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Lifestyle Lite Blogs

Only 45% of Indian IT Job-Seeking Graduates Deemed Employable

As major IT companies freeze fresher intake, alternate sectors are opening up demand…reports Asian Lite News

With the widening skill gap in the Indian IT industry, only 45 per cent of job-seeking graduates seem employable and 1.55 lakh freshers are likely to be recruited in the IT/tech sector in FY24 versus 2.3 lakh in FY23, a report showed on Tuesday.

With approximately 1.5 million engineering graduates actively seeking IT/Tech roles, muted market sentiments and intensified skills evaluation mechanisms have created a turbulent landscape.

The Indian IT industry is set to hire 10 per cent of engineering graduates in FY 2023-24, according to TeamLease Digital’s report.

As major IT companies freeze fresher intake, alternate sectors are opening up demand.

Global capability centers (GCCs) and non-tech sectors like BFSI, communication, media and technology, retail and consumer business, life sciences and healthcare, engineering research and development, and energy and resources, have expanded entry-level hiring, the report mentioned.

“A united front can be forged through the collaborative efforts of the industry, academia, and government, leading to relevant programmes and curricula being designed. Government initiatives play a pivotal role in supporting skill development and research projects aimed at tackling industry-specific challenges,” said Krishna Vij, Business Head, TeamLease Digital.

The findings revealed that companies are looking for a combination of soft skills like communication, problem-solving, teamwork, emotional intelligence etc. and hard skills, which involves technical proficiency in programming languages, software development methodologies, cloud computing, and data analytics.

In the current educational landscape, it is imperative for institutions to prioritise the integration of industry-specific training programs into their curriculum, emphasised the report.

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Education India News Lite Blogs

Poor degrees undercut India’s growth story

Thousands of young Indians are finding themselves graduating with limited or no skills, undercutting the economy at a pivotal moment of growth.

More than 5 million Indians enter the 15-to-24 age group every year, adding a demographic thrust to the demand for more colleges and universities. Properly educated and employed, these young people could bring the country a demographic dividend, the sort of surge in growth that buoyed many of the Asian “tiger” economies from the 1960s to the 1990s. But if India does not create high-quality colleges for its youths, it risks reaping a demographic disaster.

The higher education commission recently released a list of 21 “fake universities,” many of them no more than a mailing address or signboard hanging over a shop, temple or hole-in-the-wall office space. A government regulator that focuses on technical schools named 340 private institutions across India that run courses without its accreditation. Of more than 31,000 higher education institutions, only 4,532 universities and colleges are accredited.

Meanwhile, business is booming in India’s $117 billion education industry and new colleges are popping up at breakneck speed. Yet thousands of young Indians are finding themselves graduating with limited or no skills, undercutting the economy at a pivotal moment of growth.

Desperate to get ahead, some of these young people are paying for two or three degrees in the hopes of finally landing a job. They are drawn to colleges popping up inside small apartment buildings or inside shops in marketplaces. Highways are lined with billboards for institutions promising job placements.

India has the world’s largest population by some estimates, and the government regularly highlights the benefits of having more young people than any other country. Yet half of all graduates in India are unemployable in the future due to problems in the education system, according to a study by talent assessment firm Wheebox.

Many businesses say they struggle to hire because of the mixed quality of education. That’s kept unemployment stubbornly high at more than 7% even though India is the world’s fastest growing major economy, reported Bloomberg. 

The complexities of the country’s education boom are on show in Tier II cities. Massive billboards with private colleges promising young people degrees and jobs are ubiquitous. 

Higher degrees, once accessible only to the wealthy, have a special cachet in India for young people from middle and low-income families. 

In 2019, the Supreme Court barred the Bhopal-based RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre from admitting new students for two years for allegedly using fake patients to meet medical college requirements. The college initially argued in court that the patients were genuine, but later submitted an apology after an investigative panel found that the purported patients weren’t really sick, reported Bloomberg.

The medical school is part of RKDF Group which has wide network of colleges in areas from engineering to medicine and management. The group faced another controversy last year. In May last year, police in Hyderabad arrested the vice chancellor of RKDF Group’s Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University as well as his predecessor for alleged involvement in giving out fake degrees. Still, students could be seen flooding into several of RKDF’s institutions in Bhopal. One branch had posters of their “Shining Stars” – students who were placed in jobs after graduating.

India’s education industry is projected to hit $225 billion by 2025 from $117 billion in 2020, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation, a government trust. That’s still much smaller than the US education industry, where spending is estimated to be well above $1 trillion. In India, public spending on education has been stagnant at about 2.9% of GDP, much lower than the 6% target set in the government’s new education policy.

