Bridging Employability Skill Gap Through Digital Enabled Education
Bridging Employability Skill Gap Through Digital Enabled Education
Bridging Employability Skill Gap Through Digital Enabled Education
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ABSTRACT
encouraged on by national and multinational agencies, and the demands of marketization. The
present study deals with the bridging employability gap through digital enabled education and its
impact on employability skills. The paper provides information about several initiatives taken by the
government (such as NMEICT, SWAYAM, SWAYAM prabha, NDL, NAD) to promote the digital
literacy and socio-economic development of the country. According to The Hans India Report (July
2017), The gross enrolment ratio is expected to increase in higher education through from 24.5
(2015-16) to 30(2020) through the Digital government initiatives. The data has been collected from
1.INTRODUCTION
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela)
Education is the first and foremost tool required by a country to achieve wholesome socio-economic
development.
In the lines of this, Digital India Program has launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July1,
2015. He has mentioned his dream for digital India in the inaugural speech of this program. This
program is based on motivating innovation, strengthening knowledge and empowering the people,
aiming for open and transparent governance, easy and efficient provision of services through mobile
devices. Emergency services such as cyber security, personal security is the integral part of national
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security which is ensured by the Digital India. Digital India works in several areas e.g. government,
education, productivity etc. It also works in the area of mobile and E-banking which ensures the
financial inclusion, commerce and entrepreneurship. On its launch day, Digital India attracted 4 lakh
crores investment and generated 18 lakhs job opportunities.
Now a days, Every organizations needed high training quality work force in area of employment, on
the other side large number of population possess little or no job skill. This created a employability
gap. To bridge the gap the government of India has taken several major initiatives through digital
India that brings the socio-economic development of the country. According to shivaji sarkar report,
Under prime minister Narendra Modi’s Kaushal Vikas Yojana India aims to skill (PMKVY) 42 crore
people till 2022, of these, at least 110 million workers are required in over 25 select sectors such as
textiles, construction, automobiles, banking and retail. During the last two years 13 lakh people have
been given placement.
1.1 EMPLOYABILITY
Emplouability is the qualities of a person who enables the person to obtain and maintain employment.
Dacre Pool & Sewell (2007), Employability is a group of knowledge, skills, understanding and
personal attributed that make a person to choose their occupation in which they can be satisfied and
successful.
1.2EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Employability skills, sometimes also known as fundamental skills, soft skills, work-readiness skills,is
essential for success in any kind of job. It involves communication with the co-worker, solving the
problem, understanding team work, make the suitable choices for the career. Employers give great
value of the employability skills because these skills are linked with managing relationship and
interacting with others.
Harishchandra J Sharma(2016), the study focuses and investigate the current literature review in field
of employability skill like general management and work culture, analytical skills, communication
skill, leadership and problem solving skill. The study analyzed the literature survey of engineering
graduates, MBA graduates as well as university. The paper concludes that being good in one skill is
not sufficient in this competitive environment. So Multi-tasking applicant can sustain and gain the in
today’s scenario.
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Problem solving skills It is the ability to understand a problem and identifying the
key issues and its solutions. It is based on knowledge in
many different areas to solve the problem
Being self-motivated It is based on having new ideas which can be turned into
reality and showing the strong personal efforts to the
organization.
Working under pressure and to Ability to work under pressure and handling the stress and
deadlines comes with deadlines and ensuring that the worker meets
them.
Figure 1
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Anita Ganesh(2017), focuses on the bridging the skills vs employability gap for the smart India. The
paper analyses the employability skills Gap of engineering graduates from technical institutions and
found out the 60% of the 8 lakhs engineers graduating are unemployed. The study also found out 39%
of employers state that attracting and finding the quality are the one of the most challenging aspects.
The finding of the study is that there is a huge gap between skills and employability. To fill this gap,
Indian government has taken several initiatives and has launched various schemes for skill
development and employment generation based on their vision and objectives.
Punit Kumar Singh(2017), analyses the digital divide(Gap)in higher education and role of academic
libraries to bridge the gap. The study says that due to occurrence of digital divides, many digitally
talented poor students deprived of the required information. The objective of the study is to measure
the digital divide in higher education students and research and to judge the efforts made by academic
libraries to bridging the gap. The research concludes that the digital divide is the one of the bigest
issues for the academic libraries in order to provide information to all the users and the basic
infrastructural development, online assurance and digital resources are not only the solution of this
problem. Moreover, the study says that Information literacy program to the students has become the
necessity for the optimum use of the available resource at higher education level. It needs strong place
in academic programs.
Amit Iqbal Srivastava, Aamir Hasan (2017), the paper is based on bridging the skill gap in India, its
challenges and solution. This paper analyses current skill capability, need and review of skill
development policies, the challenges and solution of skill development. The study also indicates the
relationship between employment, education, and skill development. The researcher used random
survey method for data collection and taken the 100 samples from the students who has taken STAR
training from different NSDC (National Skill Development Coordination Board ) partners in
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Lucknow. Data analysis was done through using simple weighted average and percentage method for
the study.
