Latest news with #InstituteforCompetitiveness
Hans India
4 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Recognising informal & experiential learning key to boost India's skill landscape: Minister
New Delhi: The skills landscape in India is driven by demand and market, said Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State, for Education, stressing the need to recognise informal and experiential learning. Unveiling a report titled 'Skills for the Future: Transforming India's Workforce Landscape', developed by the Institute for Competitiveness, Chaudhary noted that the skill landscape must address the evolving needs of industry and workforce. The report, based on the data available in the public domain, presents a detailed examination of the skills landscape in India. It focuses on educational attainment, occupational distribution, and attainment of technical and vocational education and training of the workforce (TVET). 'Skilling is to be understood not merely as a supply-side intervention, but as a demand-driven, market-aligned, and outcome-oriented ecosystem that addresses the evolving needs of industry and the workforce. We must deepen pathways between education, vocational training and industry this includes recognise informal and experiential learning,' Chaudhary said. Chaudhary also suggested that a robust employability index will help in monitoring the impact of education and skilling on the employment prospects of youth in the evolving economic and technological environment. Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, MSDE, said that skilling is an area of academic inquiry. He also stressed the need for creating a corpus of literature around skilling with data and evidence and also urged further deep diving into structural changes around skilling, education, and work continuum. Meanwhile, the report analysed India's skills landscape against the backdrop of the emerging knowledge-driven global economy. Data analysis based on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) shows that in 2023-24, 88 per cent of India's workforce is in low-competency occupations, while only 10-12 per cent are in high-competency roles. Further, using PLFS (2023-24) data the report identified five sectors -- IT and ITeS, textile and apparel, electronics, healthcare and life sciences, and beauty and wellness -- which accounted for over 66 per cent of vocational training in India. The report also recommended multifaceted and targeted interventions to develop a resilient and future-ready workforce. It urged for a dedicated, standardised data collection system to generate estimates about skill requirements and enable targeted evidence-based reforms and policies.
Business Standard
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Amit Kapoor
Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness. He is an affiliate faculty for the Microeconomics of Competitiveness & Value Based Health Care Delivery courses of Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School. He is a popular teacher at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.
New Indian Express
10-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Why economics graduates struggle to secure high-paying jobs
The current trends in the corporate world at the advent of the AI revolution suggest that it has become highly volatile and unpredictable and is poised to evolve further. Established organisations as well as startups are leveraging data analytics services and AI and ML for automation. In such times, economics graduates, once highly in demand for their quantitative prowess, find it difficult to adapt to the changing patterns of employment in corporate jobs, which have become very competitive and require skills like data analytics, understanding of the ML algorithms, Power BI, SQL and Python. Though the skills can be learnt easily, unfortunately they are not incorporated in the economics curricula at the university level. Economics departments are hesitant to incorporate these skill based courses over the traditional courses which constitute the core of the curricula. It is because of this that students find themselves in a situation where they have to learn these skills in an unsystematic manner from random online platforms. The internet is flooded with courses on data analytics and data science, power BI, and Python, which don't serve the purpose as the majority of such content is pre-recorded and doesn't allow interaction with the instructors. This resistance shown at university departments to change their curricula and incorporate skill based courses has lowered the employability of economics graduates in the corporate world. In the age of AI revolution where companies are automating basic operations, the graduates would have to acquire advanced skills to stay industry relevant and employable. Global skill mismatch between economics graduates and what industry wants Corporates, especially in the area of consulting, marketing research, and finance, are seeking graduates with a proficiency in coding (R, Python, SQL and Power BI) for financial modelling, data visualization and skills to convert data into interactive dashboards. The traditional economics programs unevenly emphasize on the theoretical aspect of economics with minimal exposure to software and simulation, and nearly zero exposure to real time data handling techniques. As highlighted by the Institute for Competitiveness, in India, only 8.25% of economics graduates are able to secure jobs which are aligned with their studies. Similar trends are reported in other parts of the world, where employers' reveal that economics graduates lack hands-on experience with real time data handling and problem solving. A report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, 2023) from the United States highlights that only 42% of economics graduates were able to get jobs in their relevant fields within the first six months of their graduation. Similarly, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), United Kingdom, reported that economics graduates earn 20% less than their computer science and engineering counterparts.
