Fun With Pendulums

Youth Needs Skill Development

Recent reports revealed that more than one lakh engineering students who graduated in 2015 are not employable. There is a major skill gap in the country as 80 per cent of the engineering graduates are "unemployable".

The realisation on the importance of skill development, especially for students who are scanning the job market, is expected to bridge the gap between education and employment. Taking into consideration the current education and job scenario, appropriate job-related skills complements a formal degree in any discipline, and increases career opportunities. The job industry, too, expects the prospective workforce to come prepared with specialised skill. 

We have an academic centric education model, which lays less emphasis on job centric skills and overall development of an individual. This is why increasing number of students are opting to enhance their hard and soft skills, to meet the industry need. Career readiness and employability skills have become an increasingly critical part of education. Employers are desperately seeking people with a combination of skills which not only covers technical or hard skills but also include soft skills and life skills. 

 

At the heart of every education model is a desire to help each student be confident and proud in their accomplishments and successful in their futures. Youth is the driving force in any economy and if trained to its full capacity, can play a vital role in growth of the country. Let us explore how skill training helps student jumpstart their career, prepping them up to be viewed as career-ready and employable. 

 

Increased Employment Opportunities

Possessing a specialised skill set increases employment opportunities. Today, even entry level roles in many industries require base level qualifications. By completing a training course, your employment opportunities become wider. Moreover, this has become prerequisite to stand out from the crowd and meet the demands of the currently highly competitive job market. 

 

Personal growth

Learning a new skill will broaden the opportunities, at the same time empowers one as an individual. Skill training not only provides skills in a particular area, but trains students to build and enhance networking, time management, communication skills. 

For any type of job, besides technical skills, employers keenly look for a distinct kind of skill in its potential employees. Whatsoever role students may be looking forward in the organization, possessing strong soft skills puts them a step ahead in the competition and makes them a true professional.

 

Employers often complain that students do not know how to effectively carry a conversation, and are unaware of the importance of making eye contact, asking questions and listening actively. Moreover, with the the current prevalence of electronic devices and texting, youngsters now lack the ability to effectively communicate face-to-face. Through soft skills, students are taught on the importance of effective communication, stress management, people management- skills usually associated with managing and living a better quality of life. They are taught on how to use both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques when engaged in a face-to-face conversation, thus equipping them with good communication skills that comes handy at job interviews especially. 

Such work-place driven skills in a stimulated environment makes students more confident. From a social perspective, skill training has several advantages. 

 

Less Dropouts

India's youth today is facing a serious problem in unemployment and underemployment. The causes contribute to dropping out of high school, needing to support one's family at an early age, lack of quality education, a lack of information on the job market, and, most importantly, not possessing the basic skills required by employers today. It would benefit students if they are encouraged to join skilling programmes instead, which gives them clarity about their means of livelihood, much needed confidence, and a direct career boost. 

 

Nurturing the talent pool of the country

Talent is innate, but skills are acquired. Skill training focusses on identifying, training and nurturing talent, in any desired field. The social emphasis on scholastic achievement leaves little room for appreciating the diversity of talent that could make a qualitative difference to the potential of the skilled workforce. This is even more relevant in the case of artisans and craftsmen who continue their family legacy, irrespective of their individual talent and capabilities.

Skilling for entrepreneurship

 

Encouraging enterprise and to boost employment creation, skilling programmes are coming up with specialised courses on entrepreneurship in different sectors. Instead of training students to work under someone, these programmes focus on leadership and innovation. 

 

Our focus on mainstream education is lopsided with no emphasis on skills that actually matter in the industry. In reality, even MBAs and engineering graduates, need soft skill training in when they hit the job market. Hence, there needs to be an ongoing process that skills workforce, while instilling confidence in them. 

Only a confident and competent workforce can drive the economy successfully and meet the international standards of quality performance. To truly achieve ‘Make in India’, we need to adopt a framework that supports the holistic development of the youth and make the country the world Capital of Skilled Workforce. 

Global Warming is Real

Spiraling global temperatures from 1850-2016

Make your passion your career

The age old dilemma of pursuing a job versus following your passion is faced by several people. This question tends to gnaw at us, particularly while pursuing our graduation. Can one’s passion be their means of livelihood? If not, what should a student choose – their passion or a well-paying job?

Every individual wants to earn a living and enjoy their hobbies. A lucky few make a career out of their passion – they may become successful musicians, scientists, chefs, writers or actors. A majority of them however, take up a regular job to earn a living.

STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE
It is important to strike the right balance between your personal and professional aspirations. Your job should not restrict you from pursuing your passion simultaneously. Giving yourself adequate time to indulge in your passion will keep you motivated and rejuvenated, in turn, enabling you to give your best professionally.

MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE
The fault lies in the assumption that a job and your passion are mutually exclusive. This mindset often leads to a negative approach about your work. It is, therefore, important to not view your passion and job as two opposing ends of a spectrum. Instead, pursue a job in a field that interests you. Find a place where you can play your strengths and incorporate your passion into your work profile. For instance, if you are passionate about writing, pursue a career in journalism and work on the book you always dreamt of writing.

Opting for a career with the sole purpose of making money will lead you to an unsatisfying work life.  It is thus crucial to explore various choices and identify a field of work that you are passionate about. This process could involve quitting a job that you don’t enjoy and instead discover your inclinations and preferences; identify a job role that relates to your interests and pursue a job that you will enjoy.

It is thus very important to find a job that you enjoy.

World's First Passanger Train - London Letter

Teachers from India qualified to participate in E2

Be it maths, music, psychology or literature, education tools are changing the lesson plans in class. “We are moving towards a paperless classroom,” says Pooja Sachdeva, a teacher in Pathways World School, Aravalli. These educators are teaching a tech generation who view life through their devices. Hence, it has become even more important for them to embed technology in their teaching to keep students `hooked’ to their lessons, adds Brian Aspinal, a teacher from Canada.

Many teachers across the globe are using tools to enhance learning and achieve better student outcomes. However, usually these innovations in the classroom occur in isolation and the achievements go unnoticed. Therefore, E2 - Educator Exchange provides a platform for teachers and experts to share good practices and find solutions to 21st century challenges.

This year, around 300 teachers from 75 countries participated in E2, which was held in Budapest earlier this month. Says Anthony Salcito, vice president, Worldwide Education, Microsoft, that has been hosting the event for several years: “We bring together the most innovative educators from around the world to share their experiences on how to transform education. It is very inspirational.”

Eleven teachers from India qualified to participate in E2 this year and four were in the winning teams. This year’s theme was `Hack the Classroom,’ meaning innovations in the classroom. The conference highlighted innovative approaches such as using skype to engage students in lessons on climate change by connecting with scientists working in the Arctic region. Also, OneNote, a modern replacement of the paper notebook that allows teachers to collaborate with students in real time, creating, editing and grading assignments. And game-based learning like Minecraft, especially to help children with special learning needs, among other innovations.

In the group challenge --- Class Hack Competition, each group was assigned a 'hacker’ persona and teachers had to work in teams to identify a common problem that they face in the classroom and find a solution with the help of technology. The different `hacker’ personas were strategise, personalise, gamify, minimise and delocalise.

The Grand Prize Winner was the team that focussed on `The Multicultural Classroom:’ Migration is a major global challenge. Students new to a country oftentimes face inequity because of the language barrier. Teachers can use OneNote’s built-in translation tool to overcome this barrier by allowing new students to tell their story in their native language.

The new features of OneNote were launched during the conference. According to Mike Tholfsen, principal programme manager of OneNote, they gathered feedback from teachers to make the tool even more useful, and the main consideration was to save time for teachers.

On the key takeaway from the conference, Chandhirakala Venugopal from the Titan School in Hosur, says, ”It’s very useful to be introduced to new tools and also to find out how other teachers are embedding technology in their teaching methods.” Teachers from Nigeria echoed similar views, saying that though smartphones and other devices are now common in the classroom, but with erratic power supply they have to improvise. “At E2 I realised teachers from other countries face similar challenges but nevertheless implement tech tools. This is the first time we have travelled outside our country, so it’s learning beyond borders,” says Oluwakemi Olurinola, educational technologist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University.

Several teachers admitted that it’s the students who guide them about tech tools or games that can be educational. So in this tech era, both teachers and students are learning together.

‘Make in India’ will boost the Indian jobs market

The ‘Make in India’ scheme is aimed to build India a global hub of manufacturing, aimed to raise the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) to 25% by 2022. The government has identified 25 key sectors and plans to provide relevant support and incentives to boost investments in them. Some of these sectors include construction, textiles, food processing, and skill-intensive sectors such as aviation, defense equipment manufacturing, and electronics, among others.

