For the economic development of the country, one important thing is that labour and labour
participation has to grow. But labour participation means the labour has to be productive. And a
productive labour is not there, then it’s really going to impact the economic progress of the country. In
India every year almost 12 million people are entering into the labour market. But unfortunately, if we
look at the capacity of building skills in India, it’s not more than four and a half million or 5 million
capacity, which means almost 60% or more are getting deprived every year for the rightful skilling,
which can actually make them productive. Now, another challenge at the same time is while we are not
able to make them productive, another challenge is that that there is a constant shift in the technology
and in wake of the changing technologies and emerging technologies, we are also keeping our
youngsters away from that shift and because of that, we continue with the conventional skills and are
not able to reap the benefits of the productivity that is required especially from a country like India and
especially from the workforce who has to go and work in India or outside India. Besides this, if you look
at the biggest challenges is that almost 85% of the workforce or labour force that we have today is
below the secondary education and they are not with any formal skills. So, which also hampers their
sustainable livelihood in the future, because they are not able to learn new things, apply new things,
new things and then the quality will really impact. So, in this situation, what is important is to see how
we are going to impact this entire ecosystem. As a university we have taken two steps one is that we
have introduced programmes which we call dual education, dual education with industry integration.
So, where we have integrated with the university and every programme that we today deliver is in
partnership with the University whether at the undergraduate level or the postgraduate level or the
certification level, where alternate semesters of the students are in the industry, so that the curriculum
that has been the class is aligned with the universities is aligned with the job roles that the industries
have which makes them job ready in each semester for specific job roles of that year. And eventually,
even if they drop out, they eventually are job ready for that specific job role and they can enter for a
livelihood. Besides this, that also opens an opportunity for them with a little better innovative thinking
as well as the entrepreneurial mindset. So that even if they don’t want to go for a job, they can at least
go for their own work. The second thing in this model that we have in the university is that it’s an earn
and learn model, because the part they spend in the industry the alternate sinister, this industry, the
industry,the apprenticeship programme scheme, so on an average they earn 10,000 rupees per month,
which makes it earn and learn so large population that is the rural population dropout population
financially, a lower population is entering into this kind of model and is becoming a rumba for them,
because otherwise they had no options now after dropping out from the system, so it’s a more inclusive
model that the university has adopted. And the third thing important is by bringing in the industry
closer, we are actually enhancing the values of the students aligned with the job market ecosystem. So
,when the students complete their education, they are mentally and emotionally and physically as well
as tactically ready for the requirements of the industry. And that’s how it’s making them complete.
The second thing I want to bring through this discussion is that there is a huge population today in India
if for example, you look at the GR general enrolment ratio in India, it’s about 26.7% or 27%. So, in a
population of 80 to 23 years of age 140 million youngsters in India, we have only 37 million enrolled in
the higher education. So almost 100 3 million population is not enrolled, and where are they either they
are in the job market or they are not doing anything. So, there is a big need. I have been studying some
best practices around the world, what they have done is they have brought in recognition of prior
learning as an instrument for facilitating and opening the gates for higher education. So, our university
has now just 10 days back passed a resolution and new policy has been introduced, where recognition of
prior learning will be used to bring back these doctoral students into the into the formal education and
help them to process further.
Dr. Vasudevan
The goal is to ensure people on money livelihood is at the end of the day, is a combination of either
people making more money or people saving money. That’s the only way that one is able to have cash in
hand. So, suppose we take that as the goal. And then we go down to the issue of how does one make
money? And where does one make money?
What we find what we all know very well, is that a significant proportion. So, they either have a task –
based wage or a daily which is how they are earning their incomes. So, the greater the stability in your
earning power, the higher the ability to earn, and you’re better your prospects are so if we simplify that,
then our entire ecosystem of education skilling needs to get to that now, while there has been a huge
change in the labour market, if we look at where the opportunities of earning good practically
everywhere it is related to two domains really, one is the whole logistics domain that means reaching a
product or a service at the doorstep of a customer. Whether it is in a metro, tier -one, tier- two city or
other is the whole financial mechanism is a change which is sort of the financial reach that is there,
whether you talk a fit. So, in the FinTech world itself, if we look at banking, reaching the doorstep, it
started with the banking correspondents went on to NBFs, microfinance lending. NBFs now, leverage
