findings through survey conducted toshow context of flexible employmentprospects. The findings revealed thesample to hold a general commitment to atraditional ideal of standard employment,

especially as a return for personalinvestment in human capital. Interestingdistinctions emerged between groups ofschool leavers, which may haveimplications for the employability ofdifferent groups of young people in a moreflexible working future.

Mantz Yorke in 2006 2 published thatemployability is a set of achievementswhich constitute a necessary but notsufficient condition for employment.Employability on the analysis presented,valuing of good learning, the implicationsfor curricular activities in higher education.He stated that while employers might askfor multi-competent graduates, someaspects of employment-related capabilitycan only be developed in the context: workplacements of various kinds during a highereducation program can portray thecompeting skills.

Moreland, Neil,3 published thatentrepreneurship can be seen as a specialform of employability. When educationalinstitutes promote employability, they arealso promoting elements ofentrepreneurship. According to his analysisstudents need to understand what it meansto be self-employed, what sources of helpare available and where the main pitfalls

1 Sean Worth, “Education and Employability: School leavers’ attitudes to the prospect of non-standard work”, Journal of Education and Work, Volume 15, Issue 2, pages 163-180, 2002, DOI:10.1080/13639080220137825, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13639080220137825#.UzR5n4XTExL

2 Mantz Yorke, “Employability in higher education: what it is, what it is not”, Higher EducationAcademy, 2006, ISBN: 1905788010, © NCVER, http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv16446

3 Moreland, Neil, “Entrepreneurship and higher education: an employability perspective”, York,England: Higher Education Academy, 2006, ISBN: 1905788037, © NCVER, http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv48741

25Time Fusion : Education and Employement

lie. Higher education already doessomething to meet these needs butprovision is restricted and is not equallyavailable to all students. To his credit theresearch draw the connections betweenentrepreneurship, employability andmainstream higher education curricula inall subject areas at postgraduate andundergraduate levels.

Objective

a) To understand the basic need foreducation and employability and theimpact of time on it.

b) To study the relationship betweeneducation & employment and its roleon today’s economy.

Paper focusses on the evolvingthought process of education toemployment, with ‘human capital’ asa critical resource.

Methodology

Transformation of animals to humanbeings by education makes them humancapital resources. Without education i.e.building up of skill and gaining knowledgea human being becomes machines. Impactof education also helps to builds upcharacter. But to inculcate education thechallenges faced can only overcome bydefining the bottlenecks which should bestudied, identified and then tried toeradicate them and implement the betterpractices.

The UNDP (United NationsDevelopment Program) defines HDI(Human Development Index) as the major

development Index by which developmentcan be studied and quantified. Among themEI (Education Index) is one such categorywhich defines the HDI. The calculationbased on these give us the frame for thedevelopment of human capital resourcesin the process of Education.

This analysis is developed withsecondary data available in differentreports and employment data here is beenobtained from different reports of NSS.Tables are used and are given in theappendix to develop the thought processand to build this paper. This paper isdivided into three modules which are asfollows:

i. Conceptual building of thetheme of education andEmployment on time axis.

ii. Employment scenario in Indiaiii. Policy Lag

Each of the modules is in contrastwith demographic division of our countrylike India and analyzed over the time frameand finally we conclude in the last module.

Conceptual building of themeEducation & Employment

For a country to grow it is highlyneeded that the economy should be selfsustained i.e. it should be able in generatingrevenue or production of goods/services,but to achieve this employability andcreation of employment plays a vital rolein determining the framework. Educationon the other hand plans for the frameworkto sustain this employment and hence


nurtures it. Education should as such bywhich character is formed, strength of mindis increased, that intellect is expanded, andby which one can stand on one’s own feeti.e. he can lead a sustainable life byproducing the desired output as humancapital resources.

Through education we say that thejourney for development of human beingscan be achieved and this can only bestudied over two time frames.

• For Short Run-

– Which is a point of time approach(i.e. it can create GDP for that year)

• For long Run-

– Resources that can be utilized overa stream of GDP over a time period

For both the cases stated above timeaxis plays a vital role in determining whatkind of action it will be followed and thekind of utilization it will bring fordevelopment of human beings and economyof a country at large. These frames can onlybe achieved with vision to create either shortterm or long term approach to enhance toproduction of the economy or in otherwords to increase the GDP.

Employment scenario in India

Knowledge, Skills & Attitudecomprises of an individual’s employabilitypackage. India needs to nurture its talent.The demographic dividend of the countryis widely acknowledged as unleashing thepotential entrepreneurship inherent in thistalent is something that can really move

India to the next level. Entrepreneurship isnot just the province of start-ups andnew companies. There’s room forentrepreneurship in all walks of life whetheryou take civil society, political life,government and even in mainstreamcompanies. Not being sure that many ofthe top 500 or 1,000 companies wouldmerit the epithet ‘entrepreneurial’.There are opportunities to nurtureentrepreneurship both within themselvesand in the system within which theyoperate. Is it always essential to take outthe best of a talented resource? The 1stpicture which comes in our mind when wetalk about a conventional organizationrelated to its talent development fieldincludes a well structured HR system, witha systematic or in an elite way of sourcingtalent, particularly from both branded andnew collages and university. But when welook back in respect of INDIA, we alwaysfind a very well versed education system,but the source which connects all thisdoesn’t give you a proper track to followand hunt, which leads the HR to face aloads of informational limitations. As aresult it prevents us from hiring from otherthan known institutes. That means thattalent which is distributed across thecountry is mostly disenfranchised,disconnected from the economicmainstream. There is always a gap findbetween the demand and supply ofemployability from both the companies aswell as the young employable perspective.Which says or questions to itself that isthere something’s required to be done?


From facts stated below from theNSS Report 2009-10 4 states that -

– Both Rural & urban areas,unemployment rate among theeducated was higher than thatamong those whose educationallevel was lower than secondary.

– Female unemployment wasmuch more both in Rural andurban when education level washigher than secondary orgraduate and above.

To draw conclusion from such data,it is a matter to ponder upon that is reallyeducation enhancing employability ofhuman resources or is it the curriculum orthe way by which education is deliveredneeds to be analysed once again if such isthe case of education both in rural andurban sector irrespective of the gender todraw employability through employment.It can also be analysed in such a way i.e.may be the education is enhancing theknowledge but due to lack of skillsunemployment rate is increasing.Questions arise that what kind of skill set,or who should teach to enhance such skillset, are there any kind of provokingrequired to include the same in curriculumand so on. On the other hand it can alsobe stated that there is not much ofemployment created for employability. Thecapital investment of the country isenhancing to bring more employment toits countrymen but is it really being done

Policy Lag

Vision plays a very crucial and criticalmedium to define the objective. Andimplementation of the thought is the majorchallenge. It defines what will be the futurecourse of action and how thus the objectivewill be fulfilled. To have a concreteframework in design, the vision policies aremade. But it happens that mostly everytime that the policy- framework is eithernot implemented or the policy itself is notdesigned. Thus it becomes a critical casewhere there is policy sabotage and theentire economy faces the challenge. So toovercome these challenges, policy shouldbe implemented as a two way approach -One from the Government End and theother from the Private Sector. Both thesectors play a vital role in generating therevenue of the country so if both the trackswork simultaneously then economyblooms and thus gives a higher productivityor growth.

It is seen that global average ofallocation of resources for education is 5%of GDP. For developed nations it isgenerally 6-7% of the GDP. On the otherhand if we compare India (postindependence) we see that there is ainvestment which has never crossed 4%of its GDP (both including centre andstate). Nordic countries has a allocation

4 NSS Report. 537: Employment And Unemployment Situation In India , Chapter Six , P G 152-180,2009-10.

or the policy lag or high involvement ofbureaucracy on the same track is creatingbottle necks ?


of 1.4-2.3% of GDP in early childeducation; Austria, France, Hungarygenerally spend 0.5-1.0 % of GDPwhereas India spends 0.001% of GDP onthe same. The comparison becomes morevibrant if the demographic dividends of thecountries are compared with one of thevariables being population. If we furtheranalyse the figures we get that 30% onaverage is spent on higher education. 65years after independence we see that 30%i.e. over 300 millions are comprehensivelyilliterate and another 50% are quasiliterate.1975 Integrated Child DevelopmentServices (ICDS) for early childhood &nutrition of infants established receivedtoken rather than adequate annualallocation in Union Budget. i.e. 72 millionwas received and 86 million was deprived,hence only 10% middle class & upperclass enrolled in 2 ,20,000 privatepreschools of all types, among that 1/3rdreceive the contemporary early childeducation.

Industry- Academic interface is thecritical medium that defines the contoursof 21st century education dynamics, andthe industry needs to participate more inR&D. In India only 1% of GDP is spenton R&D and 80% on this is spent byGovernment of India. In developed nationsincluding china it it’s just the opposite.FICCI is here to play the important role-the National Knowledge functional Hubis one such mile stone of the current policyadvancement. The reason is behind this isto reverse the order of current

dissatisfaction of the industry with thequality of engineers/ managementgraduates entering industry. VocationalTraining institutes needed in thousandswere Indian industry can play a positiverole here, not just the government.Promoting equity with justice we need toprepare students to change their behaviourand social interaction patters. Need tomake teaching more attractive with a finebalance in communicating. 3 tier educationsystems needed where there is intellectquality, comprehensive system that trainstudent for employment and educationinstitutions that have easy access and highlinked to practical world. Our current grosseducation ratio (GER) must be 50% andnot 19%. Education should be studentcentric with open academic market and aproactive faculty. Every student ought tohave his/ her choice of what he or shewishes to do or achieve in life, rather thannot imposed by parents and faculty. Theentire education system is still regulated byold colonial laws and there is a need toget out of such boundary as soon aspossible. The scopes of private university/institutions are also limited withdiscriminatory practices at all levels. Onlybottle neck mantra is compromise tosurvive. Institutions transformation throughnetworks, which enables sharing ofknowledge/good practices and builds aninter-university cooperation. Thesenetworks can assist mutual issues throughprojects, programmes and events thatpromote quality education and not wastefulexpenditure. This also provides valuable


platform to engage in higher education thatencourages research and wider national/international exposure by stimulatingdebate and discussions on key policy andoperational issues.

NSDC has a target of skilling 500million by 2020 and industry, governmentand academia can play a proactivecollaborative effort on this problem solvingsector wise. The industry academiainterface also aims to improveemployability. It is also required that weneed to benchmark the educationstandards with others and update it aswhen required. The 12th 5 year planfocuses upon the consolidation and qualityof higher education. It is the time weformulate the strategic and acted unison.Our neighbours (China) have implementedit since 1949 were by we are still laggardin this aspect. We need to formulate onquantity and quality trade off in highereducation, the dualistic nature of IndianHigher Education system, and thecompatibility of ‘partners’, ‘network’.Importance of policy should beemphasised on

• Proper Development ofCurriculum

– Curriculum is being developedon the basis of selling thatcurriculum depending on themarket.

• Government Expenditure

– Fiscal Expenditure or Fiscalboost for Capital Expenditure

Companies can sponsor colleges tocreate apprentice programs between thecolleges and the companies. The studentspends some time in the college, some inthe company. This is well-establishedaround the world. In Germany,apprenticeship is a way of life. Second,companies can work with colleges anddevelop training curriculum. Some of themmay be for two year programs, some forthree years, some vocational, somedegree-granting. The point is that thereare several ways in which corporate Indiacan get engaged with education in a muchmore systematic and condensed way.Some companies are already doing this inIndia.

The point to make is that companiescan be on the lookout to plug holes in theentrepreneurial ecosystem. We should betrying to upgrade our entire institutionalfabric for re-education over time. It canbe seen that the role that the state plays isnot particularly well functioning in ourcountry today. Not because the state isnot capable of doing it, but it needs somecatalysis from the corporate sector and civilsociety. It’s not that the state is entirelyasleep. Take a look at the government’sfabulous initiative, National SkillDevelopment Corporation (NSDC), forexample, which takes skilling seriously, andis intelligently mobilizing corporate indifferent sector-skill councils and using itsresources to edge on (corporate) change.NSDC strikes the right note by workingwith the private sector. Similarly the privatesector has to work with the state,


proactively. In effect, India’s corporatewill have to engage in the partial privateprovision of public infrastructure. The loophole in the Policy Making lies in

– Economy should have GDPexpansion and should aim at creating moreemployment opportunity rather thanincreasing unproductive conspicuousconsumption just by increasing salary bills.

– Emphasis should be given to socialsector development of education andyouths and it should be treated as capitalexpenditure made by the Govt. Of India.

– Policy should be providingconductive atmosphere for augmentingprivate investment which can boost theemployment opportunity.

Conclusion

The focus of Indian Education isundergoing a paradigm shift. TheGovernment of India regardless of whichparty is in power has committed with a setof senior bureaucrats who have acceptedthe urgent need to change the contours ofour education system and is hugelysupported by all. These are facts not fictionand if we do not change we shall need tomake way for the other waiting changemasters. Any change takes its time in acountry with uniqueness and weakness asour own. Greed, power and corruptpractices have to be forgotten. India’sunder development skill set, <30 years ofage are creating aspirations andexpectations among all citizens. In thebattle of the vicious cycle mounts with the

emerging virtuous, which side are you onis the question. So we are reaching asituation where if we do not shape up weshall be shoved out of the system. Thechoice is ours to make for our children andtheir offspring. It is now time to fight abattle against TIME rather than CRIME.

Table - 3

Table - 2

Appendix

Table - 1


Table - 5Table - 4


Professional Education for Employability:A Critical Review

Biswa B. Das & R. N. SubudhiKIIT School of Management,

KIIT University Bhubaneswar, IndiaMail : [email protected]

ABSTRACTEmployability is just not about getting a job. It also encompasses sustainability andcontinuity in employment. ‘Getting, Keeping and Doing-Well’ on a job, appears to bea very apt definition for employability. It also includes those skills which are verybasic and fundamental in nature and needs attention at early stage of life of astudent; right from childhood, to teenage stage and university education period.Thus proper parenting is called for, to take care of those early years skills development,so that B-school grooming becomes more productive riding on those strongfoundation blocks.

Education policy at primary, secondary and higher education stage needs to belooked upon in a holistic manner. It should carry consistency, maintain congruenceand coordination within the sequential stages. Professional involvement of theindustry is a very critical input for effective contribution in this roadmap ofprofessional education to employability transition. For India to consolidate itsposition as a service sector global hub, a lot needs to be done to get maximum yieldfrom the demographic advantage we have. Otherwise the huge educated youthmanpower can spell disaster for the country, if proper employment skills and abilitiesare not groomed.

The present paper reviews the present status, close home and tries to draw inspirationsfrom global best practices and makes some doable recommendations.

Keywords: Employability, Sustainability, Parenting, Policy Framing, ProfessionalEducation, Industry Internship.

Introduction

We have a saying in Odia, that “Catkeeps its eyes closed while having milk”.This was coined in the context, confidenceinvites trouble. It can also be used tohighlight the fact that when we analyse a

problem as experts, we tend to focus &narrow down so much that, we oftenignore the broader picture for sake ofsimplifying the effort and end up getting awrong or a very limited result.

33Professional Education for Employability: A critical Review

Whenever we discuss aboutperformance of professional education ingeneral and B-schools in particular, weinvariably talk of campus to industry gap.Connecting the dots (linkage between B-schools and companies of placement), hasbeen a common theme for so manyworkshops. However, it may sound a bitcynical and pessimistic to say that insteadof connecting the dots, we rather createmore dots and dashes. Yet we think weare moving in the right direction andreaching at a solution to the problem.

Going through research papersrelated to higher education and industrygaps, you will find a lot of commonobservations like, lack of analytical skill,communication skill, entrepreneurialabilities etc. Let us not look at it in isolation.

For some governance reason, wehave created partitions; Primary,Secondary, Higher Education andResearch. Policies made for different levelsare done keeping different objectives inmind. Nevertheless, there is no denying tothe fact that these stages are actually insequence.

How can you neglect a parameter atan early stage terming that to be not soimportant or of least importance and thensuddenly wake up at the higher educationstage and pick up the same parameter asa matter of high priority. After the die iscast, we are trying to make the materialmore mouldable. Once the cement issettled, hardened and concrete is formed,

can you pour more water or somechemical to change its shape andorientation?

What has this example got to do withhigher education? In our over enthusiasmto ramp up literacy rate and enrolment ratioin higher education, we dole out gracemarks very liberally at the primary andsecondary level (especially in very basicArithmetic, English etc.). The same bunchof students go-on and get into variousprofessional/technical courses at a laterstage. Then we expect that the Instituteswill create some magic in their system,where those very students will exhibitpresentation, analytical and operationalskills that make them future Indra Nooyis,Vikram Pandits or Subrato Bagchis.

Where is the Gap ?

After more than six decades ofindependence, we still are creating populistpolicy by doling out unreasonable levelsof grace marks. It is one thing to stretch20-25 to 30, and it is another entirelymeaningless thing to stretch 5-10 to 30through grace marking and call it a socialobjective of promoting education.

Subudhi and Paltasingh (2013), intheir paper titled “Quest for Quality,World-Class Educational Organization:Strategic Management Issues”, have citedvery pertinent studies, wherein regulatorybody (like AICTE) and advisory bodyreport, based on admission and place (likeASSOCHAM) also have criticized profile


Course Percentage of Duration of the Amount spent on Current -employable course (Year) the course Monthly salary

MBA 10% to12% 2 years 0.3 -0.5 million 10,000 to 15,000

MCA 8% to 12% 3.5 years 0.3-0.6 million 15,000 to 25,000

(Amount and salary figures are in Indian Rupees)

‘The Associated Chambers ofCommerce and Industry of India(ASSOCHAM) paper on “B-schools andEngineering colleges shut down- BigBusiness Struggles” reveals that since2009, the recruitments at the campus havegone down by 40% in the year of 2012 asa result the B-schools and engineeringcolleges are not able to attract students,more than 180 B-schools have alreadyclosed down in 2012 in the major citiesDelhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore,Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow,Dehradun etc. Another 160 are strugglingfor their survivals. ASSOCHAM hasadvised to improve the infrastructure, traintheir faculty, work on industry linkages,spend money on research and knowledgecreation, as well as pay their faculty wellin order to attract good teachers. Jobs andpromise of high pay packages becamedistant dream to these aspiring managers.’

Let us see what happens at thefoundation stage. As per ASER (AnnualStatus of Education Report) facilitated byNGO Pratham, in Maharashtra schools,only 17.8% of class III students could doa two-digit subtraction, which is lower than

24 % students who managed to do thesame problem last year. The number ofstudents in Class V who could read textfrom Class II textbook stands at 59.5%which is lower than the 73.2% studentswho managed this task in 2010. (Source:website of Times of India, 17 Jan 2014,01:07 am IST ).

Thus, we see that things are not onlybad, it has gone from bad to worse in spiteof RTE being in place.

In another paper titled “The Businessof Business Schools: Restoring a Focuson Competing to Win” by Robert Simons,the author has explored the possibility thatfour trends in current MBA curriculums—theory creep, mission creep, doing well bydoing good, and the quest forenlightenment—are actually teachingstudents to be uncompetitive in today’sglobal markets. He then proposes thatbusiness school curriculums should be re-centred around the tough choices neededto compete—and to win.

Let us first understand what we meanby employability, one particular article onthe subject actually amused us. The authors

of colleges during 2010-12, the teachingand placement quality of most brought outa summary report, as given in of the

colleges/ schools. ASSOCHAM thefollowing table.


say – Plethora of definitions found on theconcept employability. Scholars andresearchers have defined employabilityfrom their own perspective. (Cited in thearticle titled “Higher Education andEmployability – A Review” by Dr. Sarang

Source: (Carnevale, Gainer, &Meltzer, 1990), Cited in the article “HigherEducation and Employability – A Review”by Dr. Sarang S. Bhola and Sunil S.Dhanawade in PMR Jan-Jun 2012.

Obviously the various skills build upin a gradual, sequential and developmentalmanner. But if one minutely observes, wefind it so difficult to groom certain basicskills beyond a certain age of the person.Is it possible to groom someone inProblem Solving (Sr. no. 3 in the table) orAnalytical skill, if his/her basic

Computation skill (Sr. no. 1) isatrociously poor? Is it possible to groomNegotiation skill (Sr. no. 5), if his/her basicSpeaking and Listening skill (Sr. no. 2) isvery low?

This clearly brings us back to the factthat there should be a well-designedcongruence and systematic coordinationbetween the policies we adopt at variousstages of education (primary, secondaryand higher education). The whole journeyis like climbing up the ladder. You can’tdesign a ladder with its lower rungs madeof weak and hollow wood and expectpeople to climb that ladder without falling.Let us see another global body’s list.

The National Association ofColleges and Employers (NACE) is aprofessional association that connectscollege career services to potentialemployers. NACE has compiled a list ofthe top 20 skills requested by employers(2007). These skills in rank order are asfollows:

S. Bhola and Sunil S. Dhanawade in PMRJan-Jun 2012.).

Let us go through employabilityrelated skills, as listed out by some globalbodies.

Table 1: American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Skills.

Sr. Group Skills1 Basic Competency Skills Reading, Writing, Computation2 Communication Skills Speaking, Listening3 Adaptability Skills Problem Solving, Thinking Creatively4 Developmental Skills Self-Esteem, Motivation And Goal-Setting,

Career Planning5 Group Effectiveness Skills Interpersonal Skills, Teamwork, Negotiation6 Influencing Skills Understanding Organizational Culture,Sharing

Leadership


Table 2 : NACE: skills requested by employers

Rank Skills Rank Skills1 Analytical Skills 11 Leadership And Management Skills2 Communication Skills 12 Motivation/Initiative3 Computer Skills 13 Organizational And Time Management Skills4 Creativity 14 Real Life Experiences5 Detail-Oriented 15 Self-Confidence6 Risk-Taker 16 Strong Work Ethic7 Flexibility/Adaptability 17 Tactfulness8 Friendly 18 Teamwork Skills9 Honesty/Integrity 19 Technical Skills10 Interpersonal Skills 20 Well-Mannered/Polite

(Source NACE 2007)

Accessed through the article “HigherEducation and Employability – A Review”by Dr. Sarang S. Bhola and Sunil S.Dhanawade in PMR Jan-Jun 2012.

We feel tempted to draw attention tothe fact that these skills are ranked in order,not just random listing. To avoid anyunnecessary repetition, let us straight awaygo to those skills that sound so common,yet fully ignored in our education system(formal or informal) in particular and socialsystem in general.

Friendly (Sr. no. 8), Honesty/Integrity(Sr. no. 9) and Well-Mannered/Polite(Sr.no. 20) are distinctly listed skills as perNACE. Let us honestly admit, what arewe doing about these in our educationsystem?

Let us look at the rank order of theskills; Detailed-Oriented at Sr. no. 5 ismuch higher in order with respect to‘Leadership & Management’ (Sr. no. 11),

‘Organizational & Time Management’ (Sr.no. 13) and Technical (Sr. no. 19). Yet, inall our interviews we give so much of highlydisproportionate importance to ‘TechnicalSkills’ and ignore to judge all those skillslisted from Sr. no. 4 to Sr. no. 9 (Creativity,Detailed-Oriented etc. up to Honesty/Integrity). Probably that is a major causefor those sustainability issues in remainingemployed, leading to unpleasant situationfor organization and the employee.

Getting, Keeping and Doing Well:

Here is a real life small incident thatthe Director of an MBA Institute inMumbai faced. It so happened that heentered into the lift at his work place andfound 3-4 very senior managers fromShoppers Stop, who were on a visit tothe campus for conducting recruitmentinterviews. After quick exchange ofpleasantry, the Zonal Business Headblurted out, “The handful of students that


we hired in the last batch were generallygood and smart, but some of them areatrociously irregular, staying absentfrequently without proper procedure andthus mess up our planned activities.”Looks like 2-3 of them would report oneday and then stay off the next day andagain come the next day.

The Director came back to his room,took a deep breath and rolled back hisHR notes to check and tick against whichof the employability skills, such studentslack in. After a while, it took him to somelateral thinking, that employability also hasgot a lot to do with parenting (not justgrooming at the B-School). Sounds vagueand irrelevant! All of us will agree thatregularity, punctuality, sincerity etc are notdirect skills by definition, but majorfoundation stones for performance andsuccessful career. A student, who wouldhave got free benefit of liberal grace-marking system in the childhood stage topass, will ever value those foundationblocks ahead in life. Charity begins athome. It is all the more important to realizethat “Sense of duty and responsibility beginat home”.

Of all the definition, we find thefollowing to be the most apt. It hits thebull’s eye for analyzing our problem.

“Those basic skills necessary forgetting, keeping and doing well on a job”(Robinson 2000:1).

Stress is on getting, keeping anddoing well on a job.

