Patna : Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary said India is producing army of “unemployable youths” from its educational institutions and 50% graduates do not have the required skill to do any professional job. “India has a unique problem. At one hand, industries do not get skilled persons for particular work and on the other, the country has huge unemployment. It seems we are producing ‘unemployable youths’ from our educational institutions,” Choudhary said while addressing a programme organized by the Bihar government on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day here. CM Nitish Kumar and three other cabinet ministers were on the dais when Choudhary was making a “frank assessment” about the country’s education system.
Referring to a last year’s incident of Uttar Pradesh, Choudhary said altogether 23 lakh educated people applied when a neighboring state advertised for 368 posts of fourth-grade in its secretariat. Of the 23 lakh who applied for the posts of peon, 250 candidates were PhD holders, 25,000 post-graduates and 1.5 lakh graduates. “Our situation is not too much different from the neighboring state. The question arises as to why so many highly educated people applied for the post of peon? Simple fact is that our youth is not skilled enough to engage themselves in productive works,” Choudhary said amid clapping from the audience.
“As per data, 50% graduates do not hold skill or eligibility to do any professional job. Moreover, the industry experts believe 80% engineering graduates are not fit for any job in industrial sector. Even engineering students are not aware about the basics of their trade. Whenever they go to seek job with their certificates, the companies put them on one to two years of job training,” Choudhary said.
He added that as per 2011 census, 58% population in Bihar is below the age of 25 years. “The average age of Bihar is around 30 years,” Choudhary said. He called upon the youths to get proper training to ensure their employ-ability in job market.
Earlier, the state’s labor resources department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) to run skill development training centres across Bihar. The MoU, which was signed by state’s labour resources department’s principal secretary Dipak Kumar Singh and MKCL’s chief executive office Vivek Sawant, aims to carry out skill development of the youths.
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