Yasmeen bano, Dr.S.Vasantha (2019), stated employability skills are becoming more and more vital.
Now a days, universities also provide employability skill programs for the college graduates which
includes the development of soft skills as well as technical skills and knowledge.
3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
To know and understand the concept of Employability and Employability skills gap.
To know the initiatives taken by MHRD and Digital India Programme.
To analyze the impact of Digital India Program on Employability skills.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study is based on secondary sources of information. The data has been taken from different
published papers and different sources of information e.g. mhrd.gov.in, digitalindia.gov.in. to analyze
the in-depth study. The study has used Descriptive research design to achieve the research objectives.
According to National Convention on Digital Initiatives for higher education, technology based
education is important due to the following factors-
Affordability: Digital learning is affordable and cheaper than formal education without any
compromising on quality. it is also large learner based .
High Quality: Online education assures the high quality of instructions.it is directly delivered by
the best teachers.
Wide-ranging: Digital Education speaks about the rural-urban gap. At the present time India has
4.5% college graduates in the rural areas and as against 17% college graduates in urban areas. The
difference is starker: 2.2% female college graduates in rural areas and as against 13% female college
graduates in the urban areas.
Employability: online education also ensures employability in the youth. It is also in line with the
current market requirements.
Uses internet: From the view of IT infrastructure is expected to increase the internet users from 40.9
Cr in 2016 to 73.5 Cr by 2021. This will increase the online access courses to the youngsters.
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Smart Phones: Enhancing use of the smart phones is expected to increase from 29 Cr (2016) to 47 Cr
(2021). Further it would facilitate the online courses through using the smart phones.
Digital literacy is the concept that is increasingly used in public discourse. And it is become necessary
in the academic life. India grows into the digital based learning and increase the use of technology is
service and manufacturing industries, the emerging gaps at the level of tertiary education are seen as a
major constraint. That affects the employability skills.
Debbie Morrison (2016), Now a days, Digital skills are mandatory in the academic life of educators.
These skills include managing emails, uploading the articles or the paper for plagiarism checkers,
using learning management system etc. Digital education replaces the traditional method of
communication like face to face meeting and emails. But there is a gap between current skills and
what is needed; there is a most demanding need for educators to learn how to attach with the best of
digital technology, develop the learning outcome to the students and to manage their efficient and
effective teaching practice.
7. Technology enabled learning: Initiatives from the government to bridge the skills gap
The Government of India is keen to use the Digital based resources to help its mission and make the
Higher Education accessible to all deserving students. Of this concern, the government has launched
several schemes and online courses.
It is launch in 2009 to provide the opportunity for all the teachers and experts in the country and to
pool their collective understanding of Indian learner and the digital gap. According to Press
information bureau government of India, NMEICT is a centrally sponsored scheme to leverage the
potential of ICT. It provides the teaching- learning process and benefit to the all learners in higher
education at anytime, anywhere.
Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM): Swayam is the IT
massive online open course platform to provide the best quality education to the online users that can
be assessd by onyone, anytime , anywhere. According to the report of MHRD, SWAYAM is
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providing the opportunity for life-long learning process. Learner can choose multi courses through
SWAYAM. It provides the courses at university level, college level and school that is offered by the
best teacher in India and elsewhere.
Features of SWAYAM
Provides the interactive e-content of all the courses from School level
to University level.
It is state of the art system which allows easy online access, monitoring and
certification.
It is the forum for peer group discussion and intraction to clarifying the doubts.
It is hybrid model of quality of class room teaching.
The objective of NDL is to collect, preserve and distribute the intellectual output to our country. It is
also provide the online access from school level to college level students, including technical level
education. According to the news of DH Deccan Herald(June 2018),The national digital library offers
digital educational content, thousands of books and manuscript.it contains the question banks of
different types of competitive exams such as JEE (Joint entrance exam)conducted for admission to
IITs, NITs and other centrally funded institutions.
This project aims to develop
Overall framework of the school, college and higher level of education and to collect the
large number of e-content to improve the learning. It covers the need of learner with different
abilities.
Platform to serve as pan India teaching learning evaluation knowledge.
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To gather resources from the Ministries of culture, Rural Development, Health, & Department
of Science & Technology.
Marek Giebel Digital(2013), the study analyzed digital gap and explores the relationships of digital
gap, knowledge and innovation. The idea of proposed conceptual framework has taken from this
article. The conceptual framework based on employability gap, its causes and bridging the gap
through government initiatives.
employability gap
SWAYAM Prabha
It develops the capability of multi-
4. Lack of Multi-tasking tasking in individuals
National Digital Library (NDL)
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Lack of flexibility
Flexibility means being adaptable. As employee, a person needs to adapt the change quickly and show
the positive response of change at the workplace. It increases the level of engagement in workforce.
Absence of flexibility reduces the productivity of organization. According to the report of employee
benefit, flexibility is the key component to create an engaged work force. The report also says that
lack of flexibility kills the productivity of the organization.