Getting a job is only the beginning.Sustainability (through objectivecontribution) is a major challenge. At therecruitment and interview stage, thedomain experts, psychologists and the OBspecialist; all probe for those defined skillsin the candidate and select accordingly.Whereas, after joining and may bewhatever orientation program thecandidate goes through, the seniors andthe peers start discovering a lot ofmismatch between the job profile and thecandidate. Is it not enough to indicate thatprobably there is some error in the waywe define employability skills. This is oneangle to doubt our notions.

Let us take another situation. We haveseen plenty many professionals doing greatjob in one organization and utterly failingin another organization of the sameindustry. What works for one engagement,fails in another engagement. Why, so? Isemployability skills definition so narroweddown and pin-pointed that it does not holdgood for another similar organization in thesame industry?

Let us discuss another situation. We(B-schools) often get a lot of flak fromIndustry for not producing what they want.Higher Education is a case of bigger mess& confusion. To elaborate what we mean;at primary and secondary level, we havebetter clarity to understand educationalqualification vis-à-vis vocation. Plumbing,Welding, Mechanic are vocational skillsand SSC/HSC are qualification. Broadlythere is not much of confusion betweenskills and qualification at that level. But, in


case of professional qualification (sayMBA), I always wonder if it is that skill orqualification we are talking of. B-Schoolswant to produce MBA-Finance, MBA-Marketing, HR and so on. Industry wantsready products for Edelweis, Axis Bank,Big Bazar, Reliance Fresh. As a B-School,I should rather produce an MBA, whowould do a specialization in Finance,Marketing or HR etc., and be flexible andmouldable to work in any organisationwithin the functional domain. Let him/herget more narrowed as the careerprogresses in the ladder. Why should aBSchool try to become a training centrefor a specific organization and specific job-profile, not be holistic in nature.

So employability stretches beyondjust getting a job, it also encompassesability to remain employed.

Employability is not just about gettinga job, it also includes so many parametersthat actually come into play after gettingthe job. As stated earlier, there is no deficitof incidents, where the new employeestarts facing difficulties after a shorthoneymoon period (if not immediately onthe next day). Superiors as well as peersstart noticing things that create discomfortfor the new employee and he startsdoubting his own self for every mismatch(between candidate vs. job profile). Oneof the Chief Executive in a very reputedIT company once commented: “Everysales marketing candidate is soimpressive in the interview, but appearsso disappointing after he joins theorganization.”

Let us analyze, who is responsible forthis? All these so-called senior experiencedmembers who constituted themultimember selection committee or thecandidate (a fresher or much lessexperienced)? Idea is not to finger-pointand start a blame game. Let us gracefullyadmit that we all have failed in defining ourproblem. We are not accurate inunderstanding the proper skills andemployability factors. Probably that is thereason for what we discussed - aplethora of definition for what is calledemployability.

Again, that is the reason for ourdiscomfort in the comment made by thesenior executives of Shoppers Stop andthe likes, about those few students. Let usassume that every MBA institution (otherthan the handful of Tier-1 institutions) hasa certain percentage of students who fallin that category.

Charity begins at home. Sense ofDuty and Sense of Responsibility is alsosomething that can’t be taught in a syllabusat the Post Graduate level. It has a lot todo with parenting and primary andsecondary school level education. Thoughwe are here discussing in the article forProfessional Education related matters, itis equally important for any level of job.The point that we want to reiterate here isthat the same parameter has been fullyignored at the formative years (our formaleducation system at primary andsecondary level), and we expect that tobe developed at a stage the students isalready 20+ years of age.


Too much narrowed down specializationspoils the future of the student:

Another criticism - we often see thatevery micro sector within an industry wantsthe Institute to give them ready product.For example, a stock broking firm wantsthat our student should have already doneenough of trading in live sessions and heshould just join them and start trading onDay 1 and make their wealth grow everyminute. Please understand that the Institutewould rather churn out good productswho have very sound FinanceManagement Knowledge and with apositive attitude and enough inclination tolearn the specific process and microactivities in that organization. Teaching thedetailed process and micro activitiesspecific to that organization should be theirresponsibility, not the Institute’s. If wechurn out those so-called micro-expertsin bulk, say in Stock Trading, and then forsome reason the stock broking firms arenot doing well for bad economy phase orso, that guy will be completely out of syncwith any other finance related industryeven. Are we not killing the knowledgespan and potential versatility of that futuremanager for our mean narrow motives.Then, we will make a big hue and cry andsay that even a simple BA/BCom is betterthan the so called MBA.

We must all learn from the recentexperience of IT industry. The trend shiftedfrom software development projects tomundane coders’ job and then to BPOs,all over a span of 10-15 years. Obviously,the job profile requirement for intellectual

component are drastically different for thethree levels that we mentioned. But theindustry (including all the biggies) went onrecruiting engineering graduatesthroughout. Then suddenly, to facecompetitive forces, they started recruitingthe general graduates with less than halfthe salary (given earlier to engineeringgraduates) and then by the time BPO trendpicked up, even 12+ pass students wereOK enough for the mundane BPO workwith further less salary. Thanks to someKPOs who came up lately and made somerecruitment at high-end knowledgeworkers level. But, obviously the numberwas missing. As a result, look at theunemployment ratio of even reasonablyOK type engineering graduates that almosthalf the seats are lying empty in engineeringcolleges and some of them are even closingdown.

Employability as a concept orterminology is often interpreted in a narrowor partial manner looking at the context ofthe situation. The holistic understanding andplanning for employability is more oftenmissed out. For a B-school placement cell,employability means just getting a job offerwithout bothering to look at continuity ofemployment. For the parents,employability is a guaranteed placementmentioned in the brochure of the Institute,backed by statistics of the past batchesand all that is to be bought at a price. Forthe industry, employability means readyproduct available to join and he/she shouldbe productive from the day one. Theydon’t have patience and structured


approach for properly orienting the newlyjoined employee in their micro processsteps for their specific business.

In the process, the most centralstake-holder, i.e. the candidate, isconfused, frustrated and loses self-esteemat a very young stage of life.

For sake of simplifying the issue, wewill try to partition the problems and see ifhow different units are working at crosspurpose and hence the failure.

At school level, we give leastimportance to fundamental concepts thatgo on to build the pillars of employabilityat later stage. Basic arithmetic (addition,subtraction, multiplication and division),preliminary aspects of structuredcommunication, time managementdisciplines are all royally ignored. Yet, wewant to boast about our vision of preparingyoung managers for meeting the challengesof Globalization and India’s emergence asa Super Power.

At home, parents have no time forgrooming children for basic disciplines intheir habits and minimum sincerity in dayto day activity. Yet, we want our teen agersto become thorough professionals, commit100% to their work, exhibit high standardsin their sense of duty and responsibility; allthese overnight, when he/she becomes2223 years of age. Just by paying heftyfees to an Institute, parents want to passthe monkey onto someone else’s back afterfully spoiling the show at the growing stageof childhood and teenage.

Now the Industry – they want readyproducts only. Candidate’s knowledge ofFinance Management at deep conceptlevel is of no interest to them. They wantthe candidates to be already trained inthe micro-processes of their organization.He should be able to fill up the MISreport sheet in SAP R/3 ERP that hasinterface with Oracle Financials andSiebel CRM being used by the regulatoryauthority (just a classic example oftelecom and financial servicesorganizations for explaining purpose).Otherwise, his MBA Finance degree isof no use to the industry.

This debate becomes even morerelevant for any high-end professionalcareer in the present globalization scenario.Managers/Supervisors are now handlingmultiracial, cross-cultural manpower intheir team across geography. Businessmeetings are happening in digital mode(video and audio). Therefore, such skills(as have been ignored often, so far) needto be prioritized if Indian MBA graduatesare to be better equipped for globaloperations. Service sector calls for theseskills more (in relative terms) comparedto manufacturing sector.

Are we doing good in Quantity?

After having debated the relevanceand importance of those not- so-oftendiscussed skills, let us also try to see howeffective has been our policy for HigherEducation in terms of participation of thepopulation (Higher Education EnrolmentRatio).


Table 3 : Higher Education Enrollment per 100,000 Population(Total Tertiary Level Students Enrolled/100,000 Population)

Year / Country 1950 1975 1990 2010France 334 1970 2995 3525Germany 256 1684 2810 3179Italy 310 1749 2519 3372Sweden 241 1985 2248 4910UK 242 1308 2170 3969Japan 471 2017 2328 3058USA 1508 5238 5591 6673Brazil 98 993 1074 3421USSR/Russia 770 - 1900 6599India 73 746 585 1731China 25 54 186 2344

Sources: Derived from populationstatistics and following sources; B RMitchell (1978), International HistoricalStatistics; Europe, New York: Palgrave;B R Mitchell (2003). InternationalHistorical Statistics: Africa Asia andOceania, 1750-2000. New York:Palgrave. Table 12; B R Mitchell (2003International Historical Statistics: TheAmericans, 1750-2000, New York:Palgrave, Table 12, NCES (2007). Digestof Educational statistics, Washington,D.C.: NCES.USSR/Russia data are fromFederal Service for Government Statistics:Russian Statistical Yearbook 2009

[http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/2008/b08_13/07-44.html].

2010 data are from UNESCO,Institute for Statistics, Data Centre. [http://stats.uis.umesco.org/unesco/tableviewer/document.aspx?ReportId=143].

Here is an interesting Table and letus first understand why those specific yearshave been considered as milestones for ourcontext. In the year 1950, India became arepublic and the five year plans startedrolling out. During mid-70’s (1975), Indiawas being noticed as a power in the globalcorridors after strategic victory inBangladesh (in spite of USA’s support toPakistan) and our nuclear programme wasbeing noticed by the world (Pokhran-1happened in 1974). Late 70’s, Chinastarted its Globalization programme(1978). In 1991 India started off in theGlobalization race. Year 2010 gives thelast available data for seeing thecomparative developments.

Even among the BRIC nations, Indiastill lags in the HE enrolment ratio (oneexcuse may be that we started off late).Europe, UK and Brazil are more or lesson similar track. Brazil, though a BRIC


nation is almost at par with Europe averageand ahead of Japan.

Let us see the scene in India andChina. China consistently remained at apoor 1/3rd level of India till 1990 and by2010 it is already 1/3rd more than India.

Is our Education Policy post-globalization, going in the right direction?If China’s HE enrolment can grow 12.6times between 1990 to 2010, why shouldIndia achieve a mere 2.96 times growth inthat very ratio in the same two decades.Without getting into the reasons, we allshould agree that India has failed both inquality and quantity aspects of the highereducation enrolment.

It is also a fact that developedcountries (USA, Europe etc) have a muchmore result oriented and effective highereducation policy when it comes toemployability. Professionally qualifiedpeople don’t struggle for getting a job andremaining employed. I suppose Indiawould be among those very few nations,where professionally qualified students areeither unemployed or under employed.Only last year, we came across thenewspaper report that for State Bank ofIndia’s clerical recruitment advertisement,some thousands of engineers happilyapplied and also joined in large number.

A bit of Cross-Check of Qualityindicator:

The poor quality standard of ourhigher education system is also moreexposed from the fact that there is a huge

difference in the number of “IndianStudents Abroad” and the number of“Foreign Students in India”.

In 2009, number of Indian studentsenrolled in Australian Universities was97,000 and Australian student in India was15. For Scotland it is 3625 vs. 3. Unlessand until we ramp up our quality in HigherEducation, it will continue to be the same.A few foreign students in IIMs, IITs andNITs will not set an international image forIndia in global education scenario.

As put nicely in the conclusion remarkin article titled “Globalization andInternationalization of Higher Education”by Joseph Benjamin in the Journal ofEducational Planning And Administration,Volume XXVI, Number 2, April2012 (ISSN 0971-3859):

“The essential purpose of educationis to prepare the students for acquisitionof knowledge, encourage development oftalents, to provide resources and preparethe youth for the task of nation building.Universities/colleges should come out withnew fellowships for poor and deservingstudents so that they can avail the educationanywhere in the world.”

Quality improvement in highereducation (including professionaleducation) can happen by constant andconsistent effort in improvement of contentas well as process.

Subudhi and Paltasingh (2013) havealso observed that shift in the focus fromadministration driven education system to

43

market driven system has taken place. Ina rule of ‘survival for the fittest’ game, it isa necessity to have constant improvementof both content as well as the process. Thisis to be done on the basis of a long termstrategy.

Authors have further observed witha mark of caution that such changes couldhowever either be simply cosmetic or bereally cosmic. While the intention couldinitially be, a quest for becoming a quality,world-class ESP (Education Service-Providers), a myopic strategy couldpossibly end-up the drive, only in acosmetic physically attractive change,which might not get desired long term,healthy substance. A few critical questionsusually hunt the management of each goodinstitution; such as, what change we need(and why) and at what cost?

CONCLUSION:

Let us sum it up in three distinctcategories for actionable efforts. (Let uscall it the 3Ps)

i. Policy Framing for Education:

The big talk of demographicadvantage of India (largest educated youthmanpower that will emerge around 2030sor so) and the service industry super-power (that India is termed as), is notproperly backed up with futuristicpragmatic policies by regulatory bodies atone hand and the blame game betweenIndustryAcademia on the other. All majorpolicy announcements are now rotting atthe doorsteps of judiciary for years after

years, with no result coming through. Is itnot a laughing matter that even in the samegovernment, one minister follows adrastically different policy visa-vis thatadopted by the predecessor. The MassEducation (primary and secondary)policies, should and must dovetail intoHigher Education policy. Incongruenceand inconsistency is the main reason, andall of us are just beating around the bushto conveniently put the monkey onsomeone else’s back.

It is time the leaders of thegovernance system, industry and academiasit together and plan for creatingopportunity out of that demographicadvantage in terms of proper employabilityvision. Otherwise that huge unemployededucated youth manpower will be amonster to handle.

ii. Professional Involvement ofIndustry in Education:

Probably the newly designed 6 yearsIntegrated Program (B.E. plus MBA) and5.5 years Dual Degree program (BBA andMBA) may be more effective in developinga lot of such skills and employability factorsthat need more prolonged engagement forgrooming. This will enable the colleges toeffectively work on all those neglectedskill-sets due to availability of students formuch longer years of interaction.

AICTE’s new scheme for theseintegrated and dual degree programmeshas still not been fully adopted by manyreputed university and institutes for somereason or the other.

Professional Education for Employability: A critical Review


This brings us to another point in ourdebate to address the campus to companygap. It is time we all should take a call thatthere should be a mandatory 6 (six)months of genuine industry controlledinternship for the MBA graduates. We canredesign the syllabus so as to complete allcampus deliveries in 1.5 years and shipthem out for rigorous/intense industryinternship. If the global MBA program canbe finished in 1 year or 15 months timeframe, why can’t we complete ourcurriculum in 15-18 months. However,genuine intense internship should not becompromised, like what we all have tacitlydone for current pattern of SummerInternship and final term project. It is avicious circle. A major ratio of the studentsdon’t get summer internship with stipend,because the companies either think theyare not worth it or they have obliged thestudent to undergo the internship due toacquaintances, reference or somepressure of higher-ups. Therefore, theyfollow a policy of not giving any serious orauthentic assignment and hence no stipend.What a funny and convenient system. It islike aborting a child because he is quitelikely not going to be a Newton or Einstein.

We would further suggest that poorand deserving students (with merit) shouldbe financed for higher and professionaleducation by corporate and industries asa part of their CSR agenda and theGovernment should allow CSR linked taxbenefits for such individual financing aswell.

Here, there should be seriouscommitment from Industry that the sixmonths internship will be a true rehearsalfor pumping confidence into that MBAfinalist, who in turn will be a long termplayer for the future industry, communityand society.

iii. Parenting at formative childhood/ teenage stage:

And last but not the least, Parentingshould ensure that fundamental skills asalready discussed in earlier paragraph (Integrity, Detail-Oriented, Flexibility/Adaptability, Self-confidence etc. etc.) aretaken care at early formative stage.

Sustainable and continuity inemployment needs these foundationblocks to be consciously developed in thestudents.

Both in terms of Policy making andProfessional involvement of Industry, if wecan not be creative and pragmatic, we canat least try to copy some of the goodfeatures and best practices that thedeveloped countries adopt. If you can’tbe original, there is no harm in copyinggood ideas from your neighbours andfellow beings.

45

REFERENCES:

Subudhi, R. N., & Paltasingh, T.Quest for Quality, World-ClassEducational organization: StrategicManagement Issues. In proceeding of:International Conf of American Society forEngineering Management, At USA,Volume: ISBN - 978-0-9831005-6-0.

Simons, Robert. (2013). TheBusiness of Business Schools: Restoringa Focus on Competing to Win.Capitalism and Society, Vol. 8 Iss.1,Article 2.

Bhola, S. S., & Dhanawade, S. S.(2012). Higher Education andEmployability – A Review. PMR, Jan –June 2012 ; SSRN-id2290103.pdf

Carnoy, M., Loyalka, P., Dossani, R.,Froumin, I., Tilak J. B. G., & Rong, W.(2012). The Great Expansion of Higher

Education in BRIC Countries. Journalof Educational Planning andAdministration, Volume XXVI Number 4,October 2012; ISSN 0971-3859.

Shah, G. (2012). Democracy,Equality and Education. Journal ofEducational Planning and Administration,Volume XXVI Number 4, October 2012;ISSN 0971-3859.

Benjamin J. (2012). Globalizationand Internationalization of HigherEducation. Journal of EducationalPlanning and Administration, VolumeXXVI Number 2, April 2012; ISSN0971-3859.

Resnick, D. P. (2012). InnovativeUniversities: When, Why and How?Journal of Educational Planning andAdministration, Volume XXVI Number 2,April 2012; ISSN 0971-3859.

Professional Education for Employability: A critical Review


Modern Technology &Professional Education

Gayatri PandaResearch Scholar, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

Sumita MishraAssociate Professor, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University Odisha

Sisira Kanti MishraProfessor, NIST B-School, Brahmapur Odisha

ABSTRACTPresent day education system has gradually witnessed a sea-change with the adventof different technological advancements and has resulted into a vast change in itsnature and deliberation. In fact, regards and recognitions are still due to thosegurus for their endeavour of producing intellectual mass to the society. At the sametime, there is an emerging need of having a modularized and personalized continuingeducational system to cater the basic needs of individualized learning and to makeeveryone versatile and flexible with the prevailing updated technologicaladvancements. Rapid development of technology has become the supportive strengthof today’s professional education advancement and has translated the entireeducation system more systematic and synchronized. Effective education system,backed by sound and structured technological support, largely addresses the entirecommunity efficiently and brings everyone back to the mainstream of growth andprosperity effectively.

The present paper is a sincere attempt in this direction to validate the amalgamationof technology and education with due weightage to various ways and means appliedin assuring right professionalism in education system.

Key Words: Education, Technology, Professionalism.

INTRODUCTION

In this changing scenario anddeliberation. Undoubtedly, theadvancement of technology, the educationconventional method of teaching practicesis no more in focus and is not consideredas the sole attraction point. Differentadvanced mechanisms are introduced and

used for learning and skill enhancement oflearners. At the same time, we cannottotally ignore the traditional approachesfollowed as it has its own fragrance andneed, but simply we have to reshape it ina new form so that it can be used to itsfullest extent and to achieve the advancedrequirements of both teacher and learner.

47Modern Technology & Professional Education

Different technological developmentsand advancements have forced to makethe educational system a tech-drivenapproach. Different modern methods ofteaching-learning practice are based oninformation technology, which plays animportant role in developing a right set ofsystem and creating a generation of tech-expertise. The traditional “Gurushishyaparampara” has changed its shape ofexistence. At present the moderntechnology has led to the use of differentdevices in teaching process. Knowledgesharing is never an ending process, but ithas adopted different mechanisms in itstransformation, it has made the communitymore focused, transparent, advanced andadaptable in their way of learning.Continuous application of devices andprocess has a profound effect in thedevelopment of ideas, processes,methods, management and in other areasof education. We should also be sure thatmodern technology does not mean onlyuse of sophisticated gadgets for teachinglearning, but also we should make a clearand abstract view that use of differentteaching techniques is a part oftechnological advancements anddevelopment.

The use of modern techniques andsophisticated instrument has not onlypaved a way for professional educationbut it has made it simpler and time bound.Now-a-days, people are more centrictowards their effective use of time andachieving required result within lesstimeframe. A variety of teaching methods

used to inspire and guide the studentsinvolved and show their creativity at par,which enables them not only simply learnthe thing but also make them empoweredto compete with advanced and developedsocietal needs and requirements. Apartfrom all, modern technology makes learnerupto date in their knowledge base andimplement it in the needful and requiredsettings. By having a proper setting it canlead to a free environment which will makethe learner to easily grasp the content andwill create a deeper understanding ofconcepts, which cannot be simply animaginary assumption but also actualperspective can be imbibed.

Studies indicate that, large scaleteaching-learning need involvement ofmodern learning techniques and itsapplication in its every sphere of existence.Newer technologies have started attractingthe students towards their use and serveas an important tool of management ofproper set of learning.

SCOPE

• This paper work is a clear andtransparent observation evolutionarychange of so-called moderntechnology with due expansion in thesphere of education, resulting to adramatic transformation of traditionalteaching-learning process to moretech-savvy, method and itsapplication.

• This work is also an endeavour toknow the impact of technologicaladvancements on learners acceptable


and how it makes them empoweredin their approach.

• It also throws some light on impactand use of different advancedtechniques and methods aligning withconventional methods and how itworks.

BENEFIT OF TECHNOLOGY INKNOWLEDGE SHARING

Emerging technologies and differenttechnical innovations and developments, hasled to the creation of a competitiveadvantage over others. The emergence ofnew technologies has changed the so calledconventional learning practice to be morestructured and systematic skill enhancementprocess. Needless to say, this hasundoubtedly been characterized as simplerand less time consuming mechanism formaterializing the basic needs of knowledge,skill and wisdom with a meaningful andpurposeful achievement. It won’t be wrongto say, that in this present dynamicconditions, technology and education aresimply two faces of a coin, one cannotsustain and develop without the other, bothhave a long and lasting relationship, theadvancement of technology has madestudent learning more practical oriented andexposed to real-time problems. More orless, we can say that technologicalinvolvement has created a world ofknowledge builders and there has adramatic change in every sphere of life.

A number of advanced methods andtechniques have been accustomed andused by teacher’s community which

makes the students sharper in not onlysolving problems and knowledge gainingbut also making them more centric to facecurrent challenges. Different techniques areimplied by teachers which has totallyreshaped conventional method of teachingand learning, to more knowledge centricand future-oriented approach.

Implementing different suchtechniques as like project-based learningapproach, problem-centric learning arethose methods of learning which led thestudent to cross the four boundaries ofclassroom and adopt a learning approachto cultivate a spirit which make themselvesfit to the real word competitions, whichare enormous and varied in nature.

It won’t be wrong to address thePresent communities of learners as “FastLearners” who were born and raised in adigital setting and which led to a differentthinking process towards learning becauseof their exposure to technology. From thebeginning of their knowledge building andlearning, they are exposed to a varied oftechnological gadgets and techniqueswhich make them more centric to this styleof teaching and learning, and create aconfidence of building a better future.

Easy-Learning: Undoubtedly,technological advancements have led theteachers to make the teaching processsimpler, quicker and transparent, which isnot only helpful for the student communitybut also the teacher community. Physicalpresence of the teacher is no way an issuefor teaching-learning process, now a day’s


required content can be posted by theinstructors being far away from the place,and the target receiver can access itwithout any obstacles and problems. It hasnot only shortened the place constraint butalso it has shortened the time-constraintfor the student mass. Students can learnthe things based on their suitability,availability and accessibility.

Increases Student MotivationalLevel: Present day student community isundoubtedly computer-savvy and anypractice leading to skill enhancement canvery well be coped up extensively for abetter possible tomorrow. Conventionalschools of thought on teaching – learningtheories had serious limitations of fruitfuloutcome matching with present-day needs;hence, the introduction of digital learninghas gone a long way away from the so-called gurukul practice. Students knowbecoming more focused and areconcentrative to learn things in a faster wayrather in the traditional methods, wherethey use to wait for the instructor to speakon the topic, and learn the things. A numberof gadgets and encyclopaedia has madethe approach of teaching- learning moremotivational and interesting. Even it hasbeen found there has been a drastic changeof teaching process in the classroom; whichultimately has increased the positive attitudeof students towards the subject matter. Bytargeting the right receiver by the teacherwe can not only make them learn, but alsowe can increase their interest level and makethem more dynamic for further knowledgeand skill enhancement.

Extended Opportunities forLearning: Traditional method of impartingknowledge was very cumbersome, studentmust go to the place where the teacherused to impart his knowledge on thesubject, but with the advent oftechnological improvements and makingeducation system more tech-savy, theopportunities of learning were many, theaccessibility of the student to the coursematerial has now became very easy andthe method has became very simple“Press the button and get the material”.Even students are able access the materialby sitting in their home, any setting wheretechnology can reach. It has beenwitnessed that place is no more aconstraint for reaching to the requiredpath and source.

