Before discussing what ails the Indian education sector and the possible solutions to it, it is important to understand how industry perceives graduates' skills.
Employment ready
It is a term that is often used to signify that the student has basic skills in place and can be hired by the industry. The basic skills that a technical resource should have in place are problem-solving, communication, interpersonal skills and working knowledge of the technical domain (such as programming for aspirants of the IT industry).
Ready-to-Deploy
It is a term used to designate resources that can start generating revenue for the company. In the context of the IT industry, such resources are billable and can be deployed on client projects. Most organisations have been spending anywhere between 3 to 4 months at a cost of over Rs 2 lakh per employee to bring freshers to the state of 'ready-to-deploy'. Needless to say, in tough times this cost will hurt organisations and they will actively start looking for freshers who are 'ready-to-deploy' and not just 'employment ready'.
While studies show that out of the total technical pool of freshers, less than 25 per cent are 'employment-ready', the startling number is that of 'ready-to-deploy' freshers: less than 5 per cent.
Now let's try to find out the reason why there is such a huge gap in the expected versus actual quality of technical resources coming out of our educational system.
Also see: 10 ways to be a happy employee
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