India has regulatory bodies and professional councils to regulate its educational institutions. While the government has announced plans to have a single agency that will replace all existing regulators, that’s still at the planning stage. The education department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Arab News India News UAE News

NSDC, Adecco boost Indian jobs in Middle East

NSDC-Adecco collaboration aims to create a strong connect between trained candidates from India and the growing talent demand in the UAE, reports Asian Lite News

NSDC International (NSDCI) and global workforce solutions company, Adecco have partnered to help India’s skilled workforce get work opportunities in the Middle East. The collaboration will create a strong connect between trained candidates from India and the growing talent demand in the UAE.

The partnership envisions dual objectives to institute skill harmonisation, benchmarking of job roles and operationalise a training and internship program for eligible Indian workers across Adecco’s operations in the overseas countries. Further, to bolster world-class infrastructure for skill development in India, the Skill India International Centre (SIIC) aims to provide high quality training to the youth in accordance to connect them with international opportunities in the destined countries.

Talent scarcity has become a global challenge and in certain geographies, there is a significant gap between skills and in their demand, especially in green jobs and digitally led job roles. While some countries have extraordinary talent with limited job opportunities, others face an extreme skill shortage. And in this context, upskilling and reskilling of the workforce are the key parameters for finding sustainable solution in the new world of work.

Speaking on the collaboration, Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO, NSDC and MD, NSDC International said, “NSDC International is happy to partner with Adecco. NSDC, parent of NSDC International is the implementation agency for the largest skilling program of Government of India. Under Skill India Mission approx. 60Million Indian youth have undergone skilling programs across 37 sectors. This pool of skilled Indian youth is ready to solve global talent shortage problems”

Mayank Patel, Country Head Adecco Middle East & VP Sales EEMENA region, in a talent-scarce economy, collaboration between the private and the public sector is essential to build employability and enable access to skilled labor – which is crucial for any company, industry and country to stay competitive. We are a proud partner in helping to bridge the skills gap and open doors for trained candidates so they can find meaningful employment opportunities.

Under the partnership, Adecco will engage with various stakeholders and employers of NSDCI to make the process flawless. The nodal company will also ascertain detailed job descriptions including, candidate eligibility, technical requirements, employ sourced candidates of NSDCI to facilitate the smooth transition of professionals from India to the destination country. 

With growing technological advancements, smart cities and with new visa regulations in the UAE, the demand for trained candidates has increased in sectors like data science, Information Technology (IT), eCommerce, logistics, sales, and marketing. Therefore, partnerships like these are imperative to build global employment opportunities and address the talent shortage in respective regions.

What is NSDC?

Giving boost to Government Skill India Mission, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a nodal skill development agency, working under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, is a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) that aims to catalyse the creation of a large and quality vocational training ecosystem in India. Since inception in 2010, NSDC has trained over three crore people through its collaboration with training partners pan India.

NSDC has established 37 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and implements the Government’s flagship skill development schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), among others. NSDC also funds enterprises, companies and organisations that provide skill training. The organisation enables private-sector capacity building in skill development by offering concessional loans, other innovative financial products, and strategic partnerships.

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India News

’10 lakh jobs in 18 months’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed to fill 10 lakh vacancies in all the departments and ministries in mission mode in next one-and-a-half years, reports India Daily Newsdesk

At a time when the job market globally is going through a tumultuous situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed that 10-lakh people should be given jobs in the federal government in the next 18 months. It will have a tremendous positive impact on the economy of the country.

“PM reviewed the status of human resources in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10 lakh people be done by the government in mission mode in next 1.5 years,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted.

Immediately stepping into action following this directive, the Ministry of Home Affairs tweeted, “In line with instructions of PM @narendramodi to carry out 10 lakh recruitments in all GOI Deptts & Ministries over a period of 1.5 yrs, Ministry of Home Affairs has initiated steps to fill up vacancies in Mission Mode.”

Various government departments have flagged large number of vacant posts in government departments. Some have also raised concerns about work being affected due lack of staff.

The media reports highlighted the prime minister’s focus on filling up vacancies quickly and to start the process within months.

Following this, every department and ministry had prepared a list of vacancies against the sanctioned posts.

It was reported that at a marathon four-hour-long meeting with all the central government secretaries in April, the PM had talked about the recruitment drive. PM Modi’s direction to expedite the filling of vacancies gains importance in the light of the opposition trying to turn “vacancies” and unemployment in general in the recently held assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

The review meeting happened more than two months after PM Modi suggested the secretaries of the central government to take immediate steps to fill up existing vacancies in the ministries and departments.

In another report, it was mentioned that during his meeting with the secretaries on April 2, the prime minister had stressed that employment should be the focus of all government interventions in public and private sectors.

The cabinet secretary had written to the secretaries and requested them to initiate immediate action on the prime minister’s suggestion.