Wider audience: Learning approachcan be made open for one and all, by theproper implementation of technology, largeset of audience can be targeted being paraway from the sender, simply with the useof different advanced devices we canreach the audience, but where as traditionalmethods of teaching-learning has not suchscope of existence. To target a large setof audience, even you need to focus onlarge no of variables, but it is not so wecannot simply target the target theaudience but also we can be able to solvethe queries posted by them, even they canmake themselves clear to the learning topicand process. The audience can takebenefit out of the requisite material incorrect time and place.


TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

Technology is such a wing which hasexpanded in every sector, and level ofsociety, even it has expanded its flying wingstowards education system of our country.Now, it has become an integral for everysector and institution to make an effectiveand efficient use of it, to make a better andapproachable process of learning.

In the early days, the delivery of aperson is confined within a class room, andfour walls but now the concept haschanged its shape and existence, nowlearning is more with the use gadgets andinstruments, but we cannot say thattechnological advancement is confined toonly gadgets and sophisticatedinstruments. Using of different methods tomake the students learn is also an essentialpart of education and modern technology.Student Community has became verysharp and more advanced in theirapproach, they are always in search of newtechniques not only simply using gadgetsto make them learn but also framingcorrect usage of strategies to make themunderstand and gain optimum knowledge,and interest among the young and growinggeneration.

Gone are, those “Paramparas”where student-teacher learning wasconfined to simply chalk-talk method, butit is age of different types of sophisticatedgadgets and not only simply gadgets butalso using innovative tricks and techniqueto make the learning process moreinteresting and long-lasting approach.

Using Technological concepts andmethods, in education has aligned withnumber of benefits in the classroom andalso outside the four walls also, they cannotbe confined to any number set but belowmentioned are some of the benefits whichhas an effect on performance andimprovement of students learning process.

Exploring the world: It won’t bewrong to say that, use of technology ineducation has made the student moreadvanced and systematic in their learningprocess, now they are not makingthemselves confined to only text booksavailable in the market or given by anyinstitution, they follow different approachto explore the world all around “Click thebutton get the data”. Even not onlystudents but also teachers have changedtheir search engine for any material knowthe doors are opened 24×7, to access anymaterial for their learning process. It showshow far modern and advanced techniqueshas changed the thinking process andapproach towards learning and doingexperiments by the students, tremendousencouragement and excitement hasincreased manifold , by students they arevery much developed towards a modernand tech-savvy society, not only facetoday’s world but also making themselvesdeveloped for tomorrows challenges andrisks.

Empower Students Community:Technological advancements has ledtowards making the students moreinteractive and approachable, they are no


way limited to only teachers talk, though ateacher plays an vital role but still studentsare now very empowered to make moreadvanced presentation and usingmultimedia tools for different talks anddiscussion, which led to differentiate it fromtraditional process to modernized methodof education. It not only makes themadvance but also feel them proud by theteachers when students mass suchprogress in their learning approach.

Expert Guidance form ModernWorld: Guiding the student in every stepis an essential aspect of teacher’scommunity, and it won’t be wrong to sayis it a never ending process. Because ofthat teachers are always at the top of thepyramid, but technological advancementhas aligned everybody in a single chain.Modern techniques have made thestudents to change their traditionalapproached and make them smarter andsharper in their decision making andlearning styles. Nevertheless, advancedmechanisms had broaden the style ofthinking among the students and madethem more structured toward learning andadopting right things at right times.

Go Global: Students approachtowards viewing the world has beenchanged to a tip of a finger, and the costfactor is again an important determinantfor making education system a morestreamlined approach. It has beenwitnessed by different experts thattechnology has collapsed all barriers whichcreate problems for learning andexpansion. In the traditional the approach

of learning is very monotonous and fixedto boundaries, but now students hasstarted making them go beyond, no onecan stop them reaching the destinationwithin a few seconds it can be transferredfrom one learner to another. Even teachersare also able to make their materials accessby all needful.

Self-expression: In the older days,students used to make themselves confinedto notebooks and records to express, theirideas and opinions but in this presentsituation there has been alarming changein expressions, students are maintaining“Digi Books” to express their thoughts,ideas and share their knowledge for all,they have started creating differentwebsites, and blogs to make them placedfor one and all.

TEACHING PARAMETERS UNDERTHE SHADOW OF LEARNING

In the conventional method of teach-ing-learning, what the teacher speaks is thesole source of learning for the students.But with the broadening of different sphere,the conventional methods are becomingmore outdated in their approach by losingtheir own presentable capacity. Differentadvanced mechanisms has led the teachercommunity to express their in differentapproach and via different channels of pre-sentation, as we know “a single picturespeaks thousands words”. To improve thestyle of teaching modern technology playsa leading and essential part of life. Express-ing your ideas, views, thoughts through thehelp of modern gadgets is more accept-


able, so far as a number of teaching tech-niques are used by the teacher.

Presentation Software: Softwareis different compatible discs which makethe discussion more lively and understand-able by the receiver, because seeing hasmore effect than listening. It stimulates thediscussion from both the ends and alsomakes them go beyond the four walls ofclassroom. It also leads to more expres-sive even not only by the sender but alsoby the receiver, they can clearly note thethings and memorize it in later on stages,which act as a stuff for further clarificationand elaboration.

Clickers: Students want a fast methodof assessment towards their question-an-swer set, they are now able to wait till theywill be corrected by the teachers, as it takesa long time and effort, and also a questionarises of biasness, Instant results not onlymake them more forward but it also in-creases their level of competition amongthem and creates a spirit of challenge toprove their knowledge and aspirations.

Information Presentation Tools:It transforms the students from conven-tional approach of thought process to sci-entific and advanced method of thinkingand transforming ideas into presentations.It helps them to think critically from differ-ent point of view and analyze its applica-tion to different activities. Learning throughconventional has become more monoto-nous and cumbersome process, but dif-ferent tools it can be reached and achieveda different path of success.

Crossing Four-walls of Classroom: The main and sole objective anyteacher community is to impart knowledgewhich is not only for exam point of view,but also it will act as a long-term knowl-edge building source, to make this ap-proach more practical and expressive innature, we should cross the four walls ofthe classroom, Sharing of ideas, knowl-edge expression will became more trans-parent and qualitative.

PERSPECTIVE OUTCOMES

Technology and learning have crosseddifferent ladders, which has provendifferent positive outcomes, and framed asphere of broaden world of knowledgebuilding. Modern technology undoubtedlyproduces a revolutionary impact onlearning habits and processes. Trackingdifferent developments in moderntechnology, especially in generation of newideas and new innovations are basicallytwo major outcome of technology. Thescope of different techniques are wide innature and it has a number of effects ondevelopment of full potential of a studentlearning instinct for new concepts andhandling varied of challenges and problemsnot only in professional but also in personallife. Technology and education has differentpositive consequences in streamlining, thetraditional methods of impartingknowledge to the student mass, which ledto a dramatic transformation in its outcomeand building a break-through mind andcreating a community of learners andknowledge builders who will ultimately


shape the society and nation to competein the national and international forum.Continuous application of technology ineducation has enormous outcomes and hasa profound effect.

Skill Enhancement: Today’student community are more pronetowards modern technology, undoubtedlyeverybody is not perfect in the approachof learning things in correct way and takingout right conclusions. Every set of studentcommunity should always be aware thattechnological advancement has enormouspositive outcome, but at same time it hascertain negative outcomes also, if it is notused in its proper way, it will lead to moreadverse effect on learning approach andsociety also, so it won’t be wrong to failureof right skill-set will make the wholeprocess cumbersome and monotonous.But still, we cannot ignore that moderntechnology has reshaped and dramaticallybrought changes in the life of young mass,they are now able create, develop andframe several different projects, whichcreates and increase the confidence levelnot only presenting them in nationalboundaries but also representing ininternational boundaries also. Varied ofskills have been developed by the learnerssuch as problem-solving skill, DiagnosticSkill, Situation-handling skill and theseskills has made them fit to compete in themarket.

New Idea Generation: - In theconventional method of, of teaching thesharing of knowledge is confined to

oneway process approach, teachers usedto impart knowledge, and learners aresimply take a copy of it for future reference,which simply close all the doors of mind,but now because of advent of differenttechnological innovations idea develop,generate and implement has became anessential parameter in each and every fieldof work. Student communities nowbecame very much active participants inthe learning process, as they every timeface variety of new concepts andtechniques which builds up their ability toframe a new world of ideas. Because ofmodern equipment, they are now able toget knowledge from eminent speakers evenif who are far away from their destinationplace, being in a different coverage area,they can listen, record and store it forfurther learning, this process of reshapingmethod of teaching has not only open thedoors of the mind of the learner, but alsomake them more challenging, Creative andCross-border in their thinking and building.

Creative and InnovativePresentation: Teacher is the key sourceof teaching, presentation of ideas byteachers and students is always a neverending process. But, with the developmentof different modern technologies, it hasbecome essential to incorporate differentcreative and innovative styles of presentingtheir ideas, thoughts, and aspirations infront of others. Students are no wayconfined to text books for gainingknowledge; accessibility to differentsources of databases has made them moreadvanced in their style of presentation.


Students are now able to imbibe differentreal and current upcoming examples whichmake the presentation more lively andhelpful for others, it is all because ofnecessary developments in the field oftechnology. It has not only changed thestyle of presentation of speakers but alsomade it more responsive in nature. Peopleare able to integrate different ideas andthoughts into a single package, which leadsto more structured and systematicdesigning of information and targeting theright set of audience. Undoubtedly,modern technology has led to the use ofdifferent creative tools and techniques inthe presentation by the teacher as well asthe student’s community which enhancesthe spirit of interest and participationamong the target.

Experience and Exposure:-Modern technology has changed the levelof commitment and made people moreexposed towards new techniques ofknowledge gaining and sharing, it hasmade teacher and students communitymore focused and acquire systematic andstructure from all areas and sectors. Now,learners are able to expand their frame ofgaining new concepts beyond crossing notonly four walls of the class room, but alsonational boundaries. They are able to sharetheir ideas, concepts, and processesamong all the target audience with theability to accept new and advanced toolsand mechanisms.

Competency and Performanceenhancement: Increasing emphasis onpractical questions related to the dynamics

of dissemination of the professionaleducation system has focused more on thespecific content of general ideas anddeveloped a fuller perspective on a numberof issues most directly relevant to thestructured education system. Pilotexperiments on such emerging issues haveconsiderably convinced that thesemethods are now cost-effectively feasibleand capable of promising to makesubstantial contributions to fundamentalproblems in elementary, secondary andprofessional education.

The efficient and effective use ofmodern education techniques has certainlymade the entire teaching methods ofeducation as more diversified beyond timeand space. Modern education techniqueshave rightly demonstrated the process ofliberalization of continuing education as asignificant impact on ideas, forms, process,methods, teaching and management ofeducation at large. Application of moderneducation technology in professionaleducation, in particular, will be a drivingforce for learners to have an optimisticapproach towards new things.

CONCLUSION

Developing a conceptual frameworkfor a large sample of teaching material(hardware, software, curriculum, andteaching methods) has become an estab-lished operational practice in the presentday scenario. The patterns of acquisitionof knowledge and skills, and about the ef-fectiveness of specific forms of teachingand learning have benefits of “novelty ef-


fects” with special expertise and sensitiv-ity. E-learning is one such initiative in thisdirection to aim at making the learning andteaching process independent of time,place and pace. Sometime it is possible tobreak conventional classroom boundariesto develop open, low-cost and moderntechnology through the available moderntechnology. Therefore, broadly speaking,to sustain, we need to develop and imple-ment new learning systems of learning sci-ence, educational technologies and inno-vations in professional education for thegreater interests of community and for thesociety at large for a roaring success.

REFERENCES

1. Kolhatkar, M. R. (1999),“Prerequisites forInternationalization of HigherEducation.” Paper presented at thePolicy Perspective Seminar onInternationalization of HigherEducation, National Institute ofEducational Planning andAdministration, New Delhi,November 26 – 27.

2. Luo Long, Liang Zhaohui, WuGengsheng, Yang Xiaogin. “ModernEducation Technology WithCreativity of ContinuingEducation”, Available online.

3. Alexander, M. W., Ober, S., Davis,R. E., & Underwood, R. A. (1997).“The Teaching Concerns ofProspective and Experienced

Secondary Business Teachers”,Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 39(3), 176-193.

4. Anderson, J. R. (1995).”Learningand Memory: An IntegratedApproach”, John Wiley & Sons:New York.

5. Marshall, R., & Tucker, M.(1992).”Thinking for a Living:Education and the Wealth ofNations”. New York, NY: BasicBooks.

6. McEwen, B. C., & King, T. (1998).“The Student Teaching Experiencein Business Education”, NABTEReview, 25, Implications for teacherpreparation. 9-15.

7. Monjan, S. V., & Gassner, S. M.(1979). “Critical Issues inCompetency Based Education”.New York: Pergamon Press.

8. Toffler, A., & Toffler, H. (1995).“Creating a New Civilization: ThePolitics of The Third Wave”.Atlanta: Turner.

9. ht tp : / /www.edujobing.com/worlddevelopment-report-2004

10. http://www.reportbuyer.com/p u b l i c _ s e c t o r / e d u c a t i o n /education_services_market

11. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Managing-educational- services/articles http://learnmarketing.net/servicemarketingmix.htm


Competent Teams for Challenging Times

Hema HarshaAdjunct Faculty, MP Birla Institute of Management, Bangalore

Mail : [email protected]

L Shri HarshaProject Management Consultant

ABSTRACTChallenges of business activities have become complex and demanding with thepassage of time. Skills required to keep pace with the changing requirements of themarket have also increased many folds, to the extent that super specialties in everyprofession and industry has become the norm of the day. The methodology of buildingtalent itself has undergone a sea change. The urge to attain greater heights in theprofessional arena at a young age in this highly competitive business world ispushing a large number of people towards multifarious academic activities.Mushrooming of educational institutes offering a plethora of certifications anddegrees in a variety of fields has further added fuel to the aspirations of the youngergeneration. While many of these institutions lack even the basic infrastructure, theyare nowhere near to providing quality education.

Competency building is a multi-faceted process, which not only involves multipleplayers but also innumerable processes extending over a long period of time. Thislong gestation period has its toll, both positive and negative, on the individuals andorganizations. The task of assembling and putting into place a highly competentteam though an uphill task, efforts invested in this direction pays off in the long run.Organizations who have done it over a period of time have demonstrated the valueaddition to business objectives accrued by the contributions of their employees. Inthe backdrop of this situation at ground zero, while the debate on ownership of thefinal sculpting of these aspirants is on, it has been assumed partially by educationalinstitutions. However, much more needs to be done by organizations to createchampions at work places, who can not only deliver but also lead teams throughtough time. The question that needs to be addressed is - who should take on thisherculean task and how should it be executed?

Introduction

The potential of an earnest man at hiswork cannot be measured, and everyorganization has always strived to haveearnest men in their teams. The need forcompetent personnel has never been morecritical as of today, with inflation at 9.87%1

and looking northwards in the days tocome; overall efficiency is the need of thehour for every business.

The identification of an earnest manand setting him on the right course on hiswork is the biggest challenge thatorganizations face. However, the

57Competent Teams for Challenging Times

moulding of an earnest man is anotherchallenging and daunting task that isundertaken by the educational institutionswhere the foundations are future growthis laid. While the schooling is the mostelementary stage of this task, for the sakeof this audience, this discussion will focuson the activities post entry into a degreecollege. It is from this stage onwards, thata well-informed individual, courtesy theinternet and easy access to loads ofinformation, has the liberty of choosingfrom a variety of career options.

Starting from the early 1990s with theIT boom, coupled with the Y2K rush, sawa phenomenal growth in the demand foremployment in specific task orienteddomains. One of the beneficiaries of thisgrowing employment demand was thetraining institutes which mushroomed allover, offering task specific skilldevelopment trainings, thereby creating“specialized” resources, and this trendcontinues even to date. The ingress of ITand ITES across all sectors, construction,manufacturing, administration etc, ensuredthat the employment of this “specialized”HR pool was gainfully employed onunrelated and isolated tasks over the years.

The practice all along, commencingfrom about 1980s, has been to create silosof narrowed and specialized task orientedmanpower, which has facilitated HRpractitioners to circumvent labour laws forselfish and profitable ends. This practice,which has created a mind-set amongst GenY on specialized qualifications, has turnededucational institutions to production lines,

churning out “incompetent” manpower anddumping them in the marketplace. The dotcom bubble burst of 2000 and the globalfinancial crisis of 2008 saw layoffs by thethousands. Along with the tough economicconditions and uncertainty of the future,came the spate of work pressure relateddeaths and desperate suicides both in Indiaand outside. Studies have revealed thatanxiety at work place, erratic job marketand work related stresses are some of themajor causes of suicides amongst theurban youth,2 and amongst the publicsector organizations.3 While financialconstraints have been a major cause oflayoffs, “competency” has been the onlyfactor for segregation and identification ofindividual employees for laying off. In mostof the cases the “frogs” have been the firstones to go, while the “jacks” havecontinued for longer periods.

Unfortunately the demand forcompetencies has been manipulated by themarket and organizations, with little or noregard to the employees overall growth.A plethora of certifications available in themarket provide temporary insulation frommarket uncertainties and a false sense ofsecurity. No wonder, than that,professionals with 20+ years of experiencewho still crave for ITEL and Black Belt inSix Sigma certifications, continue to remainas “frogs in deep dark wells”!!!!

A study on hiring practices across allindustry sectors has revealed that Indiancompanies have lost ‘2,460 crores in theyear 2012 due to bad hiring, and some of


the major reasons identified for this arepressure and urgency to fill up positions,wrong bench marking and poor screening.4In spite of millions of graduates fromthousands of technical and managementinstitutions flooding the job market everyyear, ironically, a global study has revealedthat while 35% of employers worldwideare reporting manpower shortages, 61%of employers in India experienced difficultyin “finding” the right staff!!!5

Educational Institutions and their rolein the current mess

The institutions of professional andhigher education have been corporatizedto an extent that the administrative teamshave a tremendous pressure to generaterevenues to justify the ROI to promotersof these institutions. The commoditizationof education has been adverselycommented in various forums. While astudy on the employment trends in IT andITES industry in India has reported thatof the 1.5 million students who graduateout of the 3393 engineering colleges inIndia, nearly 70% remain jobless ongraduation and of this nearly 30% continueto be jobless even after a year6.

To justify the hefty fees thatinstitutions charge for professional andmanagement education, these institutionsliterally play around with the emotions ofthe students. Feeding information,especially campus placements and salariesoffered, they entice many students and alsoensure availability of educational loans bytie ups with banks. While it makes business

sense for the banks, the educationalinstitutions are committing a major blunderby unrealistic fueling of the aspirations ofprospective students and their parents.Their responsibility ends with thesuccessful completion of the course, andeducational institutions got to unimaginableextent to ensure that the student completesthe course successfully. Mass copying7,innumerable retests, assignments in lieu oftests and presentations, are some of thedamaging approaches adopted byinstitutions to achieve their selfish motive.End result being incompetent studentsbeing dumped into the market, who areignorant and ill equipped on how to fendfor themselves in life8.The NPA on accountof defaulted educational loans amongst thepublic sector banks as on Jun 2013 was ‘832 crores against a sanctioned loanamount of ‘ 8,297 crores9, an amountwhich has been pocketed by theeducational institutions. Disappointmentswhen aspirations that define success andhappiness are distorted or unmet by thereality faced by young people in a rapidlychanging society, has been attributed asone of the main reasons for suicides in Indiaamongst the youth in the age group of 15– 29 years10. Such is the catastrophicconsequences attributed to theineffectiveness of educational systems.

Some of the other factors of concernin this regard, which are talked off in theacademic circle and do not need any majordiscussions are inadequacies in facultycapabilities and lack of infrastructuralsupport. While lack of financial incentives

59Competent Teams for Challenging Times

has been cited for demotivated facultymembers, it will be worthwhile to look atthe satisfaction and pride derived in thesuccess of their students as animmeasurable reward and continues toremain motivated to contribute for thesuccess of this journey.

Roadmap for self-improvement

To enrich the journey fromeducational institutions to organizationalemployment, the contribution of allstakeholders in the eco system of educationneeds a revamp. Nevertheless, one cannotsit idle waiting for things to happen. In ourown small sphere of influence, i.e., atindividual faculty, individual departmentsand individual institutions one canexperiment with some aspects and in casethe results are encouraging, it can bereplicated to the next level. In this contextsome areas where improvements can beinternalized within institutions are:-

Tiered approach to highereducation. Statistics of starting salaryoffered during college placements, at bothIIMs and other B Schools; reveal thatstudents with work experience arepreferred compared to fresher graduates,with some freak exceptions. This is anindicator to the value given to thecombination of experience andknowledge. Even a global study by theILO has indicated that the unemploymentrate at 13.1 % amongst the youth (15 –25 years) is three times that of adultunemployment rate11. While highertechnical education in continuation with the

undergraduate studies makes sense andadds value to the learning, highermanagement courses without workexperience definitely has its limitations onthe understanding of management theoriesand practices, and their applicability in theworkplace context. Therefore, toenhance productivity and add value to theacquisition of knowledge through formalhigher education, a multi-tiered approachto higher education, especiallymanagement education,. A pattern like –basic graduation – work experience (0 –3 years) – certification courses – back towork (5 – 8 years) – Diploma/ Masters.This approach would not only enrich thelearning, but also make the classroomsintellectually challenging. Same theoriesand principles being discussed in thebackground of varied experiences fromdifferent industries will also challenge thefaculties phenomenally and ensure that theyalso continue to upgrade their knowledgeon a daily basis.

Redefine eligibility criteria.Though there are some basic standards foradmissions to many management schools,the efficacy of such screening systems isquestioned. In fact even Mr NarayanMurthy had expressed his anguish over thecoaching class culture which wasinstrumental in dumping poor qualitystudents into the IITs and opined to changethis commercial approach to education12.This poor selection procedure has its tollon both the institutions and the individualstudents. A more robust and realisticassessment system which enables an


individual to decide whether to pursue anexpensive higher education program or notwill do a lot of good to the entire educationsystem and optimize resource utilization ofthe system.

Industry – Academia interface.The current state of Industry – Academiainterface has to be taken to a different level.The industry involvement should primarilyinclude identifying gaps in the existingcurriculum which needs to be plugged toincrease the employability of students13

rather than only for campus placements.Also, guest lectures on non-academicsubjects by seasoned professionals fromthe industry will definitely be a valueaddition, which will go a long way in givinga better perception of the work placerequirements and expectations.

Inculcating life skills.Management is all about peoplemanagement. It is the behaviour andperformance of team members thatmanagers have to manage to alignperformance to organizational objectives.Tolerance, identification, acceptance andcorrection of shortcomings of self and otherteam members, attitude management,moral courage to accept failure and movein in life are some essential life skills whichstudents should be encouraged to master.Failure to develop life skills will not onlyinduce stress in individuals and also spreadamongst the team like wildfire. Life skillsensure emotional and professional stabilityin the functioning of individuals, failing

which erratic behaviour can prove costly.Suicides, murders and other forms ofvengeance display at workplace havebecome common phenomenon, hithertounimaginable14.

Policy enactment to standardizepractices across the nation requiressuccess stories from all quarters, andunless every educational institutioncourageously experiments with newthoughts and ideas, the right approach willalways remain elusive.

CONCLUSIONS

It is the set of the sails, and not thedirection of the wind that determines whichway we go. Educational institutions shouldundertake this task of teaching how to setthe sails rather in teaching aligning the shipto the direction of the wind. Learning in-stitutions actively engaged in knowledgeenhancement add value to the society thanthose which are just mass production units,who justify their existence only by num-bers enrolled, graduated and placed. Thereis a collective responsibility of all stake-holders in this transformation which edu-cational institutions must undertake torevolutionize the journey from educationto employment.

In times of drastic changes, it is thelearner who inherits the future. Thelearned usually find themselvesequipped to live in a world that nolonger exists. -Eric Hoffer.

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REFERENCES1. GOI, MOSPI, Press release dated 13

Jan 2014, http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/t4.pdf

2. Stress Driving Mumbai Men toSuicide Helplines, Times of India,Mumbai Edition, 09 Jun 2013, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-09/mumbai/

3. Work place stress & Suicide : A studywith reference to public sectororganizations, by DrMamata Jain andothers, ZENITH International Journalof Multidisciplinary Research Vol.2Issue 7, July 2012, pg 186 – 197, http://zenithresearch.org.in

4. Bad Hiring bleeds desicos‘ 2,460 cr,Times of India, 11 Feb 2013, BangaloreEdition, page 1.

5. “Staffing a Challenge”, http://www.itsmyascent.com/Career-G r o w t h - A r t i c l e s / G l o b a l -Research.html, accessed 08 Jan 2014.

