Skill Development is key to Economic Growth â€“ Role of Higher Education in India

Dr.Saroj jain; Sapna saxena raizada

Volume : V, Issue : XI, November - 2016

Skill Development is key to Economic Growth â€“ Role of Higher Education in India

Dr. Saroj Jain, Sapna Saxena Raizada

Abstract :

Indian education system in general and higher education in particular has not been proved too efficient to make youths of our country employable according to the need of job market. Despite the increase in number of institutions at primary, secondary and tertiary level our young educated people are not capable of being employed and getting better job opportunities. Reason being they have not acquired specified skills essential for requirement of the job market. India is one of the youngest nation in the world with more than 62% of the population of the people is in the working age group (15–59 years) and more than 54% of the total population is below 25 years of age. ?is poses the challenges and opportunity. To reap the demographic dividend which is expected to last next 25 years. For this ,India needs to equip it�s workforce with employable skills and knowledge. So that youth can participate productively to make India a developed country. Paper points out that higher education does little to address the skills requirement of a youth r� to go into the world and make a mark. It also lays stress on the need to improve the employability of our graduates. Graduates now require the skills beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity are now important for getting more and more jobs. ?e biggest challenges confronting us is low employability of our graduate passing out higher education state institutions. ?e argues on the supply side a huge skill gap has to be idged while on the demand side, there is need for skill matching and the creation of opportunities. It also makes an attempt to critically examine the efforts being made by Govt. of India in this direction . It concludes with this remark that the education system will have to gear itself to support nation�s economic agenda by creating job– ready and employable workforce.