Internship Can Address India’s Skilling Problem

Internship Can Address India’s Skilling Problem. That’s what Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com says, in this authored article.

Internship Can Address India’s Skilling Problem

Why apprenticeship is the starting point to addressing India’s skilling problem. We need to discuss this topic very aggressively.

India is a country with a booming young populace, churning well over seven million graduates a year, helping the country realize its dream of becoming a trillion-dollar economy. But we are still falling short in terms of competent talent and how.

The eighth edition of the India Skills Report published recently reveals that less than half of the Indian graduates are prepared with employable skills. This is a deeply worrying trend for the youth who enter the workforce every year in millions. Fresh off college- which prepares them very little for real life- today’s youth are thrown hitherto into the whirlwinds of the dynamic workplace requirements.

While tier-1 urban universities enjoy access to alumni networks, placement cells, etc.; the students from tier-2 and tier-3 colleges have an obvious drawback. An unstructured and often outdated course curriculum and pedagogy means they have little understanding of the requirements of the industry. We need a conscious effort to bridge the gap between job requirements and the skills possessed by college students and internships can play a big role in this.  

Internships Can be a Career-Building foundation

Internships allow students to explore different opportunities, understand the requirements of different roles, the rigors and expectations of a corporate role – all, with the support and guidance on job. Invaluable life skills such as communication, adherence to timelines and discipline are major learnings from internships, all the while gaining an inside perspective in the industry, they choose to work in.

This exposure and learning are vital for the students from tier 2 and tier 3 universities who have little practical exposure to the inner workings of the industry. They can make mistakes, learn and unlearn, truly empowering them to be a part of the global talent pool.    Moreover, students with one or multiple internships under their belt receive better jobs and packages than those without.

Apprenticeships as a Great Talent-Discovery Program

While traditionally some organizations may have treated internship without any strategic intent, there has been a slow but definitive shift in how companies treat the youngest wards in office. Now seen as valuable resources full of ideas and a fresh unhindered perspective, interns today are groomed and trained to eventually be assimilated into the organization. In short, they are the organization’s answer to fill rapidly dwindling talent pipelines.

For students, internships make job discoverability easier, it is a solid invaluable foothold in the corporate ladder. Companies today offer a roster of internships, designed to reach the best talent in the country irrespective of their geographic locations. In person attendance is no longer mandated for some roles, they are curated to be either hybrid or completely remote facilities to accommodate the students today.

Ready Paid Internship Access in Tier 2 and 3 Markets can Drastically Improve the Skilled Talent Supply

Democratizing access to internships is the answer to improve employability of our talent pool as well as help organization find the right fresher talent. This would also help the candidates make more informed decisions about their career and help them land their best first job. These are critical steps to ensure that a fresher from Indore has the same chances as someone from Delhi, that a starry-eyed teenager from the by lanes of a rural Indian village who dreams of reaching the skies has the same access to opportunities as any urban teenager.

These talented but unguided students from tier 3 and tier 4 cities form a sizable chunk of India’s workforce. It is imperative for the industry to pro-actively help them build their careers, upskill where necessary and ensure that the human capital of the country is gainfully employed in the right roles. The disconnect between academic curriculum and modern demands of workplace need to be addressed to ensure a smoother transition from campus to corporate to effectively shape the workforce of the future.