6. Editorial - Employment in Indian ITindustry, some concerns, IT/ITeSEmployees Centre, http://www.itecentre.co.in/node/166,accessed 13 Jan 2014

7. Open copying in Open Universityexams, The Hindu, Bangalore Edition,11 Jan 2013, page 4.

8. Analysis of Education Loans: A casestudy of National Capital Territory ofDelhi, R Srinivasnetc, InternationalJournal of Management and Strategy,(IJMS) 2011, Vol. No.II, Issue 3, July-

Dec 2011, page 4, http://www.facultyjournal.com/webmaster/upload/__Education%20Loan.pdf

9. NPA fear puts a break on educationalloans, The Hindu, Kerala edition, 15Sep 2013, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/npa-fear-puts-a-b r a k e - o n - s t u d e n t - l o a n /article5130312.ece, accessed on 14Feb 2014.

10. Suicide rates in India are highest inthe 15 – 29 age group : Report, NDTVreport, 22 Jun 2012, http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/suicide-rates-in-india-are-highest-in-the-15-29-age-group-report-234986

11. Global Employment Trends – 2014,Executive Summary, InternationalLabour Organization, page 3, http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/global-employment-trends/2014/WCMS_234107/lang—en/index.htm

12. Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayan Murthy, India Today Online,New York, 03 Oct 2011, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/poor-quality-of-students-entering-iits-narayana-murthy/1/153534.html

13. HR Teams reap ‘good’ harvest incampus, The Hindu, BangaloreEdition, 02 Feb 2011, page 7.

14. Harsh charges forced Aaron Swartzto end life: family, The Hindu,Bangalore Edition, 14 Jan 2013, page16.


Transforming Management Education in LineWith Youth Expectation

Manas Kumar PalInstitute of Management and Information Science

Bhubaneswar, [email protected]

AnamikaInstitute of Management and Information Science

Bhubaneswar, [email protected]

Introduction

Education is considered to be apowerful tool as it provides people theability to take charge of their lives. Despitethe persistent stress laid on education, thereis still a dearth of skilled manpower totackle the rising needs and demands of theeconomy. The economic slowdown isincreasingly creating problems for theglobal job market. Joblessness remainshigh and youth unemployment is reachingcrisis proportions. At the same time,employers are also facing the paucity ofright kind of high-skilled employees toimprove their bottom line and contributeto the GDP growth.

As per the report released by ILO“The Global Employment Trends 2014”1

employment growth remains weak,unemployment continues to rise, especiallyamong young people, and large numbersof disheartened potential workers are stilloutside the labour market. The report also

focused on the need to add young peopleinto the labour force. As per the report,approximately 74.5 million youth under theage of 25 are jobless, marking global youthunemployment rate of over 13% which isalmost three times as high as the adultunemployment rate.

Today unemployment andunderemployment are two of the seriousproblems with which India is grappling.Interestingly, in India unemployment rateamongst illiterate youth is lower thaneducated youth as per Labour Bureau’s“Third Annual Employment &Unemployment Survey 2012-13 “released in November 2013. Whileunemployment rate among illiterate youthincreased to a mere 3.7% for the agegroup 15-29 years in 2012-2013, from1.2 % in 2011-2012, the unemploymentamongst the graduate youth increased to32 % during 2012-2013 from 19.4% in2011-2012. India is facing a skill deficit onaccount of the huge demand-supply gap.

1 http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/global-employment-trends/2014/WCMS_233931/lang—en/index.htm

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This data points towards anextremely large pool of untapped talent. Ifyoung people who have worked sincerelyto become qualified and skilled cannotsecure decent jobs and loose interest inlooking for an appropriate job, then it is amatter of concern for the society. The long-term effects of continuous high youthunemployment rate and likely outbreaksof violence are likely to become moreserious if our education system continuesto ignore the voices of youth/students.

These facts impel us to revisit oureducation system and find the existing gapbetween the expectations of youth enrolledin several academic courses to meet theircareer objective and the service providers(institutes and universities in this case).

In order to address youthunemployment, few elements that need tobe scrutinized are:

i. Is the existing education systemable to meet youth expectations

ii. What are the kind of skillsdeveloped by the studentsthrough academics

iii. Are these skills helpful enoughto fulfil their career aspirations

This paper attempts to understandand come up with suggestions required forimproving our education system. Thisresearch piece tries to connect educationto employment, facilitate a student tobecome an employee and above allmanage the youth expectation and help indevelopment of a healthy society andeconomically progressive nation.

The following areas comprise thefocus of the literature search and review:

a. Expectation of young people:how young people perceive theirpreparedness for the industry,how young people perceive thechallenge of workplaces; theirapprehensions, and what detersand stimulates them; and whatis their expectation from thesystem

b. Young people’s requirements(including skill needs) in enteringthe workplace; and

c. Steps to smoothen the transitionto work; the role of educationalinstitutes as well as employersto make workplaces amenableto young people

Literature review

A survey of the available researchliterature found that there is a relativeabundance of survey research on employerexpectations in case of young recruitsgenerally termed as “employability skills”.But in contrast, little research was foundto examine youth expectation prior toobtaining employment, or employerstrategies for making the journey fromeducation to employment a smooth one.

Surveying the available research in1999, Morris et al, concluded at the timethat, “No good quality research literaturehas been discovered on young people’sattitudes towards employers or thestructure of work” (1999:64). Besen-

Transforming Management Education in Line With Youth Expectation


Cassino (2008) in his work pointed thatyouth employment has been studiedextensively from the point of view ofparents, educators, and policy-makers, butthe main characters of the play – youngpeople themselves – have been somewhatneglected and young people’s objectivebehind work remain virtually unexplored.More recently, Price et al (2011)concluded that there are few studiesavailable that focus primarily on youngpeople. As per these researchers, this lackof focus on youth has led to a situationwhere we have little understanding of howyoung people cope with creating theiridentity as employees and how they relateto their first jobs.

On conducting a survey of theliterature, we concluded that there is ascantiness of published work relating toyoung people’s expectations of jobs andemployment. There appears to be littlerecently-published research conducted inIndia relating to young people entering thejob market against the background of theeconomic downturn and tightening jobmarket since 2009. This study puts in placea potential research strategy to address thisgap in research and prepare policies toovercome this situation the coming years.

We have chosen to organize thestudy into sections relating to:

i. Young people’s views andexpectations of job andemployment

ii. Employer’s expectations fromthe new recruits,

iii. And means of smoothing theirtransition to work so as tomanage the youth expectations

Research and Analysis

To carry out this study, a survey wasconducted among young people from thesupply side and among employers from thedemand side. Survey was conductedamong young people studying inmanagement colleges in Bhubaneswar togauge the youth expectations, while datato measure demand side expectations wascollected from employers across India.Much of the qualitative research profiledin this review is small-scale in nature.

The research participants weredivided into two groups:

i. Young people who are comingto the end of management studyand are intending to take upfulltime work.

ii. The employers who hire thesestudents from campus

Survey of these two groups helped usunderstand the gap between the expectationsof youth and expectations of the employers.Due to paucity of data a more quantitativeanalysis could not be carried out.

The research and analysis ispresented in two sections:

Student’s views on job and job market

This study indicates that youthexpectations about work and the degreeof prior knowledge of work are not samein case of young potential employees.

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This survey revealed that 22% of theyouth were undecided about their aim oflife where as 10% of the students werestill confused of choosing this course as acareer perspective. This can be attributedto low information dissemination abouthigher studies/professional studies in India.Students said that they were not wellinformed when making decisions aboutpostsecondary education, though they

Fig-1 : Students Define their Aim of Life

mentioned, internet being their mostpreferred medium of gathering information.As a result, youth are quick to detour fromthe education-to-employment journey.

This research found that most of theyouth/students had a sense of the changingemployment opportunities and knew thatmany jobs demanded skills and credentialsthat they did not have. However, they wereconfident of finding both exciting andreasonably well-paid job.

It was interestingly found that whenstudents were asked to rate themselves on

a scale of 1-5, they rated themselves as3.5 on an average which is more than 70%.This statistics alarmed us, as this displayedtheir over confidence because theemployers on the other hand mentionedthat only 65% of all new recruits wereaware about their Key Result Area (KRA).And, only 55% of all new recruits wereable to achieve their KRA.

Fig 2 : Different views on Job preparedness



These findings highlighted an apparentdisconnect between young people andemployers, due to a mismatch inperceptions relating to their skills. All theemployers surveyed, hired people fromcampus and they believed that youngpeople lack critical self-awareness, andface difficulties understanding theirstrengths, weaknesses, and gaps in skills.

Thus, it will not be incorrect to say thatyoung people are largely unaware of areas ofweakness prior to employment, particularlyin relation to their lack of desired skills.

To analyse their preparedness forjobs, young students were asked to ratethe skills required for campus recruitmentin order of priority as per their ownunderstanding.

Students generally believed that to getan entry level job, the top three skillsrequired were – Self-Confidence,Communication and Leadership &Responsibility skills. According to them,Problem Solving skill, Technical skills andInitiative and Self-direction, were the leastimportant skills.

Fig 3 : Skills Required for Placement

This was in sharp contrast with thetop three skills required for selection wereemployer findings, related to their order –Problem solving, Initiative & self of prior-

ity for selection of students for an direc-tion and Self-confidence in terms of en-try-level job. As per the employers, thepriority.

Table 1 : Ranking of Skills for Campus RecruitmentSkill Set Student EmployerProblem solving 6 1Initiative and self-direction 8 2Self-confidence 1 3Technical skills 7 4Communication 2 5Learning to learn 5 6Interpersonal skills 4 7Leadership and responsibility 3 8

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Here, if we see methodically, it willnot be difficult to understand the gapbetween expectations of youth andexpectations of the corporate world. Toput it another way, there has been

fundamentally different understandings ofthe same situation (refer Fig 4) and thusleading to a bumpy ride for youngsterswhen they have to venture in thecorporate.

Fig 4 : Skill Set Expectations

When these youngsters were askedto rank priority wise training area(s) toenter into their dream sector, most of themranked Communication at the top. But,as per the employer survey,Communication was not the top mostcriteria for an entry-level job. Here, thereason for confusion is due to the choiceof language used in communication. As

per the students, if they are unable toexpress themselves in English, then forthem the candidate is poor incommunication. Whereas, this is not true!When employers ask for goodcommunicators, they only mean that theiremployee should be able to speak to thestakeholders and customers of thecompany and put the point across clearly.

Table 2 : Priority wise training area(s) identified by the studentsSkills Required Priority-based RankingCommunication 1Self confidence 2Problem solving 3Technical skills 4Initiative and self-direction 5

Most of the students in the surveyexpressed a couple of measures listedexpected the education process to be

below to make them fit for thecorporate more practical oriented.Students world:



Practical exposure tomanagement problemsRegular Corporate InterfaceIntra and inter collegecompetitionsSeminars, management events& webinars on topics relatedto management education

This was all about youth expectationsbefore joining the corporate.

Employer’s View about students

Our study also focused on how theorganizations monitored the new recruitsonce they were inducted in the system.

Companies were asked about thetraining programs offered by them to thenew recruits. It was found out thatemployers generally invested only in thosespecialized skills whose value could becaptured; they were unwilling to spendmoney on employees who might take theirexpertise elsewhere. Some of the findingsfrom employers regarding their trainingprogram were:

More than 70% of thecompanies provide SkillDevelopment Programs (apartfrom induction program)

Approximately 67% of the newrecruits were open andadaptable to the trainingprograms.

Training programs designed fornew recruits from the campusincluded:

Functional TrainingTeam work and bondingCommunication skillsCompany to corporate

Thus, we get to see that the studentstraining expectations are not met as pertheir requirement. Most of the trainingmodules are generic and cater to the massinstead of being customized for the newrecruit. This leads to nervousness and manyyoungsters find it difficult to relate to theirbosses, and in striking a balancing betweenpressures of work and life. Moreover,new recruits are not trained on socializingin the workplace. This can also bedistressing for many new employees andcause anxiety in them.

Apart from training programs offeredby the employers for new recruits, only30% of the organizations surveyed, wereinvolved with educational institution indesigning, implementing and evaluating thecourse-curriculum. These companies tryto ensure that the content of the curriculumis aligned with their needs.

Though, there are a few employerswho are engaged with educationalinstitutes but there needs to be intensivecollaboration between the two and bothsides need to define their requirements atevery level.

In terms of feedback and mentoringsystem offered by the employers, the datawas not very encouraging. Here are someof the findings:

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70% of the organizations said,they have feedback mechanismespecially designed for newrecruits

Most of the organizations havemonthly or half yearly feedbackevaluation mechanism

Employers are also struggling as theyare faced with the dearth of qualitymanpower. As a part of this survey,employers are requested to provide theirsuggestions. Most of the employerssuggested that:

Instead of theory basedlectures, institutes shouldconsider real world issues andconcerns to address the scopeof learning Educationalinstitutes should customize theircourse curriculum to address theday to day issues and concernsas there is always a large amountof customization happeningeverywhere

How to make a Smooth Transition?

This section is an attempt to explainhow we can redefine the education toemployment journey for the youngminds. The discussion has been dividedinto two sections, explaining the role ofeach body for a smooth transitionprocess:

1. Role of Educational institutions

2. Role of Employers

Role of Educational institutions

i. Information dissemination

Our education system is focused ondesigning course-curriculum and deliveringthem with high quality standards. But inthe process, it fails to share all theinformation about the designed course.Approximately 25% of the studentssurveyed were absolutely confused indefining their career objective.

Therefore, we need a system whichcan be used to educate stakeholders, buildtransparency, and manage expectations.Young people need to be facilitated tomake informed choices about their careerand education. Educational institutes canwork on the following for better results:

a. Collate data and prepare adatabase comprising currentand projected job openings

b. Appraise them of skill setrequired for particular jobopenings

c. Discuss estimated salary as pertheir skill set

This kind of information exchange isexpected to help students plan for a givenoccupation.

ii. Industry ready Course-curriculum

It is high-time that educationalinstitutions accept that students do notwant only class lectures or Guest lecturesby industry personnel. Our survey pointedout that only 12% of student viewed classlectures to be the most preferred mediumto know about their dream sector.



Educational institutes have tobecome more student friendly and industryready. Some of the steps which educationalinstitutes can adapt are:

a. Embed transferable, work-based skills into the curriculum

b. Initiate a form of accreditationfor businesses that createpartnerships with educationalinstitutions

c. Develop a gradation system thatvalues soft skills, decisionmaking, problem solving andaptitude related to work-readiness

iii. Sector–wise Employer Collaboration

70 % of the employers surveyed saidthey did not work with educationalInstitutes on matters such as, designing,implementing and evaluating thecoursecurriculum. Those who did, evenfor them, partnerships were limited. Veryfew employers were involved with theinstitutes, for just designing the course thattoo this involvement was once in a year.This is alarming, because students expectto learn the recent practices adapted incorporate house, to be well armed to facethe challenges when they step out to work.But unfortunately, our current system doesnot provide this opportunity.

To meet the student expectation, it isimportant that educational institutes have:

Sector based collaboration withthe organizations based onstudent need

Educational institutes can invitecompanies to run trainingprograms for the students or atleast oversee these trainingprograms as per sector specificrequirement.

This is sure to maintain a balancebetween demand and supply of qualitymanpower and create a win-win situationfor both.

iv. Socializing students to the workculture

Students find it difficult to adapt tothe new work environment with specificrules and regulations. They find itextremely challenging and anxietygenerating.

Educational institutions are expectedto play a role in preparing young peoplefor the complex web of social relationswithin workplaces. If the educationalinstitutes frequently arrange for on- the jobtraining, students will get an opportunityto acclimatize themselves with day to dayinteractions at the workplace. They caninteract with other employees, andsupervisors within the context of theworkplace which is most important inhelping ease young people’s transition towork.

Role of Employers

i. Active Employer - Studentinterface

The increase in youth unemploymentand unrest forces us to see and analysis

71

the entire system with a new perspective.The existing education system is unable tomeet student expectations in terms ofpracticality. Today, students have quickaccess to information at a click; they canread the best books available across ontheir high-end gadgets but the importantquestion here is: are they able to validateand differentiate the plethora of informationavailable to them. Is the readily availableinformation making them corporate ready?

These doubts strongly advocategreater involvement of employers in theeducation system as a means of assistingthe transition of young people intoemployment.

Employers can build closer links withstudents through educational institutes andprovide high quality work experienceplacements; the various ways in whichemployers can create a result-orientededucation system are:

a. Reinforcing messages fromteachers about skills,qualifications and the workenvironment

b. Identifying employmentopportunities in their companyand encouraging young people toapply for jobs in their enterprises

c. Providing details of availablejobs in the local area in theirindustry

d. Influencing and creating interestamong young people regardingtheir choice of occupation

ii. Part-time work experience andInternship programs

Benefits of work experience andinternship programs are increasinglybecoming visible in corporate houses. Workexperience while pursuing education, helpsstudent in carrying out multiple tasks likean employee but with an emphasis on thelearning aspects of the experience.

Internship programs and other shortduration programs offered by theemployers can help the student to makean informed decision in choosing a careerpath. The part-time job opportunities alsois expected to help them learn anddevelop, in terms of — self-management,increased self-esteem, improvedcommunication and interpersonal skills,organizational and decision-making skills,team-skills, learning and attaining skills andemployability skills such as supervising/training others, and dealing directly withcustomers. The more the student is exposeto the workplace environment, broader isthe job opportunities for him.

iii. Customized PreliminaryInduction Program

After conducting this survey, aboutinduction systems for young peoplestarting jobs, the lack of employability skills,was not reflected during the program. Thiswas contrary to the strongly held belief thatyoung employees are deficient inemployability skills.

Approximately 65% of employees feltthat new recruits were aware of their Key



result area (KRAs) and 55% of employerssaid that the new recruits were able toachieve their KRAs most of the times.

This mismatch happens because thesame induction process is implemented forall the new employees. Their pastexperience, educational background etc.is not considered while designing theinduction program. The processes whichemployers described as inductions, tendedto cover the first few days when newrecruits were introduced to theorganization. A general induction programcomprise a wide variety of practices andcontent, such as company rules andregulations, pay and other facilities, hoursof work, safety issues, some task specificinstruction and workplace orientation. Itwas also found that the subject mattercovered in employee induction programvaried between industry and job type. Butthen the program was rarely customizedfor different types of new recruits.

In fact, the induction sessions shouldbe designed with specific consideration offirst-time employees. Rather, then beinggeneric and applicable to any worker newto the organization, it should be tailored tothe specific needs of the new recruits basedon their past experience and educationalbackground.

iv. Empathetic Hand-holdingSystem

It is important that organizationsshould go beyond their induction processto help the novice employee. Employers

may implement some formal processeslisted below to assist new recruits adaptto the new workplaces, including:

a. Buddying and mentoringsystems

b. Different types of trainingspecific to the job requirement

c. Frequent Meetings, assessmentsand appraisals

d. Managing mistakes,performance and conflict

e. Explicit mechanism to award/reward a new recruit’scontribution

Apart from these formal processes,individual interactions with the new recruits,socialization strategies such as involvingthem in social events, providing clearinstruction, praising good work and givingnon-threatening feedback are expected toengage a new young recruit into theorganization.

CONCLUSIONS

Today, the society is not able to sup-port the youth in terms of their expecta-tions and need. They are a generation withquick access to technology and high en-ergy. We have to address them with greatcare to prevent formation of a disgruntledlot. We have to design altogether a newmethodology to build a health society. Thisstudy involved students/youth as well asthe employers to know their perspectiveand thereafter do a gap analysis. It wasfound that each of the parties involved inthe education process had to work in col-

73

laboration with each other. Be it the edu-cational institute or the corporate houseor any third party service provider, no onecan think of working in isolation anymoreif we want our youth to develop.

We have to redefine the education toemployment journey and in the way, in-volve all the stake holders who contributeto this process. As suggested by the stu-dents and employers we have to adapt apractical approach to teaching and gradu-ally do away with the class lectures. Em-ployers on the other hand, have to be pro-active in course design and implementa-tion, have a robust and customized induc-tion processes, close managerial or super-visory support, buddying and mentoringschemes, and means of ‘socialising’ youngworkers to the workplace culture.

REFERENCES:1. International Labour Office –

Geneva: ILO, “Global EmploymentTrends for Youth 2013: A generationat risk”, 2013

2. Higher Education in India in Searchof Equality, Quality and Quantity byJandhyala B. G. Tilak, 2013

3. The FICCI-E&Y Report supported byPlanning Commission is titled “HigherEducation in India: Twelfth Five YearPlan (2012- 2017) and beyond”, 2012

4. The FICCI-E&Y Report, “Knowledgepaper on skill development in India:Learner first”, 2012

5. EDUCATION AND ECONOMICS:Disciplinary Evolution and Policy

Discourse by Saumen Chattopadhyay,2012

6. Bivand, P. “Generation Lost: YouthUnemployment and the Youth LabourMarket. Touchstone Extra Pamphlet.London: Trades Union Congress”,(2012)

7. UNESCO, “Part – II, Education forAll Global Monitoring Report, 2012"

8. National Skill DevelopmentCorporation (NSDC), NSDC AnnualUpdate, 2012

9. The World Bank , “Employability andSkill Set of Newly GraduatedEngineers in India”, April 2011

10. Price, R., McDonald, P., Bailey, J. andPini, B. (2011), “A MajorityExperience: Young People’sEncounters with the Labour Market”.In Bailey, J. and Pini, B. (eds) (2011),“Young People and Work. Abingdon:Ashgate”

11. Besen-Cassino, Y, The Study of YouthLabor: The Shift toward aSubjectCentered Approach. SociologyCompass”, (2008)

12. Higher Education in India: Crisis inManagement by V C KulandaiSwamy, 2010

13. Indian Higher Education :Envisioning The Future by PawanAgarwal, 2008

14. Fifty Years Of Higher Education InIndia : The Role Of The UniversityGrants Commission by Amrik Singh,2004

15. World YOUTH Report, “Youth andEducation”, 2003



Challenges Faced By Educators InManagement Education

Pallabi Pal SarkarKIIT School of Rural Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.

email: [email protected]

Rajendra Prasad SharmaAssociate Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi & Kolkata

email: [email protected]

ABSTRACTThe mushrooming of the management institutes and the spiraling number ofMBA aspirants faced with dearth of good faculty at almost all B-schools hasbrought management education at the forefront of growing scrutiny whereinthe management educators need to wrestle with questions of how to preparestudents for their roles and careers in increasingly complex organizations.The Management educators with the responsibility of imparting world classmanagerial and leadership training to their aspiring students are not able tojustify their role as they are facing some major challenges in their roles.

The objective was to allow the educators to reflect on their teaching experiencethat would generate sufficient insights as to how the MBA market place ischanging in a big way and how the faculty is coping with the challenges.They are feeling an intensified pressure to deliver differential pedagogytechniques as the student expectations have increased.

The more daunting challenges faced by the educators pertain to predefiningparameters and criteria for continuous evaluation. The students today haveaccess to a myriad of internet based sources for completing their assignmentsand reports. The educators find it tough to develop the critical thinking andwriting skills of their students. More challenges pertain to the development ofthe right mental attitude and the ethical code of conduct including the softleadership aspects among the students. This paper discusses at key challengesfaced by the community of management educators and ways to address thesame.

Keywords: Management education, management educator challenges, studentaspirations, pedagogical tools

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Introduction

Business education today is atcrossroads. The MBA marketplace ischanging in a big way.

Management education in India isunder the vibrant transition attributed bythe increasing demands in the market placeand industry, growing competition,globalization and socio cultural factors. Thegrowing demand of managementeducation leads to an increase in challengesfaced by management educators to offera value proposition keeping in tune to theparadigm shift in management culture.

With the increasing number ofmanagement institutes sprouting out overthe years has been on the rise leading to amyriad of issues that educationalentrepreneurs as promoters andmanagement educators need to respondto. It becomes imperative for themanagement educators to understand theunderlying challenges and unlockcompetitive strategies that are key to thesecret of effective management institutions.Management educational institutes beinga service organization need to ensure thebest service delivery mechanism.

The mission of responsibly running amanagement institute keeping the mainfocus to inspire and champion managementeducation, lies not only with the facultiesbut also with the educational entrepreneurswho act as promoters in case of privateinstitutions. To respond to the growingglobal perspective of the students and todefend from the distinctive forces of the

industry, educational entrepreneurs andmanagement educators need to turn to andadopt some distinctive measures. Theonus of meeting the new pressures andneeds lies with both the educationalentrepreneurs as well as the faculties ofthe management institutes. Unless themanagement institutes emerge as a greatdifferentiator;

are an addition to the concept of‘surplus society’ propounded by of

Nordstrom and Ridderstrale(2001) with a surplus of similar institutes,employing similar faculty, with similareducational backgrounds, working insimilar jobs of teaching and research,coming up with similar ideas, producingsimilar things, with similar remuneration andsimilar quality ( Sharma, 2009).

