Tell me I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn – Benjamin Franklin

This is not only one of the most powerful quotes, but also one of the most practical one. It makes so much sense. This is where we need to revisit our educational system. For decades, the emphasis has been on only what is being taught. There has to be a deeper understanding on how you impart education to create impact. How do you ensure the transfer of knowledge also translates into how to use the imparted knowledge.

The result of this flawed educational system is the wide gap between what skills the employers need and what is actually available. Thankfully this has changed recently, but we are far from witnessing any impact on the ground. There have been some reports suggesting that employability skills have increased by almost 10% in the last 5 years from over 36% to around 46%. Yet there is a gap. There is also another reason that is a major factor for low employability, and that is technology. Major disruptions in the tech arena have made human intervention redundant. Most of the jobs that needed human intervention have now become irrelevant, for example, phone banking over the last few years has been witnessing decreasing human intervention. With technology, there will soon be more jobs that will be taken over by bots.

The positive side is that there are many vocational streams that our youth can choose from. Be it in nursing, automobile repair, plumbing, etc are potential skills that can help reduce the gap in employability skills. The vocational courses are an avenue for income generation. These are specific skills related to a sector of specialization. Once skilled in a specific skill throws opens great possibilities for employability. One has to keep upgrading to stay relevant with times and technology. There has to be a constant upgradation in skills to achieve and increase revenue generation.

The current need is to take the vocational skills to the rural parts of India. With 65% of the population being rural, there is a direct relation to the growth and development of India as a nation to skilling the rural youth. It is a herculean task to engage such a huge population. Moreover, this needs a paradigm shift for our young rural population. Learning requires one to be not only ready physically but also be mentally prepared to learn. We can create the best infrastructure, provide the best curriculum, but what matters the most is are we able to create an environment that attracts the young minds towards learning. What matters is churning out youth who are employable. Are we able to create a bridge between the employers and the youth who seek to be employed? Are we able to create an environment where trained youth are able to generate self-employment? At NeevJivan, our team has taken up this challenge and has decided to become a part of the journey in nation-building.