A message that is coming out loud and clear from corporate India is the realisation about the lethal link between lack of education and employment opportunities on the one hand and terrorism on the other hand. Unemployed youth is a fodder for terrorism and other crimes, every corporate and industry gathering is concluding. This message was the most important signal that the recently organised CII Services Conclave in New Delhi on December 4, just a week following the Mumbai terror attack, sent out. The mood was sombre as speakers, departing from the usual practice of passing the buck on to the government, accepted their responsibility in shaping the future of the nation.
The three themes of population, its employability and social costs of unemployment were discussed in great detail. Janmejaya Sinha, Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, discussing the demographic dilemma of India, reminded the gathering about the social background of one of the terrorists, who had entered crime because he lacked education. He added, “Remember, India has 560 million people under the age of 25. By 2020, there will be 47 million surplus people. But the point is, is that going to be a dividend or a jihadi disaster?”
He said the way forward will depend on services. Seventy per cent of incremental GDP will come from services. Likewise 60 per cent of new jobs will be created in services. And 50 per cent of incremental exports will come from services. Given the fact that services is going to be the key driver of Indian economy, the need of the hour, according to Sinha, is investing in talent to fuel this growth.
He said of the 20 million people who enter schooling every year, only 2.3 million graduate. Seventeen million are lost during the journey. And even among those who graduate, only 40 per cent are employable. In vocational education the situation is equally abysmal, with infrastructure of the ITIs crumbling, a mere two per cent being spent on training, course content being redundant and of being little relevance to the services. He said, “It’s not that all this is not known. All this is well known. There have been 46 reports. But it’s not been acted upon.”Among the strategies he suggested were a strong PPP approach, and linkage to performance.
Vijay Thadani, Chief Executive Officer, NIIT Ltd, talked of bright streaks, and presented his approach of glass half full. “There are organisations, individuals, entrepreneurs, who have done things about talent management which is par excellence. So while many people talk about how bad is our quality of education, I would like to believe that the best we produce in terms of quality of education compares with the best in the world. It’s different that the worst that we produce also competes very effectively with the worst in the world.” Thadani, who had used the term ‘skills dollars’ at the CII Skills Summit in September, again reiterated this coinage, and said the skills dollars could overcome the shortage of oil dollars that the country faces. He said in the task of integrating the surplus Indian workforce with the world, there’s need to train them according to world requirements, not just Indian requirements. He also said no one section of the society should get the blame. “We can’t hold one part of society responsible. There is a role which the industry has. How to build bridges between these stakeholders, which have been islands till now?”
Prameela Kalive, Global Head - HR, Zensar Technologies, who has been a missile scientist with DRDO, pointed at the employability problem of Indian graduates. She said “Once they pass out, it takes nine to 12 months before they become productive and start contributing… We had to go back to where the talent is coming from and customised curriculum, but even that didn’t work.” She pointed out that the problem was with the faculty of the institutes, and they need to expose the faculty, and then in turn the students to life in the corporate world.
K Ramkumar, Chief Human Resources Officer of ICICI Bank Ltd, talked of another dimension of talent management in services. “Never recruit a person who is 100 per cent ready for the job,” Ramkumar said, because, “He would think he is ready for the next job.” He will demand to be promoted within the next 12 months. “Take someone who is one-third ready because he will give two years to this job, as he is not half ready for even this job.” He stressed on cultural fit and a candidate’s eagerness to learn as key parameters during recruitment.
Strangely, while speakers spoke vehemently about services not being confined to IT and ITeS, there was a lack of representation of people from hospitality, aviation, fashion, design, beauty and many other services. A speaker expressed his desire that the next year sees more people from the beauty industry finding representation in the next year’s conclave.
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