For enhancing the quality ofmanagement education, businesseducators and promoters of the institutionneed to do a detailed review andinvestigate the challenges that themanagement institutes face in the area ofacademics, development of infrastructureand financial support. The educationalentrepreneurs as promoters and businesseducators face the challenge to adopt thosecompetitive strategies that would keep theinstitutes far away from ill functioning. Themanagement institutes with the assistanceof the faculty members need to overcomethe challenge and continuously strive toproduce world class quality of educationthereby not compromising at the cost ofquality.

Challenges Faced By Educators In Management Education


Challenges Faced By Educators InManagement Education

Promoters and faculty membersconstantly face the threat of the dynamicmarket forces and the vagaries of thedemanding corporate world. There is adire need to identify the emerging marketdynamics and integrate it in the mosteffective manner by designing a robustcourse structure and applying it in theclassroom pedagogy that helps to boostthe student skills and develop them asversatile professional managers.

Management educators wrestle torespond to the profound transition of themanagement culture marked bydemanding students, the need to provideworld class facilities, meeting the facultycrunch, developing the best curriculum,deciding on the evaluation techniques andthe onus of producing ethical professionalsare on the rise. With the mushrooming ofB-schools, it becomes difficult to findqualified and trained faculties who can bevested with the responsibility to mould anddevelop the budding managers to grapplewith the present scenario.

Management educators need tounderstand the critical phase ofmanagement education and therefore takemeasures to mend the gaps as expectedby the industry and the classroom deliveryof knowledge. With the economic reformsand the shelling out of managementinstitutes, management educators face thechallenge to ensure that the institutes notonly grow in terms of quantity but alsoflourish qualitatively.

2. Challenges faced by managementeducators

2.1 Campus requirement

A well-constructed business schoolcampus can help to stimulate and inspireits occupants, helping them to work inteams, make brilliant presentations, andconnect with the rest of the B-schoolcommunity as well as the outside world.(Smith, 2012) The onus of setting up agood campus lies with the educationalentrepreneur. The educationalentrepreneurs as promoters need to ensurethat the participants benefit from theschool’s unique campus set up.

Campus requirement in terms ofbuying or leasing it out calls for a decision.With the rising social expectations of thestudents, well furnished total infrastructureneeds to be created which attracts a largepool of participants. Attracting is only asmall of part of the whole process, butmaking them comfortable by providingworld class facilities and putting them atease with issues related toaccommodation, residential facilities,recreation and refreshment needs to beaddressed which continues to be achallenge for the educational entrepreneurin order to promote a good word of mouth.

Educational entrepreneurs as part ofbusiness educators grapple with questionsrelated to the access of technology by thestudents. To cater to the growinganticipation of the students , and to gain aglobal presence, business educators striveto create a well furnished campus

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facilities, air conditioned classrooms, goodresidential facilities so as to attract a qualitycrowd.

Providing a good campus is notsufficient to offer, the faculty members andpromoters also find it crucial to develop,establish and nurture strong connectionswith business communities to flourish as aworld class institution. To nurture and trainthe young minds , the educationalentrepreneur need to ensure that theinstitutions are managed by competentprofessionals as part of the administrativedecisions. Good HR practices needs tobe introduced to manage the pool ofteaching and non teaching staffs.

Likewise, educational entrepreneursneed to address the challenge of makingdecisions by striking a good balance usinga set of financial criteria as well as the largerdimensions of qualitative issues ofmanagement education. Educationalentrepreneurs as business educators needto assert the enormous commitment of timeand money vested by the students as amajor stakeholder. This involves adoptinga holistic approach and taking a hard lookat their value propositions in order toemerge as one of the leading managementinstitutes.

2.2 Paradigm shift in managementsector/curriculum

Faculty body fails to reassert thelimitations of the theories that are beingtaught. Majority of the faculty membersfail to deliver application related contentthat attempts to fill the disconnect between

academia-industry interface. Asprofessional managers one need tounderstand the contemporary challenges.B school faculties mostly discuss cases thatdeal with western styles and issues, writtenby professors of international repute.

Management educators emphasizethe strong focus on analytical models andthe academic rigor which is not well suitedto respond to the transformation of themarketplace. The too standardizedmanagement education does not suit theheterogeneity of the given businesssituations and fail to deal with the emergingindustry trends.

An MBA student has to undergomany courses. To edify the students aboutthe realities of the organizations, there is agrowing plead of practical knowledge,urging management educators to adoptand master the approach of experientiallearning. The dichotomy of ‘theory versusknowledge’ (Balasubramanian, 2010)needs a dire attention , where themanagement educators need to redesignthe course structure in such a manner thataims to bring in accordance theorganizational realities, the roles andpurpose of the business, thereby makingstudents learn to act more creatively andinnovatively.

Professors have to be almost beabreast with the industry, so as to keepthemselves in tune with the ongoingtransitions in the marketplace.Management educators need to keepthemselves updated with the recent job



market papers, Economic times, BusinessStandard and other financial dailies,journals magazines and all business papersin order to deliver a practical and apragmatic overview. Attending seminarsand sharing various inputs from the sameand discussing the varied reading materialsoften adds value to the classroompedagogy.

Every management student needs totake up courses which are similar to all bschools. The real challenge lies in howeducators as facilitators design the coursestructure with more on focusing toenlighten the students about the businessenvironment. Experiential learning is whatneeds to be the core area of concentrationby the management educators. Therewould be no dearth of excellent sales andmarketing managers who could be workingwith various organizations in FMCG,industrial and services marketing but thereis a great dearth of qualified people whocould teach professional selling and salesmanagement at the b- schools. Likewise,there may be any number of economicsteachers, but very few who can interfacetheir knowledge of theory with businesspractices, which is required for teachingeconomics or any management subject.The Operations research or quantitativetechniques faculty are from mathematicaldisciplines and may only solve a linearprogramming problem without actuallybeing able to relate it with real businessproblems or situations. It’s quite probablethat those who teach business researchmethods would ever have carried out

systematic research on business issuesthemselves other than for acquiring adoctoral degree. The students remainsclueless as to how it can be applied to solvea typical problem in personal andprofessional front.

According to M i n t z b e r g ,“Conventional MBA programs train thewrong people in the wrong ways with thewrong consequences,” He believes MBAprograms are schools of business thatpretend to develop managers and thusoffers a critique of MBA programs and ananalysis of the practice of managementitself. MBA programs have failed todevelop better managers who should beimproving their organizations and therebycreating a better society.

2.3 Faculty crunch and inadequateremuneration

With the craze to do MBA,management schools have mushroomed.The burgeoning population of MBAaspirants have led to the establishment ofa number of management institutions.Moreover with the establishment ofAICTE and the sanction of large numberof management institutes; the facultycrunch have evolved as a major issueimpacting all these schools. This can alsobe cited as a short-sightedness on part ofthe educational entrepreneurs who startedthe institutes without much of groundwork.

The paucity of trained humanresource is common to any sunrise industry,and it would imply long drawn-out, andcostly training in industry-specific skills to

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potential employees. There is a dearth oftrained and quality faculties to serve theneeds of the management institutes. Thespawning of management institutions haveled to a situation where faculties need todeal with a number of courses therebydevoting very little time for research andneglecting the relevance of research work.In most of the leading B schools, theprofessors clock up long hours of teachingall the year round, leaving themselves withno time or very little time to get involvedinto various research activities. Its only, butnatural that very few faculties engagethemselves in Management developmentprograms and consultancy and researchrelated activities with companies.

At the content level almost all Bschools have similar courses. Facultieswith little of research and industryexperience are unable to provideexperiential learning. Invariably this leadsto a lecture kind of approach and atheoretical and conceptual pattern ofpedagogy where there is less of content,heavy reliance on power pointpresentations which is to be used as anaid rather than the sole mode of teachingand finally leading to fast drying up ofcontents to share. To run a number ofcourses and to meet the acute facultycrunch, management institutes resort toappointing faculties on a contract basis oras visiting faculties. Such a situation doesnot allow the faculties to have higher orderof involvement with the students and theinstitute. Burdened with the classroomduties the management educators faces a

very daunting and a challengingenvironment which further exacerbatesand results in a decline of intellectualgrowth and original research. Even takingup consulting assignments to make someextra money also becomes difficult. Facultyis a critical resource and yes, shortage ofquality faculty in the country is a criticalproblem,” says Prof. Devanath Tirupati,Director-in-Charge and Dean (Academic)at IIM-B. (Bhattacharyya & Chaturvedi,2013).

A long term problem is created whenthere is a paucity of PhD prospects. Aconsiderable amount of time is vested inteaching. In such a situation managementinstitutes need to focus and makearrangements to invest in improving thequality of teaching by imparting training.Management institutes as part of theiradministrative plans must embark on somesystematic faculty induction followed byregular and continuous training for thefaculty at periodic intervals. Highly reputedinstitutes need to take the lead and roll outprograms that would help the faculties ofmushrooming management institutes in thistask. The management institutes often donot realize the importance of arrangingsessions that would help the experiencedfaculties to equip themselves the skills ofintegrating technology like the use ofinternet and video satellite sessions in theirpedagogy style.

Inadequate remuneration remains oneof the issues of disquiet among themanagement educators. Pay scales aresupposed to be designed as per the AICTE



norms, but however most of the B-schoolsdo not abide by the norms. Most of thepromoters of the private managementschools, who have involved themselves inthe business of education because oflucrative returns of the industry, pay theteachers pittance. An MBA graduate hasall the incentive to join the industry than asan entry level faculty, as the later professionof an faculty often demands higherqualifications and do not provide attractiveremuneration packages as against theearning potential of the MBA graduatejoining industry. Although there areinstitutes which are identified to set facultypackages much higher than the market rate,still they fail to be at par with the corporatepackages.

Management educators are often notincentivized to join the education industryas the academic pay packages fail to matchto those in industry, professors only havemore access to resources that only providethem intellectual satisfaction. Oftenprofessors are not aware of the AICTEnorms related to compensation andworkload which are often not revealed bythe managements. The AICTE guidelinesand copies related to the norms are noteasier to find which leaves the educatorsin an ambiguous situation showing littlesigns of monetary incentive to theprofessors. In today’s competitive world,when the only yardstick to measure anindividual’s status and efficiency is inmonetary terms, it’s quite obvious that thepoor pay packages and remuneration failsto attract the highly competent and qualifies

resource persons but attracts only the lesscompetent to opt for the career ofprofessional education or managementeducation.

2.4 Class diversity and Students’expectations

A typical batch at any managementinstitute is found to have a diverseparticipants from various fields. Althoughdiversity is the buzzword at all B-schools,it becomes difficult for the managementeducators to address them and bring themto a common platform. A typical batchranges from engineers, doctors, commercegraduates to Art graduates. Not only interms of qualification, a regularmanagement batch also has participantsfrom various socio cultural pockets andgender. Management educators face thechallenge of confronting the varied diversityof participants, addressing their specialneeds and acknowledging broad set oflearning, experiences and skill sets.

It is interesting to note along with thegiven class diversity, how studentexpectations have evolved over the yearswhich are now of a greater complexity andorder. Students’ expectations are too highnot only in terms of knowledge and skillbuilding but also on account of the outcomei.e., enhanced placement prospects.Students do not find much value andrationale in what is being taught. Thestudents want everything to be taught inclass within the stipulated class timings.They are rather not much interested todevote the rest of the time at their disposal

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for the enrichment and enhancement oftheir attitude, knowledge and skill.

The considerable hike in the tuitionfees of the management institutes have leadto students acting more like customers.Value for money is what they look for.Management institutes are increasinglyseen as part of the service sector. As aresult of this, students being the majorstakeholder are importantly treated ascustomers of this service. In contrast tothe supplier-driven, take-it-or- leave- itmodel which most institutions havefollowed in the past has been supersededby a focus on the student as a customer ofthis service. With the increasing students’expectations and with the student customermodel, the management educators facesmany challenges; particularly when thestudents often shift the onus of learning andplacement achievements from themselvesto the faculties and the managementinstitutes. This leads to the transfer ofaccountability from the students to thefaculties who are considered to be theservice providers of the entire system.

Management institutes over the yearshave evolved as placement agencies andthis lures the students to join the institute.With more focus on enhanced placementexpectations, management educators findit difficult to handle the drift in prioritiesand the changing notion of the students.Understanding and tackling studentanxieties at the time of placement season,putting a pause to the high shirkingactivities remains a big challenge for the

educators. The rising trend of the studentsbeing caught in the Abilene paradox;leading to an ambiguous focus ; poses aserious threat to the managementinstitutions and educators. Students fail tounderstand that there is no magic elixir.

Even with given job offers, studentsbecome extremely selective about the joboffers and the companies which they wishto join. This selective keenness often drivesout companies of the campus making ithard for the educational entrepreneurs andfaculty members to retain such companies.It becomes imperative for the facultymembers to enlighten the students andapprise them of the market situations andhelping them to build more realisticexpectations.

2.5 Free riders and performanceevaluation of the students

Management educators are largelyencountered with ‘behavioural issue’. Thebig challenge the management educatorsencounter is that; given the cases andreading materials to the students; the classwalks in without any preparation. Shirkingactivities have become a dominantbehaviour. To keep them glued to the classremains a predominant challenge.

‘Free- riding’ behaviour of thestudents have become an overridingphenomenon leading to a lack of qualitydiscussion and participation in the classroomand carry out the class session without muchlearning. In these cases, the educatorteaches and the class does not learn.



Inevitably educators face a seriousproblem to manage the ‘cold’ sessionswhich fail to generate the desirableoutcomes that a particular course isintended for.

Educators find it arduous to tacklethe unprepared class and the silentresponse from the students. Oftenmanagement educators lament that therehas been an increasing trend about thedisengagement of the students which hasbeen traditionally termed as ‘studying’. Theless preparation leads to a monotonoustone, where the lecturer often resort tostereotype teaching technique like morereliance on PowerPoint presentations,conceptual frameworks and even taking alot of time in discussing topics which wereto be dealt by the students in advance.

The unprepared class does notcontribute constructive ideas which leadsto a drop in carving out innovativesolutions, lack of creativity and restrictsout of the box thinking. With the advent ofa particular course, students who are newto the course, when comes unpreparedand with little of advance studies are notable to catch up with the entire class andfeels panicky. Management educators feelwary about finding ways to encouragecreativity among the participants. Lack ofpreparation and walking into the class leadsto lack of brainstorming. In such asituation, the management educators findit difficult to address the students’apprehension as with stipulated lecturehours not everything can be resolved

unless the students makes any attempt togo through the course materialsbeforehand and undertakes somepreparatory steps.

On the whole the managementeducators confronts the challenge to decideon the parameters of evaluation. Any timea dissertation or a project is assigned,students have access to internet and hencethey tend to do copy paste which becomesextremely difficult for the educators toevaluate. With the plethora of informationavailable in the internet, the students tendto lose their individuality when doing anyassignment or project.

Management educators face thedaunting challenge of making the studentsaware about plagiarism. Managementinstitutes and educators find it difficult toassert the relevance to completeassignments and projects by learning anddeveloping skills instead of resorting toshortcuts to complete. The students oftenengage in ‘patch writing’ which involvesthe act of sharing and copying of ideas ofothers and making little changes to it byadding few words on their own. Studentslack the proper planning and timemanagement skills which leads them tocomplete assignments and projects in ahurry by resorting to a lot of expedientshortcuts. With too many choices available, students often are most tempted to copymaterials failing to use their own judgmentsand finish the assigned task. It becomesvery difficult for the management educatorsto set parameters and the components for

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evaluating a students’ performance. Therationale for evaluation, and whether oneshould follow a subjective or objectiveassessment technique needs to bedecided. Some subjectivity definitelycreeps in the process and at times theeducators have to deal with fairness andjustice in their student assessmentapproaches.

Usually projects and assignments areassigned by forming groups in order toinculcate the group dynamics amongstudents as demanded by the marketplace.Often the educator finds it difficult to putup with the challenges of involving everymember to participate and make ameaningful contribution for the completionof the assigned task. Few members burnthe midnight oil and works, while othersrefrain from working exhibiting highshirking activities.

Management educators are oftencaught in the dilemma to design effectiveevaluation techniques. An associateprofessor from Indian Institute of ForeignTrade (IIFT) points out that the groupwhich functions most smoothly is the onewhich learns the least. This is because thegroup when assigned a project or a task,breaks down the entire work into partsand divides it among themselves in such away that every part is handled by studentswho have already been a deft in a particularportion of the project assigned forcompletion. For example; when anassignment like preparing a business planis assigned, only few students shoulder the

work, where the math whiz deals with allthe statistical analysis and an English adeptcompletes the analysis. In such a teamwork, it becomes very difficult for theprofessors to identify the learning statusof the group and grade the group as awhole.

2.6 Inculcating values and leadershipskills

Students carry the notion thatBschools are simply the placementagencies. Imparting knowledge is just notadequate, they need to shape their mindsto make managers and leaders out of themby emerging as a place, where leadershipis promoted and nurtured. A professionalmanagement student requires a set of rightattitudes of a leader. Many a times theeducator is able to impart the knowledgeand the skills to analyse numbers, but arenot able to inculcate the right mental attitudeand the right ethical conduct in theirstudents.

To make business sustainable andsocially relevant, managers have todemonstrate competence, leadershipcharacter and develop empathy for theneedy. Building character and inculcatingempathy among the budding managers,which will make them real leaders of thesociety, remains a perennial challenge formanagement educators. The work byRattani, 2013 has cited what Prof. M.L.Srikant, Dean, S.P Jain Institute ofManagement and Research opined “Student managers must understand andmanage themselves before they can



manage others”. He also mentions thesignificance of ‘spirituality quotient’ .

Quoting Dr Debashis Chatterjee,Director, IIM-K, “In a situation where onedoesn’t know where the economy isheaded, whether one has a job or not, orif there is a pay cut lurking, one needsinternal cohesion, external resilience, abilityto deal with stress and an ability to operatebeyond the ego,”. All these can be keylessons from spirituality. The managementeducators need to take up the challengeof shifting the notion of the students solelyfrom a placement perspective to an overalldevelopment of the student investigatingand inculcating the leadership qualitieswhich remains the need of the hour.

Although the pay packages remainsdazzling; often the management educatorsface the challenge to impart and instil theethical behavioural norms and the varioususeful leadership skills. With the highdegree of exposure to the competitiveenvironment, it is essential that theprofessional managers develop the attitudeto build and preserve trusts of the variousstakeholders that they deal with in theirday to day activities. Only developing skillsto analyse a problem is not sufficient toaddress the business environment, rathera more empathetic behaviour needs to beinculcated among the budding managersthrough various leadership programorientation.

Management educators train thestudents to become the best in analysingdata and numbers. They develop all the

skills to broil down any number to get anmeaningful insight out of it. Howevermanagement educators are by and largeencountered with the challenge ofdeveloping soft skills among the students.There is more emphasis on technical skills.Management educators must try todevelop leaders that aspire to contributesignificantly to the society.

Management educators find itonerous to make the students realize theimportance of leadership skills andcompetencies and often they do not findmuch rationale in the broad range ofeducation and training imparted. With sucha leadership training, the students wouldbe in a position to understand the impactof their doings and the effect of theirbehaviour on others. It helps them toidentify their strengths and weaknesses,values and attitudes. It’s a challenge forthe educators to convince them that theymust look beyond the bottom line and topline and imbibe the right skill sets andcompetencies that would broaden theirperspectives to handle a range ofcontemporary issues.

The challenge of turning the MBAstudents into an insightful leaders whowould make a difference to the businessand society with their managerial skills, isone of the challenging tasks at themanagement educators shoulder. MBAstudents are skilfully trained to focus onprofit maximization rather than to face theethical questions which are necessary todo business. Business educators integrate

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the nuances of management but somehowfails to bring in the ethical business practicesthat brings the economy to the brink.Setting clear cut vision, being perseverantand developing the characteristics of risktolerance is what business educators areexpected to instill among the students,which often meets high resistance from thestudents as their myopic tendencies aremore to achieve enhanced placements andbag high pay packages. Tony Mayo, thefaculty of Harvard Business Schoolstresses the importance of ‘ContextualIntelligence’.

3. Strategic Approaches to deal withthe challenges

To succeed in the dynamicenvironment, the management educatorsneed to take a holistic approach to addressthe unmet needs of the participants. Thiscan be made possible with the adoptionof the 3 I Model. The 3 I-s postulatemaking the management educationInclusive, Innovative and Integrative.Inclusiveness will lead to attract a differentmix of students, business educators needtake a look at their value propositions bybalancing the interests of the stakeholders.This approach would help in addressingthe challenges of class diversity andstudents’ expectations. The element ofinnovativeness comprises co-creatingideas and developing compelling mixes ofstrategies in the face of the existingchallenges. This would help to address thechallenges of providing well furnishedcampus, faculty problems and resolve theissue of paradigm shift in management

sector and curriculum. To make itIntegrative implies changes that need to beinduced in a collective form by the businesseducators. This aspect would deal with thecultural and social aspects by inspiring theyoung minds to resort to a more ethicalbehaviour and have a global mindset.Some more strategies are discussed here:

3.1 Introducing changes in curriculum

The applicability of the theories inpractice, the degree and extent of chal-lenges and complexities associated forthoughtful and effective application needsto be addressed effectively. Associatedskills and the attitudes required for evalu-ating specific contexts and drawing cor-rect conclusions needs to be built amongthe students whereby they develop the rightskill sets that connects with the industryand is valued by the companies and thepracticing managers.

3.2 Managing faculty crunch

Business educators as promoters andpart of the administrative body need todevelop competencies within theirfaculties. This can be promoted bydeveloping the mass of faculty who areskilled at melding the worlds of theory andpractice by subtly changing the incentivepattern and by including the policies ofacademic journals. Another way can beinsisting experienced, successful industryprofessionals to switch careers by enteringinto academics. Institutes may ask themto undergo a program that would includetraining in pedagogy skills and familiarizingthem with the basic scholarly standards.



3.3 Managing class diversity andstudents’ expectations

Given the broad diversity, aprofessor who undertakes theresponsibility of running a course not onlyhas to start from scratch to bring them toa common platform, but also need toconstantly create an engaged learningenvironment with the diverse audience thatthe educators encounter in a typicalmanagement classroom thereby promotingthe culture of class diversity and inclusion.

Student expectations are mostlyformed due to the word of mouth at thetime of orientation and whom they meetin the college campus. By orienting theminitially in the beginning of the program andshowing them how the particular courseenhance these challenges can be tackledto a great extent. This is especiallyimportant in light of evidence (James,2002) that suggests that studentexpectations can be shaped significantlyby a two way dialogue between ‘providerand customer’. As rightly proposed bySchultz (1993) the educators need toadopt an ‘outside in; approach instead ofthe ‘inside out’ approach.

3.2 Managing ‘free riders’ andchoosing evaluation techniques

To avoid a situation of ‘free riders’,educators need to resort to strategies andadopt techniques that set a positive andan interactive tone that motivates thestudents and intrigue their interests.Management educators need to constantly

foster the concept and mechanism ofdialectical discussion in the classroom.

3.3 Inculcating values and leadershipskills

More attention to be paid to changethe myopic outlook of the students. Theability to handle risks and socialresponsibility and ethics, ares what mostbusiness educators fail to inculcate amongtheir students. All managementprofessionals must imbibe theseprerequisites that blend the characteristicsof both a manager and an executiveentrepreneur who must be trained tochallenge the status quo and continuouslystrive to develop and co create new ideas.

4. Conclusion

There is no doubt that the manage-ment education needs to be redefined andrestructured in a way to cater to the chang-ing complex scenario. There is a dire needto acknowledge the growing unmet needsto pacify the dissatisfaction and discom-fort of the participants. Although the chal-lenges that the management educators faceare deep and pervasive, still there are op-portunities to overcome the underlying is-sues; provided that the business educa-tors react proactively in a fashion to col-laborate, share and come forward to re-vamp the management education scenario.

At this juncture, it can be rightly saidthat the B-schools would continue to bein a state of peril unless attempts are madeto properly define their roles, purpose andfunctioning. The leading edge of transition

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needs to be infused in a way that helps themanagement educators and the partici-pants to identify and understand thepresent status quo and respond with thenecessary adaptations, resolve the‘fitment’ problem, undertake innovationswith creative courses and curriculum re-forms and make concerted efforts towardsfaculty development programs.

