The India Employment of youth

The employment of youth is becoming a critical issue not only in India, but all over the world. We have two sets of problems. One is that not many jobs are being created. The other is that even as the number of students continuing beyond school is increasing rapidly, we seem incapable of preparing them for tomorrow.

Of the total population of 25-29 year olds in India, 10.2% were graduates in 2015-16. This number is likely to double in a decade given the trend of increasing enrolment in undergraduate courses. The question is: what is the value of these graduates, to the economy, to themselves, to their families and to the communities they live in.

In a relatively poor country where industry is starved of skilled labour, young people should be flocking to vocational courses and industry should be chasing the training centres. Pratham’s experience says that neither happens. The answer to India’s larger skilling problems does not lie in short modular courses, but rather in creating progressively stronger foundations at different stages in school, and then offering options. Young people should be able to combine work and study, because earning is an immediate need and learning for upward mobility will be a growing aspiration.

The recently released ASER 2017 shows that nearly 78% of all rural 14-18 year-olds do some agricultural work, whether for wages or on their own land. Yet, the percentage of students in agricultural or veterinary courses around India amounts to less than half a per cent of all undergraduate enrolment. It is an area that could use a more educated and trained workforce, considering agriculture and related sectors will continue to be major occupations and need to be improved if rural livelihoods are to grow. So, why are young people not enrolling to learn agriculture?