On the other hand, there is lack of flexibility in women employees. According to the report of acas
working for everyone (2015),The research highlighted the lack of flexibility on working women
which leads them to out of their career. The study analyzed the women employees who take maternity
leave to protect their baby. After the leave is over they want to extend their break. If can be difficult
for them to get back to the work even though they are qualified, experience and highly talented.
Lack of adaptability
Adaptability is a quality of being adjust to new condition. It also shows ability to learn from
experience and develop the learner’s fitness as competitor. Adaptability gap is one of the most current
issues in the individuals which cannot be fulfill by the machines. According to Liver pool business
news report, employability in humans which include proactivity, adaptability, creativity, leadership,
communication and problem solving which cannot be replicated by the robots and it will be more
valuable in future.
Career adaptability is one of the crucial challenges among today’s youth. Sadika Ismail (2017), The
study presents about graduate employee capacity, self-esteem and career adaptability among the south
African young adults. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between
employability capacity, self-esteem and career adaptability. The researcher used for the study
qualitative, cross sectional research design approach. The findings of the study shows that there is a
positive multi variant relationship between the variable. The study also shows that graduate
employability capacity contributed in the terms of clarifying the respodents’ career adaptability as
compared to the self esteem.
Successful employees fueled by the creative ideas. Every employers want innovative ideas and good
suggestions which leads to the success of employees and organization. GISELLE RAMPERSAD,
FAY PATEL (2014), The paper focuses on the creativity which has emerged as a desirable graduate
attributes among the employers and college students. The study examines the students and employers
perception on creativity. The objective of the study is how the creativity in leadership can be develop
for the innovation. The key outcomes of the study shows that the first generation concept of creativity
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as an artistic and complex trait of gifted individuals towards the a higher level of development and the
second generation concept of the creativity as a purposeful and collaborative process.
Innovation is the purposeful and more systematic process for the development of commercialization
of product and services. According to the news report of The conversation(July 2017), Innovation is
the central part of the skill of any job seekers in future. But there is a lack of consensus what
innovation actually are.
Lack of Multi-tasking
Now a days, multi-tasking is very important as it helps in doing various things at the same time with
the quality of the work. According to the economic times news report (June2016), multi-tasking is not
working harder, but it’s about working smarter.
It is a regular phenomenon in every person’s life. The Hans India report says (November 2015),
completing a single task seems hectic and outrageous but most of persons have multiple task to
perform which leaves them frustrated and exhausted.
9. DISCUSSION
Digital India helps to improve to learning capacity of college graduates and make them creative and
skilled in this competitive environment. R. Mary Metilda and P.C. Neena (2017), analyzed the impact
of Digital technology learning develop the employability skills in Business management graduates.
Objective of the study is to examine the process skill of the business graduates with the impact of
Digital based technology facilities in the institution. The study found out that the Digital enabled
technology helps and supports to specific skill attainments and improve the learning capacity of the
graduates and efficiency of the academic system.
Digitization also has an impact on economic growth, it plays a significant role in macro-economic
factors like GDP growth labour productivity, employment generation. According to Morve Roshan K.
and Mostafa Majid Abass(2018),The economy of India is increased to 7.3 % in 2015 and as against
6.9 % in 2014. The initiatives taken by the Govt.of India have generated results as India’s gross
domestic product (GDP) at factor cost at constant (2011-12) prices 2014-15 is Rs 106.4 trillion (US$
1.596 trillion), as against Rs 99.21 trillion (US$ 1.488 trillion) in 2013-14, registering a growth rate of
7.3 per cent. The initiatives of ‘Digital India’ has contributed a great deal to this positive growth.
Digital India has the potentials of creating the employment opportunities for the country
directly/indirectly, that will assist in counteracting joblessness in India. The government of India is
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decided to provide the IT training to 100 million people in the small towns and villages because there
is very high employment opportunity in the IT sectors in India. In the next 5 years, India will
empowered in service sectors digitally and become as a leader in the IT sectors like Education, health,
defense, banking, and agriculture. The government also assures broadband connectivity in the field of
education like panchayats, schools, colleges, libraries, and other public places and every village is
provided with universal phone connectivity across the country. The use of Mobile and internet
banking can develop the financial inclusion in the country and create a win-win situation through
revenue-sharing business model. The digitization in the country promises renewal of the
manufacturing sector in India. With the campaign of “Make in India” and “Digital India,” the country
is planning to achieve net zero imports by 2020. This confirms that the exports will be equal to the
imports. This will also help in the economic development of the country.
10. CONCLUSION
Digital India has taken several initiatives to bridge the gap of employability skills, to improve the
quality of education and to promote the digital literacy and socio-economic development. This
initiatives can be made success through the enthusiastic participation of the citizens of our country.
Prof. Samita Kher et.al.(2016), The aim of digital India would be very difficult to achieve unless there
is awareness amongst the people. So the government should start spreading the awareness amongst
the youth to be successful.
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