In the face of these changes, it is rec-ommended that educational entrepreneursas promoters and faculty members rethinkabout their offerings and reframe viablemodels to counter the challenging scenario.It’s high time to resort to a holistic ap-proach that would make a meaningful con-tribution in the field of management edu-cation by fulfilling the expectations of allstakeholders.

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Balasubramanian, A. ( 2 0 1 0 ,December 7). Great challenges stareBschools. The Economic Times. Retrievedfrom http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com, date: 02/01/2014

Bhattacharya, R., & Chaturvedi, A.,(2013, November 15). PhD requirement,poor salaries leading to shrinking pool of‘quality’ faculty in business schools. TheEconomic Times. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com,date: 02/01/2014

Cullen, P.G., Datar, S.M., Gravin, D.A.(2010) . Rethinking the MBA. BusinessEducation at a Crossroads, Boston:Harvard Business Press.

Kerr, Gayle F, Schultz, Don , Patti,Charles, Ilchul, Kim (2008) An inside-outapproach to Integrated MarketingCommunication : an internationalanalysis. International Journal ofAdvertising, 27(4). pp. 511-548.

Rattani, J. (2013, December 22).Softer, subjective issues get less attentionin B-schools. Business Line. Retrievedfrom http://www.thehindubusinessline.com,date: 07/02/2014

Sharma, R. (2009) Meeting facultyshortage: A major challenge for IndianBschools; The ALTERNATIVE, Journal ofManagement Studies and Research, Vol:VIII, No.:2; ISSN 0973-0451; BITS,Mesra.

Smith, M. (2012) Top BusinessSchools For Beautiful Campuses Retrievedon 24th January 2014 from http:/ /www.bus inessbecause .com/news /t o p b u s i n e s s - s c h o o l s / 1 7 8 9 / t o p -businessschools-beautiful-campuses, date:01/02/ 2014

Tricker T. (n.d.). StudentExpectations – How do we measure up?,mimeo, retrieved from http://interdisciplinary.net/ati/education/ioe/ioe2/tricker%20paper.pdf, dated: 18/01/2014

Umarji, V., & Pathak, K., (2014,January 8). B-schools bank on counsellorsfor a good placement season. BusinessStandard. Retrieved from http://www.business-standard.com, date: 20/01/2014.



Redefining Education to EmploymentJourney: Changes in Commerce and

Management Education

Dr. Shivram KrishnanDean Academics, SMU DE, Manipal

For our people to benefit from newemployment opportunities, we mustensure that every Indian is skilled andeducated. Education alone is thefoundation on which a prosperous andprogressive society is built. I wish to seea revolution in education and skilldevelopment in the next five years. Wewill make India a nation of educatedpeople, of skilled people, of creativepeople.” Manmohan Singh, the then PrimeMinister of India, said at the Red Fort onAugust 15, 2007.

During the national conference on‘Development of Higher Education:Expansion, Inclusion and Excellence’where Vice-chancellors from nearly 400universities met in Delhi, Mr. BalachandraMungekar, member, PlanningCommission, stated that “only 8-10%graduates get employment. Our educationsystem is devoid of being practical withinindustries. Seven IITs and a few IIMscannot be considered as a knowledge basefor the entire country,”1

Even after 65 years of independence,we face the problem of millions ofgraduates being unemployable for Indianand multinational companies. The Indianeducation system manufactures 100,000graduates of which only 53 percent areemployable. (Team Lease, 2007, pp.3).A Wall Street Journal article (Anand,2011) states “75 percent of technicalgraduates and more than 85 percent ofgeneral graduates are unemployable byIndia’s high growth global industries.”2 Itis estimated that the percentage of Indiancollege graduates readily employable in themarket is only 15-25 percent of the totaltalent pool.

For quite some time now, we havebeen reading or hearing about the 1:4 ratioof employability versus education in thehigher education sector. This has been saidfor general education and managementlargely and technical education to someextent. Why is this being raisedconsistently now and how true it is? Is itan indictment of the quality of education

1 http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12, Dec.7 TNN, B.K. Mishra2 Anand. G. (2011, April 5). India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire. The Wall

Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com

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that prevails in most of the higher educationinstitutions or is it to do with the difficultyof finding a mechanism to catch up with thechanging requirements of the job market?If one considers the fact that only about 8%of the total labour force is employed in theorganized sector and employment has notregistered a noticeable growth during adecade, then the issue of un-employabilitymay be misnomer or is it that the lack ofemployability have forced the organizedsector to restrain their growth potential.

For reasons of regular employment asteady income growth at the desired rateand to stem inflation, employment must shiftfrom the unorganized sector to the organizedone and also from the services sector tothe manufacturing sector. The latter sectoron the other hand would need employablemanpower coming from the pure skillimparting institutions or from the highereducation institutions on a regular basis.

The gap in employability must bearising from the shortcomings in thecurriculum or in the method of deliveringthe curriculum or both. How is it that thegap has not been addressed for quite sometime? What other requirements in thisregard are not being addressed to byformal higher education?

This paper addresses many suchquestions posed above. It also outlinespossible modification in the design of thecurriculum and pedagogy, mainly in thefaculty of commerce and to a small extentin the faculty of management mainly toenhance employability among students.

It relies on discussions withacademicians and students of institutionsin Bangalore which have done well forthemselves in terms of employability anddraws from the three decades ofexperience the author has in various kindsof organizations, some purely academic,some corporate cum academic, some setup by the author himself and two decadesof experience as a career counsellor.

The status on higher education in Indiavis-à-vis employment will through somelight on what we set out to probe in thefirst instance.

Indian higher education system is oneof the largest in the world. There were only20universities and 500 colleges with 0.1million students at the time India attainedindependence. This has increased to 611universities and university-level institutionsand 31,324 colleges as on August 2011(Table-1).

Table 1 : Number, Nature andCategory of Institutions (As on August,2011)Type of institution Number

Central Universities 43

State Universities 289

State Private Universities 94

Deemed to be Universities $ 130

Institutes of NationalImportance + other institutes* 50

Total 611

Total Colleges 31324

Grand Total 31935

Redefining Education to Employment Journey ...


*Other Institutes include Indian Institutesof Science Education and Research(IISERs) (5), National Institute of FashionTechnology (NIFT), Rajiv Gandhi Instituteof Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) andJawaharlal Nehru Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education andResearch (JIPMER).

$ Now 129, as Deemed to be Universitystatus of one university has been withdrawn.

Source: ‘Inclusive and QualitativeExpansion of Higher Education 12th Fiveyear Plan 2012-2017, university GrantsCommission.

Student enrolment in Higher Education:

Source: Twelfth Five Year Plan: Chapter on higher education, UGC report ‘Highereducation in India at a glance’ 2012 FICCI Higher Education Summit 2012The fact file on employment is:

Table 2 : Percentage Distribution of All Workers by Status of Employment—Self-employed,Regular and Casual Workers—in Rural and Urban Areas in Different YearsYears 1993-94 1999-2000 2004-05 2009-10RuralSelf-Employed 58.0 55.8 60.2 54.2All wage workers * 42.0 44.2 39.9 45.9Regular 6.5 6.8 7.1 7.3Casual 35.6 37.4 32.8 38.6UrbanSelf-Employed 42.3 42.2 45.4 41.1All wage workers* 57.7 57.8 54.5 58.9Regular 39.4 40.0 39.5 41.4Casual 18.3 17.7 15.0 17.5

Note: *All wage paid is the sum of regular and casual workers.Source: Compiled from Various NSSO Rounds

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An interesting fact that emerges fromthe income –employment scenario is thatwhile income from the Services sector hasgone up in the contribution to the GDP, theemployment growth in this sector has notbeen encouraging in comparison with theother countries. This adds to the disparityin income distribution among the population.An important aspect of quality ofemployment in India is the predominanceof the unorganised sector. The size of theorganised sector, characterised by higherearnings and job security is small, itaccounted for less than 6% of the totalemployment in 2004-05. Around two-thirds of the total organised sectoremployment is in the public sector. Overthe years, organised sector employment hasgrown slowly than the total employment,reflecting the faster growth of employmentin the unorganised sector. As a result, therehas been increasing informalisation ofemployment over the years.

An international labour report notesthat high economic growth and growth ofquality employment reinforce each other.The Report argues for increasing the shareof organised sector employment in totalemployment of the country, particularly inthe manufacturing and service sectors.

The Report firmly puts on the agendato best utilize the „demographic dividendby focusing on generating gainfulemployment for youth, in general, andyoung women, in particular. The Reportnotes that given very low proportion ofskilled workers at present, a suitable andworkable framework to enhance the

employability of workers is essential. Thesame can be achieved by providing trainingto workers at various levels with emphasison recognizing local skills and certifyinginformally acquired skills along with theexpansion of skill development institutions.

Thus Higher Educational institutionshave a central role to play in providing thenecessary skilled manpower to varioussectors by a paradigm shift in academicdelivery at all levels of higher education.

Here it will be interesting to note thatthe private institutions have a significantpresence in the Higher Education spectrumand enrol a large percentage of the totalstudents. However concerns of qualityhave been largely attributed to theinstitutions managed and run by theGovernment, which does not really holdwater as privately run institutions havefared no better on this front. Some of theseissues of quality has to do with ‘research’or the lack of it and some with‘employability’. The term ‘employability’is not only about the ability to beimmediately employed but also about thetrainable quality of the manpower in casethe employer is strategically inclined.Forthe employer it is also about the quantumof investment to be made on ‘training anddevelopment’ upon those employed. Thisleads us to the question of ‘what constitutes‘un-employability’ in general.

A close scan of the environmenttoday reveals that, among other factors,un-employability in students emergesmainly from:



1. The inability of the higher educationcurriculum to keep pace with the allpervasive rapid changes intechnology

2. The incompatibility between thelearning imparted and the nature ofjobs currently allotted to employeesor even the ambiguity or vaguenessin the jobs allotted

3. The inadequacy of education toaddress the sales focus in a largenumber of jobs

4. A global orientation of products,services and processes which thesaid teaching probably ignores

5. In-adequate technological training atthe academic level as against thatrequired for jobs now

6. The lack of English as a language usedpredominantly by the organizedsector

7. The hours of work and the level ofperformance expected from fresherfor which the entrant isunderprepared.

The way people perform their worktoday has changed. Technology has takenover several routine and non- routine partsof a job. Jobs today require moreinteraction than earlier. Performances aremore measureable than decades back.These have changed the expectations froman employee. Whether such expectationshave been incorporated in the curriculumfor various programs is a question that has

engaged the minds of academicians, HRpersonnel and institutions. A note by Ciscois worth visiting:

“The question is whether oureducation system can adapt to this newparadigm. In a globalized workplace thedemand for STEM skills (Science,Technology, Engineering andMathematics) is increasing. Beyond this,the 21st century skills also include thefollowing capacities:

• Problem solving and decision making• creative and critical thinking• collaboration, communication, and

negotiation• intellectual curiosity and the ability to

find, select, structure, and evaluateinformation;

And the motivation to be:

• An independent self-starter, who isresponsible, persevering, self-regulating, reflective, self-evaluating,and self-correcting

• a lifelong learner who is flexible andable to adapt to change

Learning these skills is imperative fordeveloping countries like India to make themove to a knowledge economy.” (Cisco2008)1

Some of the above shortcomingshave afflicted a large number of higher

3 Cisco. Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century. Retrieved from newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/ekits/Equipping_Every_Learner_for_21st_Century_White_Paper.pdf

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education institutes since long. It isunfortunate that it has persisted toaccentuate the ‘Hindu growth rate of 3.5%’till the nation started turning around in 1991.The institutions have failed to addressthe issues concerning, a strong groundingof the basics, the application based learningand the commitment to the skill part ofthe curriculum. Post 1991, severalinstitutions have kept a lively if notcomplete pace with the global standardsin education and the market needs. Theseare both in the privately managed and thegovernment managed ones.

The pedagogy followed in differentmeasures by some of the institutions whichthe author examined, included:1. A lot of self- reading material supplied

to the student before thecommencement of the topic

2. A large number of writtenassignments for each subject whichthe student had to submit

3. Class discussion supported by oneor more teachers to clarify content inpoint 1 and to take up applicationbased topics

4. Class-room lectures confined toselected topics generally conceptual–(basic or advanced)

5. Field work (relevant to the subject)6. External experts to engage upon

value added content7. A choice of additional course to

widen the interest and perspectiveof the student

8. Additional or optional skillenhancement courses which studentscan opt for

It would be imperative to examinethe aspects of Evaluation and Assessmentwhich the institutions adopted as theysupported the pedagogy closely.1. The marking/grading scheme were

spread among the components of thepedagogy in a manner whichcarefully avoided skew among themto a significant extent

2. There were Unit test, mid-term test,end term test ( summative butapplication based and designed toavoid rote learning)

3. A marking scheme for gradedattendance in classroom

4. A provision to consult alternativefaculty of choice to review anevaluated work

The pedagogy and the evaluation andassessment outlined above clearly requiresserious preparation by the faculty beforethe session begins. This involves acurriculum design which considers the twinobjectives of ‘research orientation andemployment orientation’ in addition to otherobjectives. It requires clear detailing ofsyllabi and learning outcomes and howsuch outcomes can be achieved. Theseinvolve coordination among the faculty tointegrate subjects, adopt a holisticapproach and adequately divide thelearning time required. It also presupposesa team which is open to constructivecriticism and flexibility during and after thedelivery of the program.



A part of the purpose of the UGC topromote ‘Centers of Excellence’ andprovide ‘autonomy’ to several colleges hasbeen to embrace and practice a pedagogysimilar to the above or even better. Veryfew of these colleges/institutions have doneso sincerely for whatever reasons.Surprisingly the lack of effort in this frontis glaring among the private institutions.Further many institutions specially thoseunder the government may not have theadministrative freedom to adopt some ofthe above methods or develop methodssimilar to them. There will be constraintsof class strength, faculty student ratio,inflexible marking formats and budgets.

It is better to reiterate here that thearguments above are to focus on the‘employability’ aspect of higher educationin the non-technical disciplines. Noreference is being made to quality as in a‘world class institution’ or even to‘research’. Given this focus, institutionshave to re-engineer themselves if they wantto be relevant to the rapidly changing markettrends. It cannot be a laid back approachof yonder years as any government on theseat will have to encounter a sizeablepopulace of young Indians which willsteamroll reforms by its sheer size and force.

As set out in the beginning of thispaper the second part of this paper willpropose a skill based actionable solutionor what in common parlance is known as‘practical based’ approach to teaching andlearning of Commerce and to some extent

Management. This is not comprehensivebut eminently thought provoking to facilitatethe design of employability focusedcurriculum and delivery.

Employability is about buildingcapabilities and competencies. It is thecapacity to take an overview even whenworking at the micro level of a function. Itis also the ability of looking at the bigpicture and learn for oneself at anincreasing degree of complexity over aperiod of time. Today employability is alsoabout the ability to communicateeffectively. It is about being able tooperationalize the learning immediately.One, whose basics are clear, can graspapplication of principles and concepts indiffering situations. It will be appropriateto refer here the changes which wererendered in the central civil servicesexaminations with effect from the year2013 on the recommendations of the Y.K.Alagh Committee (2001) . While there arecontroversies regarding the changes afterthey have been implemented, thecommittee’s observation with regard to the‘job requirement’ is worth noting.

“The present testing of optionalsubjects is based on college/universitycurriculum. Re-examining the candidatesin their own subjects appears to be ofdoubtful utility. The universities havealready done the work… What isimportant is the relevance of a subject tothe job requirements of a civil servant,especially in the changing scenario.”4

4 Purnima S. Tripathi, “Frustrating change”, Frontline February 7,2014

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It is also important to observe that“the UPSC made changes to increase theweightage to the general studies paper. Itbecame one of the most important subjectin the civil services main examination asopposed to optional subjects. …. Thesyllabus of the four general studies papersshows that the commission expects a civilservices aspirant to be widely read. …thecandidates are expected to have anunderstanding of ethics which implicitlyrequires an understanding of social andlegal issues. The new system requiresstudents to have analytical skills and theability to take a position on controversialissues instead of merely possessinginformation.”5

The above clearly brings out the issueof ‘employability’ for a civil servant inchanged circumstances.

Coming back to Commerce, thecapabilities expected from a potentialemployee include numerical proficiency inmaintaining financial transactions andevaluating financial performance,comprehending the environment, analysingthe impact of economic policies onbusiness, valuing a product or service,knowing legal provisions which impactbusiness and so on.

Commerce is also aboutunderstanding how products are madehow they are sold and how customers aremaintained. In most Indian text booksrelated to commerce the content is writtenin a generic way with hardly any mention

of any real-time products or companiesor processes. In the classroom the studentsare seldom taught to discover what ismissing or wrong and present a solution.They are rather told what is or what is notand then adopt a particular approach onlyto solve the missing. They are scarcelygiven scenarios of life and work to grapplewith and find solutions. Students are givenspecific instances with specific details onlyin most subjects. Application is sorelymissing in the sense of finding alternativesand applying the right alternative.Commerce as a discipline is imminentlyamenable to a high degree of‘employability’ to be incorporated in boththe curriculum and delivery.

An examination of various types ofjob interviews (by various organizations)provides some insight into thecharacteristics of employability. Thesepertain to logical thinking, interpersonalskills, analytical skills etc. Cues can alsobe taken from the selection procedure ofthe military services. The appraisal systemof various organization also give an insightinto the subject of employability. It is acomplex phenomenon and could easily bespecific to a particular nature of job. Yetthere are some common denominatorswhich allow the detection of employabilityamong a group of people. These lead tosome basic traits, skills and characteristicswhich exist in individuals. These then canform part of the curriculum design for mostprograms and be weaved into the syllabiof courses or offered as a stand- alone

5 ibid



course so that learners can imbibe themover a period of time.

Hence there can be genericemployability criteria and domain specificones. Incidentally the internship, requiredfor most programs, is one such coursewhich is supposed to provide a basic peepinto a ‘work-environment’ and offer afleeting experience of things to comeduring the actual employment.

Some of the general requisites ofemployability are:1. Handling stress2. Working with team/s3. Looking for real-time information4. Interpersonal skills5. Negotiation skills6. Product knowledge and

comparisons of products7. Feasibility reports8. P&L estimation based on demand

forecasting9. Working late hours10. Handling failure or a negative

response11. Getting market information12. Making correspondence13. Office grooming14. Secretarial work15. Handling uncertainty16. Handling execution of work and

timelines or lack of them17. Assessing weak areas for

improvement

18. Innovation and new ideas19. Knowing competitors20. Knowing the dynamics of an

organization

The key activities needed to rendera practical orientation to a Commerce orManagement education may include:1. A first- hand knowledge about

markets whether small or big—why,how and what of the products beingsold by sellers.

2. A first-hand knowledge about someproducts and how to see theproducts’ attributes

3. A real-time look at bookkeeping andaccounts of institutions, small or big

4. Knowledge about real-time costs ofproducts or service

5. Knowledge about documentations tobe maintained in offices

6. Real-time impact understanding ofeconomic events on business orotherwise

7. Real-time research on market needsthrough short primary surveys

8. Real-time knowledge of demand –supply of some products prevalentin the market

9. Real-time knowledge ofmanufacturing process

The expectation from an employerfrom a Commerce (under-graduate)student may be:

1. Can the student realize that a businessis to be seen holistically

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2. Is the student practically aware ofthe various external service providerswhose assistance is imperative forconducting business transactions andsome of the documentation to beexecuted for sub-activities thereinsuch as in Banking, Insurance,transportation, Taxation.

3. Can the value of business beascertained and a Final Account onan estimated basis be preparedwithout being given any informationdirectly. Which kind of transactionswill change the valuation?

4. How to ascertain the demand for aproduct/service and thereby prepareestimated B/S and P&L for say 3years to study the feasibility of abusiness proposition.

5. How to Plan a real-time event withreal-time activities and costs.

6. How the information of market andeconomic information affects aparticular business

The other facets of developingemployability that can be built into theteaching-learning process are:

1. Exposure to socio-economic andsocio-political conditions

2. Environmental scanning and buildingpredictive capability

3. Common business practices invarious departments in a stimulatedenvironment

4. Numerical skills using varioussoftware on real-time basis

5. Valuations of property—market valueof property

6. Simulation of Trading in Stockmarket, treasury and commodity

7. Games for leadership and otherbehavioral traits.

An example of ‘Book-keeping andAccountancy’ for an entry level student inCommerce is given below:

1. Simulation of a trading shop——Grocery store with some items;stationary; toys; electrical goods;cosmetics——racks with displayitems and pricing which can bechanged. The shop should have otherfixtures and furniture. The itemspresent in the shop would help toascertain the value of the business.

2. The student is to conduct transactionsfrom the simulation—say about 150-200; these have to be entered in cashmemos; vouchers, invoices, bills.

3. These should be posted in cash bookand general ledger

4. Summary accounts to be then preparedand a P&L and B/S prepared.

5. Excel lessons to make P&L and B/S;to make sales report; and other A/csNOTE: can the teacher change theitems, prices etc to maintain varietyfor each student and thereby avoidcopying.

6. Once the B/S is made, the value ofthe capital is divided into shareswhich can be exchanged. This can bemade into a basic trading platform.



7. Simulation of a passbook and a cashbook in case of banking transactionwhich would trigger the preparationof reconciliation.

8. Preparing bank related documents-suchas challans, cheques, draft form etc.

The details given above entail changesin curriculum and the academic delivery.They also obviate changes in evaluationmechanism which appropriately distributesmarking system for different capabilities ofa student and lays minimum emphasis onterm-end formative assessment. The lattershould only be used to vet an overallopinion and view or a bird’s eye view of asituation or a holistic view of an event orsituation. Technology can play a major rolein facilitating many of these in a simulatedor animated architecture. The suggestionscan only be a stimulus to develop acomprehensive curriculum and academicdelivery framework. Based on thepedagogy outlined in the earlier part of thepaper and the emphasis laid onemployability in the later part, an advisablepedagogy can be:

Field work involving, Factory visit,Shop visit, Market visit; Class-roomengagement involving Games, Simulations,Real-time scenario solving, Role playing,Live feed of market proceedings,engagement by industry personnel, samplelive-documentation of different businessfunctions, lectures on concepts, tutorialson problem solving; Self-engagement usingvideos of business units, process,application based assignments, readings

and Certification from external traininginstitutes for various skills.

Each element in the pedagogy can beinterspersed with the above before, duringor after atopic is covered as is relevant forit. The evaluation system can include welldesigned sketch copy or field visit copy,presentations both individually and in groups,playing games or attending mock businesssessions and many more. The topics haveto be planned for learning through variouscomponents of the pedagogy and theappropriate method of assessmentdovetailing into the final assessment criteria.This is a rigorous effort by all stakeholdersfrom the stage of design to final outcome.Many institutions, more than the lack offacilities, find the rigor as the toughestdeterrent in undertaking this effort. This isnot to undermine some genuine constraints.The constraints are, the size of the class,adoption by the University, the shortage ofteachers for each course andimplementation bottlenecks.

From time to time it may help to findout what kind of jobs are anticipated in aneconomy and whether these require adifferent capabilities to be learnt. This wouldalso reveal the need for offering programswhich can fulfil the demand for personnelfor these jobs. Thus when the country standsto gain vide a demographic dividend, it fallsupon those who own and run the highereducational institutions, to initiate a boldparadigm shift in the way education isimparted and empower ‘young minds’ topartake of the fruits of growth.

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Education to Employment :A critical model to bridge the gap

Sushri Samita RoutSilicon Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar-751024

[email protected]

I. Introduction

In the recent past we have witnessesan upward spiral in the number ofprofessional institutions offering vocational,technical and professional courses. Thetrend is a direct outcome for the need ofhuge number of Human Resourcesrequired to cater to the ever increasingdemand for them in the wake of rapidIndustrialization, Globalization andadvancement in many other fields,especially in developing countries. India isno exception to the scenario. But havingsaid that we cannot overlook adichotomous situation, where there is ahuge hue and cry about the burning issueof unemployment and on the other sideincreasing employability of the availablehuman resource. And the major chunk ofthem is technically qualified. So the realissue is not unavailability of humanresources but employability of thoseresources. Several studies have beenconducted to throw light on the issue butso far there is no substantial evidence toclearly point out any particular reason orset of reasons for this menace. But someof these studies have talked about the rightkind of competencies not being imbibedin the students in their formative years.

Because employability is not only about beingqualified, it is also about inculcating the rightkind of attitudinal, behavioural, cognitivecapabilities and the required competenciesfor a specific job and environment. Thereare reports which not only suggest the lackof required competencies for gettingemployable but also indicate nonperformance of those resources in the actualworkplace. In this study we will try to stresson the factors that contribute to this scenarioand provide information regarding themeasures being taken and also proposemeasures which can be implemented toimprove upon the situation.