Besides friendly policy interventions, people or workforce would form the key element to achieve the desired objectives. Hence, jobs across the levels would be strengthened with addition of multiple set of jobs under this umbrella. While the niche and high-technology oriented profiles would be a value addition to the job roles, management and soft skills roles would go hand in hand as demand from hiring managers. Mass hiring in front line jobs and vocational trades would open a floodgate of opportunity for job seekers.

Important things that need increased focus to keep the momentum rising in the jobs market would be improvement in skill levels of existing employees, properly train the workforce entering the jobs market and innovation in human resource activities like hiring, induction of new employees, retention of existing employees, and effective employee engagement initiatives.

‘Make in India’ is a promising initiative and is expecting the employment scenario to get a boost in the years to come. While this initiative intends to make India a top destination for foreign direct investment, it primarily focuses on job creation and skill enhancement in targeted 25 sectors, with an estimate of 100 million new jobs by 2022.
There is already a positive response to the initiative in the last year. Next year, we estimate another 7-8 lakh temporary jobs to be created. It would also add 8-13 % to the current job pool as investment into manufacturing and related sectors. Refocusing on India's traditional occupations would also add to this and should potentially create 10 million jobs a year.

Key drivers of job generation
Key drivers are foreign direct investment in identified 25 sectors of the economy, which should lead to additional workforce demand. This includes sectors like automobile and its components, chemicals, defense manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceuticals, ports and shipping, textile and garments, tourism, hospitality and wellness. These sectors being the key industry sectors of India, these are in itself the key drivers for job generation.

Levels at which jobs would be created
There will be a huge requirement for entry level jobs for both semi-skilled and skilled workforce. We estimate a rise in the number of young workforce in the age group of 15 to 29 from the current 153 million to 158 million by 2025. There will also be an increase in niche high-technology opportunities demanding specialist skills.

As this initiative touches manufacturing and engineering and related sectors, key skill would be required in the space of design and engineering, project planning, execution, erection, commissioning, operations and maintenance, transmission and distribution, trading and regulatory, renewable energy, and manufacturing.

Most certainly, we see hiring trends and initiatives to change, as there is a huge skill requirement and an obvious skill gap. In the immediate term, investing corporates should upgrade the skilling infrastructure, plan appropriate hiring and quality trainings. Initiatives like structured workforce readiness programs and On the job trainings may help in catering to existing supply and demand gap. We also see a rise in campus and contractual hiring to support the mass hiring needs.

Discovery of gravitational waves, with Indian participation

The world sees such big-bang discoveries in about 30 years, says a UK-based academic who is a part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) that discovered gravitational waves in September 2015. Given its importance, the find will spawn new study, research and career options in astrophysics, astronomy, theoretical physics and high-precision experiments with the presence of a gravitational wave observatory in the country. Last month, the Union cabinet approved a project to set up the facility in association with the US-based LIGO Laboratory run by Caltech and MIT. 

“Our students will have access to this observational facility (LIGO-India) on a regular basis through, for example, summer projects, research and internships,” says Bala R Iyer, chairperson, IndIGO consortium, India’s initiative in gravitational-wave observations and visiting professor, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR). 

The LIGO-India project will mean new openings for engineers from fields such as optical, mechanical and vacuum engineering and scientists specialising in areas including high-precision experiments, and optics, “at this point,” adds Iyer. “At the moment, we don’t have expertise in areas like high-precision experiments in India. So, LIGO-India could build capabilities in this field.”  

The world outside of academic portals, too, may see useful spin-offs from the waves captured by US-based twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors at two locations in the US -- Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington -- on September 14, 2015. “For society at large, engineering challenges like LIGO spur on the development of new technology,” says Ed Daw, reader, department of physics and astronomy, University of Sheffield. “We are developing control systems with new and interesting properties that have many applications, from control of electric motors to new protocols for mobile phone communications. These control systems were developed to remove noise from LIGO data,” he says. “All this should be particularly exciting to students thinking about going into physics or engineering, or particularly those having interests at the boundary between these two subjects.” 

Ripple Effect
-Two black holes collided into -- and merged with -- each other about 1.3 billion years away from earth
-The resulting energy sent ripples, termed gravitational waves, into the universe
-On September 14, 2015, at 5.51am Eastern Daylight Time, the waves passed through the blue planet where scientists had installed a twin observatory to ‘catch’ them 
-Einstein had predicted them 100 years ago  
-These are called gravitational waves as they are associated with a gravitational field in general relativity
-Founded in 1997, LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), which discovered the waves, has more than 1,000 scientists from 15 countries, including India.

Education Opens Door