This study focuses on theemployability aspects and the existing gapsconsidering the technical resource: humanresource that is technically qualified. As perthe Project Implementation Plan by NPIU,Technical education in India encompassesa wide variety of courses at certificate,diploma ,degree, postgraduate anddoctoral level at engineering and/ormanagement institutes ,and the centraluniversities, deemed universities, stateuniversities and other private universities (National Project Implementation Unit,2002) . The technical education coversprogrammes of education, research,



training in Engineering & Technology,Architecture, Town Planning,Management, Pharmacy, Applied Arts andCrafts and other related areas ofEngineering & Technology. (AQISGuidelines and process Handbook,201314). In 1947-48 India had 38 degreelevel institutions with an intake capacity ofaround 2500 & 53 diploma institutionswith an intake of 3670 and the intake forpostgraduates was 70. If we compare thefigure with 2012-13, the approved intakein total for UG, PG and Diploma is3449355 . The numbers have doubledsince 2009-10 when the approved intakewas 1700325.This indicates that more than3 million are graduating; technically mostthem having the desire to be part of theelite workforce. But the major concern isout of such a huge technically qualifiedworkforce, a major chunk still lack therequired competencies for beingemployable.

In this paper we present themethodology adopted for the study insection II, followed by the review ofrelated works in section III. Section IVgives a bird’s eye view about the measuresthat are currently being taken by concernedauthorities. Section V elaborates on thespecific measures that can be adopted andimplemented to deal with the issues.Section VI presents the identified gapswhich can be further pursued for researchand study, based on the issues and thecurrent measures. Finally we conclude insection VII, which is followed by thereferences.

II. Methodology

Research papers and articles pub-lished in different journals and special con-ferences were searched for scripting theabstract and most of them have been con-sidered for the study. The study in thiscase is an amalgam of so many areas ofresearch but the thrust will be on technicaland management education and the em-ployability aspects of those graduates. Therationale for the mentioned choice is avail-ability of relevant literature to conduct andsupport the study. But having said that wecannot undermine the fact that high schooland pre-university education play anequally important role in developing therequired competencies in the students andalso affect the career choices made bythem in many ways. But there is insuffi-cient literature to support the findings andfind the gaps that exist, which directly orindirectly impact the development of therequired competencies. Though somestudies have been conducted consideringthe high schools in Southeast Asian coun-tries, but they are not sufficient to makeany generalized inference (Nugraini, Koo,Hew, 2010).

For this study the search was focusedon the following e-resources and data-bases from the accessibility point of view.

IEEE Xplore (IEE/IEEE)Open Information Systems JournalBusiness Source Premier(EBSCO)Communications of ACM

101

Springer LinkElsevier

The articles that were searched forthe domain of application were restrictedin terms of time period. The rationale beingthe fast changing dynamics of the problemdomain. Hence we have tried to restrictthe search in terms of time period and theselection of articles was restricted to thetime period of 2005 -2013, but some ofthe Government documents were referredwhich were published much earlier mostlyfor factual details. The purpose was to limitthe number as well get updated about thelatest trends and gaps in the specificdomain. But for the purpose of selectingarticles in the area of learning styles andclassification, the search was not restrictedto any time period. The reason being,unavailability of sufficient literature in thearea. The mode of search was using thekey words – Competency Mapping,

Learning styles, Employability,Technical Education and Classification.After the initial selection, the abstracts andthe conclusions were studied for the finalconsideration. Based on the abstracts andconclusions, a number of articles werechosen for content analysis. After athorough content analysis, we chose fewarticles for final review, based upon whichwe progressed our study and arepresenting the final outcome. Apart fromreferring the literature in the extant list, wealso informally discussed with some of theacademic representatives of a premierengineering college of Odisha, regardingthe real issues behind the problem.

III. Review of Related Literature

For this domain of study we presentthe review of related literature from severalperspectives. They are: Issues in currenttechnical education, challenges faced byemployers, unemployability aspects,development models and research gaps(which will be presented in section VI).

For the issues in the current system oftechnical education in India, instead ofrelying on several sources we have tried togather the information available officiallyfrom Government repositories. The reasonbeing, the authenticity of the source andavailability of compiled information fromnumerous other sources. As per theinformation provided in the ProjectImplementation Plan of the TEQIP(Technical Education Quality ImprovementProgramme) of the Government of India,we present below the issues in the currenttechnical education system in India. TheTEQIP “aims to upscale and supportongoing efforts of GOI to improve qualityof technical education and enhance existingcapacities of the institutions to becomedynamic, demand-driven, quality conscious,efficient and forward looking, responsiveto rapid economic and technologicaldevelopments occurring both at nationaland international levels.’’ (National ProjectImplementation Unit, 2002, p.3)

- Several control mechanism andmultiple regulatory authorities curb theinnovation of the Institutes in recruitmentof faculty, admission of students andcurricula revision.

Education to Employment : A critical model to bridge the gap


- There is a remarkabledeterioration in the quality of teaching/learning process and the competence offaculties due to resource constraints,inefficient utilization of existing resources,and lack of sharing mechanism for physicaland human resources.

- Irrelevant curricula and absence ofagile methodologies for frequent revisionof curriculum in response to thetechnological advancements and requiredas well as anticipated market demands.

- Inability of the Institutions toattract and retain quality personnel becauseof traditional recruitment procedures andfailure to provide incentives for qualityperformance and complete nonexistenceor no implementation of staff developmentpolicies at the Institute level.

- Poor or rather non involvement inrelevant knowledge creation anddissemination.

- Limited or no communityinteraction.

As far as the challenges faced by theemployers is concerned, according toMcKinsey Global Institute Survey resultsout of 360000 engineering graduates only25 % were employable ( M S Rao, 2010). But before probing further, it becomesimperative to indicate what employabilityis. As per a widely accepted definitionemployability refers to a person’s capabilityof gaining initial employment, maintainingemployment and obtaining newemployment if required (Hillage and

Pollard, 1998). Hence 25 % beingunemployable is only part of the problem,because there is no data regarding thepercentage of human resource not able tomaintain employment or obtain newemployment. Though employability skillrequirements differ from country toanother and industry to industry, there issome consensus regarding most of thegeneric competencies required at anywork place apart from academiccapabilities. Various surveys have indicatedlack of communication skills, interpersonalskills, critical thinking, creativity andcollaboration as prime contributors to theemployability gap. Some organizations areconcerned due to the lack of organizationaland interpersonal proficiency of theemployees, while others stress on the lackof team players and problem solvers.Some other employers have cited the lackof motivation, punctuality, flexibility, agilityand the ability to cope under pressure ascrucial to the deteriorating performance ofthe employees.

Apart from the issues in currenttechnical education system and the lackof the required employability skills there isanother contributing factor to the situationthat is the change in business scenario andrequirement. To keep pace with thechanging business scenario and the globalmarket, the required skill sets haveundergone a paradigm shift. The businessrequirements have changed in terms ofstrategy where the shift has been from massproduction to flexible production,centralized control to decentralized

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control, in terms of production the shift hasbeen from fixed automation to flexibleautomation , in terms of hiring humanresources the shift has been fromconsidering workers as a cost, toworkforce as an investment and in termsof training the shift has been quite significantas earlier it was never meant for productionworkers ,but now training sessions aremeant for everyone and broader skills aresought (Sahu and Rizvi, 2012). This shiftin so many realms of business necessitatesshift in the required skills of the graduates.Hence the traditional curriculum, thetraditional pedagogy also needs to berevamped to suit to the changing skillneeds.

IV. Measures

The needs of the industry and thevarious concerns related to theemployability skills prompted differentauthorities to take necessary actions someproactive and some reactive to deal andimprove upon the situation. Some of themeasures that have been taken areelaborated below.

TEQIP is a Government of India,Ministry of HRD Initiative, and is beingimplemented as a World Bank project toimprove the technical education system inIndia. Phase-1 of the programme wasimplemented in 13 states consisting of 127institutions and was completed on 31stMarch 2009. Phase-II of the project iscurrently under implementation. (NationalProject Implementation Unit, 2002).Some of the important initiatives taken

under TEQIP for improving upon thesituation are:

- Providing central assistance to theinformal sector (selected polytechnics andlocal community)

- Bi-directional sharing of resourceswith competitively selected networkinstitutions.

- Faculty, technical and support staffdevelopment activities in many facets.

- Need based flexible curriculumdevelopment.

- Innovative student assessmenttechniques.

- Building infrastructure andresources for research.

- Physical resource and expertisesharing and joint ventures.

AQIS the AICTE QualityImprovement Schemes is aimed topromote quality in technical educationthrough research and development. (AQISGuidelines and process Handbook,201314). As it is specifically mentioned inthe Clause 1(f) of the handbook thescheme aims to “Promote an effective linkbetween technical education system andother relevant systems including researchand development organizations, industryand the community”. The scheme hasdesigned innovative initiatives to cater tothe problem under consideration. Some ofthe specifically relevant schemes are:

- NAFETIC (National Facilities inEngineering and Technology with Industry



Collaboration) which aims to createnational facilities in AICTE approvedinstitutions in collaboration with Industryfor design, instrumentation, testing andmanufacturing.

-NCP (Nationally Co-ordinatedProject Scheme) promotes research onthemes of national and social importancewhich involves networking among severalinstitutions and organizations.

Some of the other floated schemeswhich have a direct or indirect impactunder AQIS are EDC (Entrepreneurship

Development Cell), MODROBS(Modernization and removal ofobsolence), RPS (Research PromotionSchemes), and IIPC (Industry InterfacePartnership Cell).

Apart from various GovernmentInitiatives, Industries are also takinginitiatives in various forms to collaboratewith Academia in order to bridge the skillgap. Some of the most prominent andsuccessful initiatives are presented below.

A. Infosys Campus Connect is anindustry-academia collaborationinitiative started in 2004 with 60colleges which has increased to 353in 2013. It is continuously workingwith policy making bodies to takesteps to improve behavioural skills intechnical graduates to make themindustry ready. It has severalcomponents like Conclaves, RoadShows, and Faculty EnablementPrograms (FEP), Industrial visits

through Spark, Sabbaticals,Foundation Programs, Soft SkillsCapsule Roll-out, Sponsored Eventsand Seminars that are tailor madeexclusively to cater to effectivelearning.

B. TCS Academic Interface

Programme is an initiative of similarkind which conducts Workshop forstudents, Faculty DevelopmentPrograms (FDP) for teachers,Student Awards to encouragehealthy competition at colleges,Internship Training opportunity forstudents, and Global Internshipprogramme.

C. Delhi Technological University(DTU) and Samsung IndiaElectronics Pvt. Ltd hascollaborated for setting up aSamsung Software Lab at DTU.Under this collaboration DTU willorganize a customized BTechprogramme for SIEL employees.Samsung will set up a Software Labat the DTU premises. This initiativeis aimed at reducing the gap betweenlab level research and researchrequired by the industry in developingnew technologies to strengthen theknowledge and innovation ecosystemin the country.

D. Times of India EmployabilityPotential Assessment at Campus(EPAC) is a paper based test batterywhich can be implemented at all

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AICTE approved B Schools in thecountry to test the prospectivecandidates for communication skills,analytical abilities and managerialcapabilities and provide a standardand scientific measure to thecorporate for taking recruitmentdecisions. The major crux here is notranking the students rather the thrustis on clustering the students intogroups based on the specificrequirements of the respectivecompanies and job profiles.

E. NASSCOM has tied up with UGCfor strengthening the IT workforce ofthe country by undertaking intensivefaculty development programmes forupgrading skill sets and knowledgebase of existing technical faculty. Thiswill be done through mentorshipprogrammes, workshops, seminars,projects and development of casestudies which can be emulated.

Some of the other prominentinitiatives are by Wipro Council forIndustrial Research, ICICI Udaan, andPantaloons Retail.

V. Proposed Measures

After analysing the various issues,challenges and problems associated withthe employability gap and presenting thevarious measures that have been initiatedby concerned authorities, we will nowpropose the various measures that will aimto scientifically deal with the problem. Thestudents or the technical graduates whoare the major stakeholders in this issue

have to be analysed from severalperspectives. The students differ in termsof their primary and secondary education,societal backgrounds, culture, ethnicity,aspirations and choices hence it would notbe appropriate to generalize the acquiredand potential competencies. Since the inputvaries in so many ways the output will varyif a standard procedure is applied to all ofthem. Moreover whether we will get thedesired outcome is never guaranteed.Hence an agile methodology should beadopted in imparting technical educationwhich takes care of the input differencesbut tries to converge in terms of requiredoutput. The methodology should consistof and implement several strategies intandem with the requirements of the issue.Below we present the strategies whichhave been formulated after mapping theproblems with the available techniquesbased on relevant literature and using toolslike Root- Cause Analysis (RCA). RCAis not a symptomatic approach rather it isa systematic approach which breaks downa process into components and goes tothe root of the failure. Though this techniqueis widely used to analyse process failures,we found this technique combined withbrain storming useful to breakdown ourproblem into components. This methodhelps us understand the true problembefore action is taken. This tool adoptsseveral techniques to present the analysis,but here we will use a Fishbone Diagramto present our problem as it will visuallygive us an overall idea about thecontributing factors to the problem.



Fig-1 : Fishbone Diagram to represent the RCA for Lack of Employability SkillsBased on the available extant literature, our analysis of the problem situation and the measuresalready in place, we propose the following measures.

- Classify students based on learningstyles. (Lagos and Zapata, 2010)

The very basic fact that learning stylesdiffer from student to another, triggers theneed to classify students based on learningstyles , so that the pedagogy can bedesigned as per those styles. In the pastthere have been several studies suggestingdifferent learning styles, but the diversityin them has offered little to base anyapproach on the suggested learning styles.

Lagos and Zapata in their work-Learning Styles, A Correlational Studyin Engineering Students, consideredthree learning styles suggested by Kolb,Grasha Riechmann and Alonso-Gallego-Honey and tried to find the correlationbetween them. The results of the studyrevealed that there was no specificdominance categorization and the studentsshared two or more styles as these stylesare affected by the number of semesters

completed and sometimes by the individualteaching styles of the faculties. Thecorrelation was found to be quite low <0.5. Hence those styles have not beenrelied upon to base any scientificeducational approach upon them. (Lagosand Zapata, 2010). The study of variousrelevant literatures suggests that the mostwidely accepted technique for learningstyle classification is Felder-SilvermanApproach. Felder Silverman learning stylemodel was developed by Felder andSilverman in 1998. The proposed modelcategorizes a student’s dominant learningstyle using a scale of four dimensions:active-reflective (how information isprocessed), sensing- intuitive (howinformation is perceived), visual- verbal(how information is presented) andglobal—sequential (how information isunderstood) and based on these 4dimensions 16 classes are created (Felderand Silverman, 1998). The most prominent

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classifiers that are used to classify studentsinto classes that are created based on theabove four dimensions are NeuralNetworks, Bayesian Networks, DecisionTrees and Genetic Algorithms (Ahmad andShamsuddin, 2010).

- Student modeling based onStudent Classification.

Based on student learning styles, pref-erences and other attributes like knowledge,skills, errors, and misconceptions, affective,cognitive and meta-cognitive factors, sev-eral student models have been devisednamely Overlay model, Stereotypes, Per-turbation, Machine Learning Techniques,Cognitive Theories, Constraint-basedmodel, Fuzzy student modelling, BayesianNetworks, Ontology based modelling(Virvou and Chrysafiadi, 2013). Thosemodels can be used to make pertinent stu-dent diagnostics and make predictions re-garding their needs so that they can be usedto make individualized courses, as a basefor Intelligent Tutoring System, personal-ized instructions and learning materials intandem with the students learning pace, pre-pare a effective learning strategy and lastbut not the least can be used to identify stu-dents strengths and weaknesses in order tofacilitate deep learning.

- Inferences based on mining theeducational data.

After classifying the students intodifferent clusters and creating models itbecomes imperative to mine and use thedata to make inferences. The inferencescan be made based on the gaps that exist

between what has been identified andwhat is needed. Inferences can be madeby mining data from educational databasesusing apriori algorithm and k-meansclustering algorithm. Apriori algorithmsfind association rules and k-meansalgorithms are used to separate objects(students) into clusters where inter-clustersimilarity is low and intra-cluster similarityis high (Parack and Zahid, 2012) . In thementioned work they applied data miningtechniques for predicting academic trendsand patterns from academic databases.They proposed methods to mine datawhich can be used to predict behaviouralpatterns, predict performance, plan andconstruct course work, schedule classes,provide recommendation for students andpredict undesirable behaviour.

- Assessment, evaluation andworking upon the faculty attributesrelevant to the problem.

Learner (student) modelling, peda-gogical categorization cannot only solvethe problem; substantial effort is requiredto find the appropriate resource and fit thatresource in the context. As students can-not be generalized and need to beprofiled, it would be appropriate not togeneralize and allocate the teachingresource; rather a scientific approachshould be taken while allocating the teach-ing load to the faculties. Instead of allo-cating load to faculties based only on quali-fication and availability, optimized alloca-tion must be done in a manner which takescare of the required objectives and theconstraints as well (Rout and Misra,



2012). The allocation must be done byprofiling faculties based on faculty com-petencies and then mapping the right re-source with the right student or cluster ofstudents depending upon the need identi-fied in that particular cluster. The profilingcan be done by using the same associa-tion rules and clustering algorithms as men-tioned above. Assessment and evaluationof the resource can be done by widely ac-cepted techniques like Rasch’s Measure-ment and Blooms Taxonomy (Aziz et al,2008). Depending upon the assessmentappropriate training modules can be de-signed to take care of the deficits in therequired competencies. Moreover the loadallocation process can be optimized usingproven evolutionary computing techniques.

- Inclusion of appropriateauthorities in the curriculumdevelopment process.

Sahu and Rizvi in their work “Traitand Skills for New Engineers in the GlobalMarket Scenario” put a lot of stress onthe importance of inclusion of the rightauthorities in the curriculum developmentprocess. Since students are required tofulfill the needs of the industry, it is essentialthat the main stakeholder that isrepresentatives from the Industries mustbe involved in the curriculum developmentprocess. The curriculum developmentprocess must be scientific in the sense thatit must objectively identify the stakeholdersand involve them, identify their respectiveneeds and concerns, identify the potentialneeds and projected skill sets required by

different industries and standardizeprocedures for prompt, frequent andproactive revision of the curriculum.

- Institutional measures.The identified issues, the current

measures and the needed measuresnecessitate that the Institutes put their thruston certain areas which can be dealt at theInstitute level. Those areas have beenidentified as Training, Research andDevelopment, Curriculum reforms,Instructional Resources and activeIndustry-Academia collaboration (Sahuand Rizvi, 2012). These thrust areas canbe improved upon by regular training anddevelopment programmes, conductingworkshops, seminars and conferenceswhich serve as an excellent platform forinformation dissemination as well ascreation and nurturing of new ideas,incorporation of required ICT (Informationand Communication Technology)infrastructure to enable certainpedagogical and profiling strategies.

VI. Identified Research Gaps1. Research to formulate strategies and

devise techniques to profile studentsin schools and implement the discussedapproaches at the very formative(School and High School) level.

2. Studies to indicate selection andimplementation of appropriatestudent modeling strategy.Appropriate in the sense that it mustbe suitable to the environment(engineering, management, diplomaetc) under consideration.

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3. Empirical studies to indicate theamount of contribution (%) aparticular factor has on the lack ofemployability skills.

4. There are multiple regulatory bodieshaving different standards andprocedures, regulating technicalinstitutions. There should beintervention at the state and nationallevel to converge on the standardsand procedures so that the instituteshave clarity about the requiredstandards. This requires considerablework to devise a standard yetcustomizable strategy which takesinto consideration dynamic review ofstandards, norms and procedures.

5. Research should be carried out to findwhether to standardize or not. Bystandardization we mean the processof recruitment of technical faculty,assessment and evaluationprocedures, implementation ofcurriculum and pedagogy.

6. Study regarding the efficacy of thecurrent evaluation procedures andexamination systems. Strategies torevamp the system and implementinnovative assessment techniques.Emphasis must be on techniqueswhich are output oriented and whichmeasure the performance in relativeterms not absolute (Kulkarni andShindhe, 2013).

7. Scientific approach towardscurriculum development usingtechniques like RCA (Root CauseAnalysis). Root cause analysis can be

used to identify the core causesresponsible for certain situations orissues. And the identified causes canbe worked upon by analyzing theareas where they have a direct orindirect impact.

8. Devising innovative learning teachingparadigms which link teachingprocess with the industry. One suchpilot project was tested incollaboration with The BoeingCompany and The University ofWashington ( Lidtke, 1996).

9. Categorically identify theemployability skills lacked disciplinewise, stream wise, branch wise andindustry wise, profile the attributesthat contribute to the lack and suggestpreventive measures.

10. Devising scientific load allocation andcompetency mapping procedures forsustained motivation and innovationcapabilities in faculties.

11. Implementation of knowledgemanagement frameworks forcurriculum development (Agarwal,Sharma, Kumar, 2008)

12. Study regarding the skills required tomaintain or sustain employment. Arethey same with skills required to getemployment?

VII. Conclusion

This work attempts to give a holisticview about the underlying problems thatembark the journey from education toemployment. We presented the issues un-derlying the problems, the measures that



are currently being taken and proposedseveral measures to bridge the gap. Thiswork also identified several gaps that ex-ist and can be taken up for further studyand research at different levels. From thestudy it is evident that lot many policies,rules, regulations and strategies exist atdifferent levels but the major problem lieswith implementation. Most of the interven-tions are nullified because of improperimplementation and lack of monitoring andcontrol mechanisms. So the major thrustshould be on researching and devising sci-

entific techniques incorporating propercontrol and monitoring mechanisms. Be-low we present a Swim Lane Diagram rep-resenting the process flow specific to thisproblem, where the horizontal dashed linerepresents a fork which means the pro-cesses above it can be performed syn-chronously. The process implementationcan be done at the Institute and/or Gov-ernment level. The issues can also be takenup by autonomous bodies and other R&Dinstitutions.

Fig-2 : Swim Lane diagram to represent the required interventions

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References

National Project Implementation Unit(2002). Technical Education QualityImprovement Programme ofGovernment of India, ProjectImplementation Plan, for Government ofIndia, Department of SecondaryEducation and Higher Education, Ministryof HRD.

Rao, M.S (2010). Soft Skills:Enhancing Employability ConnectingCampus with Corporate. New Delhi. I.K. International Publishing House

Sahu, M.; Rizvi, M. A., “Trait andskills for new engineers in the global marketscenario,” Engineering Education:Innovative Practices and Future Trends(AICERA), 2012 IEEE InternationalConference on , vol., no., pp.1,6, 19-21July 2012

Lagos Sandoval, J.A.; Zapata, P.N.,“Learning styles, a Correlational study inengineering students,” ANDESCON,2010 IEEE , vol., no., pp.1,9, 15-17Sept. 2010

Ahmad, N.B.H.; Shamsuddin, S.M.,“A comparative analysis of miningtechniques for automatic detection ofstudent’s learning style,” IntelligentSystems Design and Applications(ISDA), 2010 10th InternationalConference on , vol., no., pp.877,882,Nov. 29 2010-Dec. 1 2010

Shipin Chen; Jianping Zhang, “TheAdaptive Learning System Based onLearning Style and Cognitive State,”

Knowledge Acquisition and Modeling,2008. KAM ’08. InternationalSymposium on , vol., no., pp.302,306,21-22 Dec. 2008

Zaina, L.A.M.; Bressan, G.,“Classification of learning profile based oncategories of student preferences,”Frontiers in Education Conference,2008. FIE 2008. 38th Annual, vol., no.,pp.F4E-1, F4E-6, 2225 Oct. 2008

Felder R. and Silverman L., (1988),‘Learning And Teaching Styles InEngineering Education’, EngineeringEducation, 78 (7), pp. 674–681.

Chrysafiadi K, Virvou M., (2013),“Student Modeling Approaches: Aliterature review for the last decade” ,Expert Systems with Applications, pp.4715-4729.

Parack, S.; Zahid, Z.; Merchant, F.,“Application of data mining in educationaldatabases for predicting academic trendsand patterns,” Technology EnhancedEducation (ICTEE), 2012 IEEEInternational Conference on , vol., no.,pp.1,4, 3-5 Jan. 2012

Aziz, Azrilah Abdul; Mohamed, A.;Arshad, N.H.; Zakaria, S.; Ghulman,Hamza Ahmad; Masodi, Mohd Saidfudin,“Development of Rasch-based descriptivescale in profiling information professionals’competency,” Information Technology,2008. ITSim 2008. InternationalSymposium on, vol.1, no., pp.1,8, 2628Aug. 2008



S Rout, B Misra, S Samanta,“Competency Mapping in AcademicEnvironment: A Multi ObjectiveApproach” Information andCommunication Technologies (WICT),2012 World Congress on, vol., no.,pp.543,548, Oct. 30 2012-Nov.2012.

Kulkarni, U.P.; Shindhe, K.C.,“Innovative workflow for accreditationprocess to ensure quality engineeringeducation in India,” Teaching,Assessment and Learning forEngineering (TALE), 2013 IEEEInternational Conference on , vol., no.,pp.507,514, 26-29 Aug. 2013

Lidtke, D.K., “Educating the nextgeneration of information specialists, incollaboration with industry,” Frontiers inEducation Conference, 1996. FIE’96.26 th Annual Conference., Proceedingsof , vol.1, no., pp.126,129 vol.1, 6-9 Nov1996

Agrawal, S.; Sharma, P.B.; Kumar,M., “Knowledge ManagementFramework for Improving CurriculumDevelopment Processes in TechnicalEducation,” Convergence and HybridInformation Technology, 2008. ICCIT’08. Third International Conference on,vol.2, no., pp.885,890, 11-13 Nov. 2008

Nugraini, S.H.; Koo Ah Choo; HewSoon Hin, “The pilot test of e-Audio VisualBiology for teaching and learning in SeniorHigh Schools of Indonesia,” DistributedFramework and Applications (DFmA),2010 International Conference on , vol.,no., pp.1,6, 2-3 Aug. 2010

https://campusconnect.infosys.com/

H o m e D o w n l o a d s /CCProgramOverview.pdf

www.aicte-india.org/downloads/Intakeseats.pdf

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Paving the Path from Education toEmployment

Jayant Panigrahi,Research Scholar, KIIT University-Jawaharlal Nehru University

Biswajit Das,Professor, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

Sushanta Tripathy,Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, KIIT University

Introduction

The paradigm shift in the educationsystem is to improve upon theemployability issue. There is a shift in focusfrom employment to employability.Education is perceived as an approach togood jobs and a decent career in life.Parents, children and employers arelooking for an institution cum employmentexchange.

For acquired Degree, universitiessmooth the progress of performanceindicators so that education can becustomised as per the demands of currentemployment market. Considerableattention is given to individual learning, withskill development to capitulate betteremployment outcomes for graduates inhigher education.

Research Needs

The relationships between educationand the employability are the mostfrequently discussed issues of higher (postsecondary) education. We observe vocal

claims of shortage/ oversupply of right skillsand the competencies of graduates.

Research and policy literature reviewgive indication that a considerable numberof studies have been undertaken and wefound the following concerns.

• The impacts of education ongraduates’ career and the dynamicsof employment are surveyed in onlya few developed countries and asmall number of research studies areavailable.

• Systematic Information is notavailable about the employmentprospects for graduates andemployers requirements. Theinterface between the educators andthe employers are mostcontroversially debated.

• The information on employabilityskills and work utilization is oftenasymmetrical or inadequatelyscrutinized.



• Underlying principle of curriculumdevelopment and their impact of thecourses offered on employability arenot extensively studied.

Evolution of Education

Education is considered to be theprogenitors of social transformations anddissemination of knowledge in the contextof globalisation.

The common ways in which educationis viewed to contribute to socialdevelopment are: 1. Talent Capital andCapacity Development 2.Liberal Learning3.Research and Development 4.Academic Research 5. Values and Ethics

Career Education

Although there are different theoriesand developmental approaches to careerseducation, the most widely usedframework in the UK has evolved fromthe dynamic relationships between Self,Opportunities, Decisions and Transitions(DOTS):

• Self-awareness - the ability toidentify and articulate motivations, skills,and personality for career plans

• Opportunity awareness -knowledge of opportunities and the abilityto research

• Decision making - being able toweigh up personal factors to make a soundplan

• Transition learning -understanding of how to seek and secureopportunities

The contents of the education systemin the evolving knowledge economies needto balance skill development, both thetangible (knowledge of Subject) and theintangible (lifelong learning abilities) withpartnerships between institutions,collaboration between experts,government policy- infrastructure andcollaboration with local or internationalbusinesses to provide internships tostudents .

University model education

With the input from students,employers and government authorities theprogression of higher education systemshas been characterised in recent years.

As a result of societal pressureseducators have focused on the makeovertowards a competence-based learningmodel to strengthen the employability. Thetransformation of education system isgiving more admittance to the highereducation system and universities areimproving the professional skills of thestudents in the current aggressiveknowledge-based economy.

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Initiatives are being taken in recentyears, for streamlining of the universityeducation model. The most importantchange is from the conventional educationmodel to the model of developingcompetences and active participation ofthe student.

Research is required to gauge thelevel of universities custom-made deliverymodel to the demands of the employmentmarket so that competence-basedlearning in university curriculum can beincluded.

Challenges for Educators

Many educators in developingcountries experience some of thechallenges e.g. under-resourced,overcrowded, under-funded, brain drain,lack of flexibility that diminishes their ability.

• Diploma syndrome -In formaleducational system, the credence ofeducational certificates are the key toobtaining the best paid jobs. People cometo make every effort continually for higherdegrees for better employability.

• Skilled unemployment - Theterm is given to the rise of being without ajob because of oversupply of graduateswith the identical degrees and qualificationsto find employment due severecompetition.

• Brain drain - skilled graduatesleave your country to flee theunemployment, underemployment andlower payment.

Education Reforms

The need to toughen the quality offoundational skills in school education thatprovides foundation to students alignedto the higher education levels to be capableof basic arithmetic, communication skills,developing confidence. The currentregulatory regime has started empoweringinstitutions to address issues ofemployability, internship and path to theup gradation of soft skills.

Current era of expanding alternativemodes of education to innovative andsecure methods of delivery. Expansion ofdistance education, on-line and virtualeducation avenues are being explored byincreasing access to quality educationglobally and countering high dropouts inthe conventional education system .

Employment and Employability

The concept of employabilitydeveloped by Yorke in 2004 has beenadopted by the UK as :

“Employability is a set ofachievements, skills, understandings andpersonal attributes that make graduatesmore likely to gain employment and besuccessful in their chosen occupations,which benefits themselves, the workforce,the community and the economy.”

In an another study on the conceptof employability, the definition arrived atwas: “employability is about having thecapability to gain initial employment,maintain employment and obtain newemployment if required” (Hillage and

Paving the Path from Education to Employment


Pollard, 1998, p.1). This is commonlyadopted definition of employability goesbeyond just finding work but is also aboutthe individual being able to sustainemployment (Pool and Sewell, 2007).

Employment is far-reaching in thetraditional employment sectors, butrelatively weak in newly emerging andinformal sectors. The available studies ontalent supply demand, job requirementsand utilization of competencies often focuson small sector, thus hardly allowing broadconclusions to be drawn.

Employment Reform

Employers’ expectations regardingthe education system is inconsistent withtheir recruitment policies. The statementsof employer regarding the qualifications aredirectly taken as the demand in theemployment system and about theproactive role higher education could playwith regard to the future employmentstrategies.

There is strong need to establishcareer centers in public–privatepartnerships (PPP) model. The internshipsystem is an acknowledged vehicle foreffective skill development in the educationand HR functions because of theeffectiveness of learning by doing andlearning while earning. Employerinvolvement in Internship enhance the jobprospects by providing on-the-jobexperience. Because of the synthesis ofemployability and employment, Internsturn out to be employment ready.

There is a need to develop anintegrated job framework that can allowreal-time interface between the demandand supply of the job markets to not onlyenable better matching but allow changesto curriculum, job descriptions.

Interface between education andemployability

The debate on the mismatch ofactivities and links between employers,young graduates, educators both at theindividual and organisational levels iscontinuing globally. Research in theuniversity has highlighted that students areaccepting challenges to a job related withtheir degree and individual preferences .Similarly studies evaluating the effects ofover-qualification on graduates, shows thepessimistic effects of the education-employment disparity.

The study needed is to analyse thelevel of match between different degreesand the jobs held by graduates from highereducation system and the changes takenplace over the last decade in main fieldsof knowledge in relation to the educationjob match.

Strategic Organizational Changesand effects on employment

Employers assert that educated andskilled manpower are driving theirbusiness to be successful in the currentevolving global economy. Mostorganizations have undergone significantchange in the last decade. in terms ofdownsizing, de-layering, flexible

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contractual assignments, outsourcing andworking from home. Therefore it isimperative to up-skilling of the work forceand the broadening of opportunity.Graduates should be well informed duringeducation process about opportunities andchanging nature of fresh jobs. Thecurriculums ought to extend beyond theboundaries of mastering skills withineducation or employment.

Involving Employers in the design anddelivery of courses

The involvement of employers in thedesign and delivery of courses in providingguest lectures, workshops, seminars, skillsessions and conducting interviewsimulations, case study material and dataneed to be used during program delivery.In technical courses, employers has asupervisory role for project work, makingcomments and giving feedback to students,but there is no evidence of them beingclosed involved.

An education institutions often do notinvolve potential employers in course designas enviable. Career services or Placementscells emphasize on the comments andsuggestions of the employers.

Taking account of the employabilityoutline some universities had employmentrelated content in form of short programsthat are embedded in academic courses.

Graduate employment ratio isgenerally taken as the influential factor forevaluating the accomplishment of theeducator. But an assessment is needed onthe occupational prominence received bygraduates at different times in theirlearning. The professional connotationreflects the impact of education and addingmore insights to future program design anddelivery.

Very few studies had considered theimpact of higher education on overallquality index on the returns of universityeducation system.Conclusions

The literature on graduateemployability, and our ongoing research,both reveal that there are some employersand educational Institutes promotingemployability of graduates, but still thereare gaps between employers and otherstake holders responsibility for educationpolicy, approach, prospects and priorities.

The global economic slowdown seenan increase in graduate unemployment.Keeping this in mind, the research papersuggest the following issues for embeddingemployability.

• Educators and Government shouldpromote strategy-led employabilitymeasures to have a greater andsustained impact on graduateemployment.



• Higher Education Institutes shouldtake account of graduateemployability skills and attributeswhile planning faculty/departmentallevel development designs.Appropriate incentives should beimplemented as a driver for changein promoting employability measuresat faculty/departmental level.

• Educators and employers shouldadopt to promote employability withintegrated placements, internshipsand work-based learningopportunities of predefineddurations.

• Work-related case studies to bedone to get evidence that studentscan use to demonstrate theircapacities and skills during educationperiod.

Attention should also be focused onprudent decision-making in the teaching ofprecise competences for eachoccupational profile making significant roleto the success of new heights in theemployment and education.

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5. European Centre for the Developmentof Vocational Training, 2009 “Thedynamics of qualifications: definingand renewing occupational andeducational standards” - http://www.ghfp.org/Portals/0/documents/Thomson_HEI_Role_Dev.pdf

6. UK Commission for Employment andSkills Report “The Employability

Challenge”- h t t p : / /www.ukces.org.uk/publications/employability-challenge-full-report

References1. Das, B., Rath, S.P., Puthan, P, (2011),

‘Education Tourism of India – AnExamination of Management &Technical Education Potentiality’, TheOxford College of Engineering,Deptt. of Business Administration,Bangalore, International Conferenceon ‘Global Impact on IndianManagement’ on 28th April, 2011,( Session-6d )

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2. Das, B., Rath,S.P., Chef Murthy,S.R.C., and Mandal, S. (2011)“India’s New Tourism Potentiality:Management & Technical Educationfor the Developing World (ADevelopmental Perspective Study)”,Vol.1, ssue.1, Oct, 2011 ,www.ijbmt.com

3. Das,B and Satpathy,I. ‘BusinessCommunication and PersonalityDevelopment’, Excel BooksPublisher, ISBN : 81-7446-504-9,Publication Year : 2007.

4. Das,B, and Rath,S.P. 2013,“Knowledge Management – Appliedthrough the Management Gospels ofChanakya: Reapplication in 21stCentury Corporate Management”,ITBI13 in GUNA 13-15 December,2013, Paper ID-13.

5. Das,B,Satpathy.I.(2007) “Globalvillage and global communicationthrough technology: A futurenecessity” abstract has been selectedfor presentation and publication on12th International conferenceAUSACE Dubai scheduled to beheld on 27th to 31st October 2007at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi,U.A.E..

6. Das, B. 2012. ‘ Real EstateManagement Education: ReinventingSyllabus’, Vol-2. No:11. November2 0 1 2 , w w w . i j b m t . c o m ,ISSN:22499962.

7. Das,B. 2012. “Potential of TechnicalEducation Tourism for India: A macro

Approach”, International Journal ofSocial Sciences Tomorrow-IJSST,Vol.1, No.9, ISSN:2277-6168,November, 2012, www.ijsst.com.

8. Das,B. and Almekhlafy,S.S.A. 2012“Teaching English Language inDisadvantaged Context”,International Journal of SocialSciences Tomorrow ( IJSST),Society for Promotion of Innovationand Research(SPIRI), Vol. No.1,Issue No:3, ISSN:2277-6168 (Online), May -2012

9. Prof. Dr. S.P. Rath, Dr. Biswajit Das,Prof. Satish Jayara, 2011 ‘ChangingScenario of Management andTechnical Education in India in theEconomic Slowdown – A StrategicPerspective’ IJRCM, Monthlydouble blind peer reviewedInternational ejournal ,www.ijrcr.org.in.

10. Satpathy, I., Das, B. and Rath, S.P.2013 ‘An EntrepreneurshipDevelopment Challenge of GlobalStandard Education in India – A CaseStudy of Dr. Achyuta Samanta &KIIT University’ presentation andpublication in the InternationalConference on “Managing Change inBusiness and Economy” a tFaculty of Management Studiesof Pacific Academy of HigherEducation and Research University’,Pacific University, Udaipur, Rajasthanon April 6 & 7, 2013.www.conferencepacific.ac.in



Case Study :

Talent Search: A Challenge for Employers

Hara Prasanna Das & Ms Malabika Sahoo

Mail: [email protected]

__________________________________________________________________________Human resource is the major

resource of an organisation for its growth.The performance of the organisationdepends on the human resources whichare competent enough to make theoptimum use of other resources. By humanresource we mean the employees of anorganisation. The organizations search forsuitable persons for different jobs. Theyspend huge amounts in the recruitmentprocesses for hiring worthy talents to suitto their requirement. But talent search isconsidered now as a great challenge facedby the employers around the world.Searching for a suitable talent, fitting to theneed of the job in any organization hasbecome a tough task. In the presentemployment scenario, it is a great challengeto search and find a candidate whose skill,knowledge and attitude will be matchingwith the specifications of that particular jobin the organization.

In the present scenario, there areplenty of jobs available in differentorganizations, in both technical and nontechnical domain. Similarly there arenumerous education providers offeringmanagement, technical or science

education with different types of diplomaor degree qualifications. They areproducing large number of qualifiedpersons who are searching for jobs in allsectors. Jobs are plently available andqualified youths are there but most of themdon’t match to the needs of theorganizations. As observed, the youngmass passing out with differentprofessional courses are consideringthemselves as the deserving candidates toget a job as per their qualification. Asthey start facing the interviews for a jobthey encounter many hurdles for theirsuitable placement in any organization, inspite of their best talents and education.This clearly indicates that somewhere, agap exists in matching the competency ofthe youth with the job specifications as perthe need of the organization.

Recruitment advertisements arepublished in leading daily newspapers andthe response have been very encouragingwith the number of CVs received both insoft copies by mail and also hard copiesby post. In case of walk-in-interviews alsothe attendance of candidates is sometimesbeyond expectation. It becomes very

121

difficult to conduct the interview smoothlyand effectively. But the end result is notencouraging. In many cases, we have notbeen able to get the suitable candidates tofill up the posts, as required by theorganisation. Candidates are many butsuitable candidates with required qualitiesare very few who can really be the assetsfor the organisation.

Being a part of many recruitmentprocesses, we have the practicalexperience of the challenges faced by theorganisations for searching worthy talentsin the job market for their required jobs.As we have observed, the youth haveacquired the required qualifications buttheir talents have not been adequatelyprocessed to match with the need of theparticular job they are searching for. Inmany cases the candidates have morequalifications than the job requirement, butthey have the demerits either in knowledge,skill or attitude. They make all efforts tomake the CV very impressive but theirperformance in the interview do not match

with the information presented in the CV.They fail to convince the interview boardabout their competency of being an assetfor the organisation and fitting to that job.

Two cases are presented here, whichcan reveal the reality as observed in thepresent employment market. PandaTravel Mart, a 40 years old luggage retailshowroom at Bhubaneswar has 5 outlets.This organisation has the reputation ofexcellent human resource managementpolicies. Panda Travel Mart has createdan image of employee friendly managementin retail sector. There are employees whohave been working there for more than25-30 years. Around 40% employeeshave completed 15 years of their servicein that organisation. This indicates their jobsatisfaction in that organisation. Recentlywalk-in-interview was conducted to selectsuitable candidates for few vacancies in 6categories of job. The table given belowreflects the result of the recruitmentprocess conducted in the month of Januaryand February 2014.

Table-1 - Summary of the Recruitment Activities Conducted by Panda Travel Mart,Bhubaneswar for Six Categories of Job in January-February,2014

Name of Post Vacancy Persons Applied (Nos)

Persons Shortlisted for P.I

(Nos)

Persons Attended

in P.I (Nos)

Persons Selected to

Join (Nos)

Persons Joined (Nos)

Floor Manager 1 52 5 5 1 1

Customer Relation Exec.

1 43 5 2 1 1

Sales Associates 5 67 9 6 3 1

Marketing Exec. 1 32 0 0 0 0

Floor Assistant 4 21 5 2 1 0

Warehouse Associate

1 31 3 1 0 0



P.I- Personal Interview

The table-1 indicates that suitablecandidates were not found for twocategories of job i:e Marketing Executiveand Warehouse Associate. One candidatewas selected for Floor Assistant, but hedid not join. He even did not have theminimum etiquettes to inform theorganisation for not joining. Therequirement for Sales Associate was 5,where as only 3 persons were foundsuitable. The irony is that only one personjoined out of those 3 selected. Besides thepersons who attended the walk-in-interview, around 120 CVs were receivedby mail for the posts. Those applicationswere also considered and telephoneinterview was conducted for selecting themfor personal interview. The number ofapplication received was encouraging andthe interests of the candidate expressed inthe interview was very positive butperformance was not impressive.

Another case study is relating to therecruitment of HR Executives in threeorganisations. The summary has beenpresented below in the Table-2. The datain the table clearly indicates that there areplenty of candidates searching for HRjobs. All of them have acquired MBA

degrees from different managementinstitutes with specialisation in HR. Mostof them are in job but not in core HRdomain. They are in different jobs likePlacement, Front Office, Back office,Administration, Counselling, CustomerRelation etc. In many cases they werehaving the designation as HR executive buttheir job description was different fromHR. They were mainly into administrationwork or even few cases miscellaneousworks as the management desires. As thecandidates did not have practicalknowledge in core HR Management,mostly organizations are not interested totake the candidates fresh from institutesor from other work experiences in coreHR jobs. Man Management is the crucialarea in an organisation which needs to behandled by persons with practical trainingor experiences in that domain. In thosethree organisations the persons selectedfor the post were earlier working in HRdepartment but not exposed to completecore HR functions. Hence they were sentfor core HR practical training of 50 hoursduration for getting the practical exposurein core HR functions. Now they areperforming well as per the need of theorganisation.

Table-2, Summary of Recruitment Process for HR Executive in Three OrganisationsName of

Organisation Vacancy Persons

Applied No of P.I

Held Persons

Shortlisted for P.I (#)

Persons Attended in P.I (#)

Persons Selected

to Join (#)

Joined

Rithvika Gold 01 54 01 06 05 01 01 Panda Travel

Mart 01 92 03 32 22 01 01

KN Multi-Projects &

Infrastructure

01 65 03 24 16 01 01

123

P.I- Personal Interview

The two case studies as presentedabove indicate the fact that candidates aremany but the suitable candidates withproper blending of knowledge, skills andattitude are very few. They have therequired qualifications but not adequatelyeducated for understanding their ownstrength and weakness relating to the job.This shows that there may be some lapsesin talent management for empoweringoneself employable and sustainable in theemployment journey. The lapses wereobserved in three areas as describedbelow.

Knowledge

The candidates have theoreticalknowledge in their subjects, but not thepractical knowledge which is required forbeing suitable to the job. They don’t evenhave the knowledge regarding the jobmarket and their strength and weaknessrelating to that. Even they don’t showadequate interest to acquire the knowledgeregarding the need of the organisation forany particular job. Hence they are not in aposition to realise the need of their ownempowerment for being employable andsuitable for the post they are aspiring for.One must have the adequate knowledgeabout the expectation of the organisationand the process of fitting to thatrequirements.

Skills

Beside the qualification, one musthave the required skills for proving his

competency in his respective areas. Thismay be life skill, soft skill or technical skill.Candidates are having highest degrees butlacking the minimum life/soft skills for beingthe asset in any organisation. The life skillsor soft skills are the minimum requirementsfor working in an organisation effectivelywith good performance. These are thebasic foundation for a worthy personsuitable fitting to a job. Hence the focusshould be on enrichment of life skills alongwith the professional qualification formaking oneself employable.

Attitude

Attitude decides the altitude of aperson. Attitude plays a major role in theselection process for a job. The personmay be highly qualified and experiencedbut can’t be considered as suitable if hehas attitude problem. Many candidates areeither over confident or over smart withnegative attitude. They can’t be the assetfor any organisation. It has been observedthat many candidates have been rejecteddue to this attitude problem. Theirperformance in the interview may beimpressive but they can’t be trusted. Hencetuning of attitude for being positive andconstructive is a must for all the candidatesin the employment journey.

Conclusion

This crisis can be solved if theeducational institutes can think of includingthe practical training of the subject in therespective course so that the students willbe empowered to face all challenges in theemployment journey. The focus should be



on enriching their knowledge, skill andattitude with practical inputs as essentialfor their employability. Obtainingcertificates of any professional qualificationwill never enable the students to besuccessful in their job search. Hence alongwith the professional education theirinherent talent should be properlyprocessed to make them employable.They should be properly oriented to assesstheir own strength and weakness in theemployment journey and create the interestfor empowering themselves to prove theirworth for any job in any organisation.

References:

Linda E. Brodya & Carol J. Millsa,‘Talent search research: what have welearned?’, High Ability Studies, Volume 16,Issue 1, 2005, P-97-111 [Published online:19 Aug 2006]

Michael S. Matthews & Matthew T.McBe, ‘School Factors and theUnderachievement of Gifted Students in aTalent Search Summer Program’, GiftedChild Quarterly Spring 2007 vol. 51 no.2 167-181

Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, ‘ResearchEvidence regarding the Validity and Effectsof Talent Search Educational Programs’,Journal of Advanced AcademicsFebruary 1998 vol. 9 no. 3 134-138

Rena F. Subotnik, ‘Factors from thestructure of intellect model associated withgifted adolescents’ problem finding inscience: Research with WestinghouseScience Talent Search Winners’, TheJournal of Creative Behaviour, Volume 22,Issue 1, pages 42–54, March 1988,[published online: 22 DEC 2011].

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The references, as illustrated below, should be in American Psychological Association(APA) format, 5th Edition:

Reference from Journal:Alkaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrica, 52, 317-332.

Reference from Edited book:Browne, M. W. & Cudeck, R. (1999). Effects of Organizational Climate and CitizenshipBehavior on Organizational Effectiveness. In K.A. Bollen & J.S. Long (Eds.) HumanResource Management (pp. 136-147). Newsbury Park, CA: Sage.

Reference from Book:Luthans, F. (2002). Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill International.Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (1995). The craft of research. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.

Reference from online resources:Hacker, D. (1997). Research and documentation in the electronic age. Boston: BedfordBooks. Retrieved October 6, 1998, from http://www.bedfordbooks.com/index.htmlMorse, S. S. (1995). Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerging InfectiousDiseases, 1(1). Retrieved October 10, 1998, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Smith, E. E. (2001). Internet term paper mills: The case for mandatory expulsion[Electronic version]. Journal of Crime and Punishment, 6, 123–139.

Newspaper ArticleGoleman, D. (1991, October 24). Battle of insurers vs. therapists: Cost control pittedagainst proper care. New York Times, pp. D1, D9.

Newspaper Article (Online)Markoff, J. (1996, June 5). Voluntary rules proposed to help insure privacy for Internetusers. New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 1996, from http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/yo5dat.html

Newspaper Article (No Author)Undisclosed settlement reached out of court in Michigan Biodyne civil suit. (1992, March1). Psychiatric Times, p. 16.

Conference Paper (Published):Kuroda, S. Y. (1988). Whether we agree or not: A comparative syntax of English andJapanese. In W. J. Poser (Ed.), Papers from the second international workshop onJapanese syntax (pp. 103–143). Stanford, CA: CSLI.

Dissertation:Downey, D. B. (1992). Family structure, parental resources, and educational outcomes.Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

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