According to the latest annual report of the Department of Expenditure on Pay and Allowances, the total number of regular central government civilian employees in position (including in the Union territories) as on March 1, 2020, was 31.91 lakh as against the sanctioned strength of 40.78 lakh and approximately 21.75 per cent of the posts were vacant.

The report said almost 92 per cent of the total manpower is covered by five major ministries or departments — railways, defence (civil), home affairs, posts and revenue. Of the total strength of 31.33 lakh (excluding the Union territories), the percentage share of the railways is 40.55, home affairs 30.5, defence (civil) 12.31, posts 5.66, revenue 3.26 and all other ministries and departments 7.72.

The total expenditure on pay and allowances (excluding productivity-linked bonus or ad-hoc bonus, honorarium, encashment of earned leave and travelling allowance) for the regular central government civilian employees, including the employees of the Union territories and missions, was Rs 2,25,744.7 crore in 2019-20 as compared to Rs 2,08,960.17 crore in 2018-19, as per media report.

According to the report, against the sanctioned strength of 10.16 lakh in central police forces, 9.05 lakh employees were in position as on March 1, 2020.

On the other hand, sustained push by the Indian government to infuse funds and give a fillip to the country’s economy has begun to bear results in spite of the huge setback and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.

Certain economic indicators such as job enrolments in the organised sector, rise in the number of new companies registered, growth of start-ups and rapid rise in the number of Unicorns in the country, a rise of employment opportunities in new sectors such as AI, cloud computing, data analytics, automation under IT/ITES clearly point towards an increase in creation of jobs in the country. (inputs from ANI)

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Lifestyle Lite Blogs

Know the pulse of career trends

In a world changing so fast, successful companies are always creating new value for their customers…writes Siddhi Jain.

Pandemic has really shaken the world of job opportunities, that eventually hit the life and career ambitions of many. As the world of education and work makes a gradual recovery from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, experts foresee the new trends and dramatic changes that will impact the careers of graduates who venture out in the market in 2021-22 and onwards.

A new technology-driven focus, according to Marwadi University Provost Sandeep Sancheti, would emerge in the jobs that are likely to be in demand in the coming times. In the medical and health field, he lists some of these trending jobs to be: Health-care supporting staff like intake specialists, pharmacy technicians, and certified nursing assistants. This field also has roles such as mental health specialists and health and fitness coaches to be on the rise.

In the IT and Computer space, he foresees demand for data science specialists, data management analysts and data mining experts, along with artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers, user experience professionals like UI/UX design specialists, product design consultants, game developers, full stack developers and cloud engineers and architects, and cyber security experts.

“Among everything else, one thing is for sure, remote work is here to stay. The millennials and GenZ will be the trendsetters with Zoom and Google workspaces as the ruling platforms for remote work and the year 2021 will see more opportunities and prospects for dynamic and multi-tasking professionals with analytical, programming and marketing skills,” he says.

As per Sandeep Shastri, Vice Chancellor, Jagran Lakecity University, the career trends currently being offered in the 2nd decade of this century are the most diverse ever available in human history. The fields are demanding super specializations and individuals are training to fill the gaps.

“The digital revolution has shown its effects in the hospitality sector in the form of automation of a huge chunk of repetitive tasks. Public policy traditionally being a blend of political science, law and sociology now has added data analytics to the mix. In areas like accounting and finance, new and extended career roles are outsourcing services, big data analytics, fintech, artificial intelligence, cloud accounting and block chain technology. Post-Covid era brings huge job opportunities in financial institutions like stock exchanges, depositaries, stock broking firms and investment banks etc which are employing tech-savvy economists en masse,” he says.

Digital content creators like podcasters, bloggers, influencers, video creators, and voice-over artists will be in demand in the future.

According to Sahil Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Rishihood University, “with increasing options, access to information, and technological changes”, the current generation of students faces a different aspect of career growth.

Here are some tips on capitalising on these career trends:

Entrepreneurial mindset

Employers are increasingly looking for employees who are self-driven. The best employees align with the company’s objectives, find new tasks, and work with teams to achieve. Those who work as if it is their own company are more likely to succeed than those who wait to be given a task list.

Interdisciplinary talent

Graduates who demonstrate an understanding of varied domains are appreciated more than those who are narrowly focused.

Creative potential

In a world changing so fast, successful companies are always creating new value for their customers. Employees who have creative potential are far more valuable than those who stick to the routine.

People skills

It is often repeated, and rightly so, that beyond a point, a person grows or stagnates based on how well one can work with others.

Learning to learn

Once we stop learning, we are replaced by other humans or machines. The mindset of learning is key to succeed in the 21st century.

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-Top News Arab News Saudi Arabia

Saudi jobless rate falls to 6.5% in Q1

The General Authority for Statistics measures the rate based on total working-age populations (Saudis and non-Saudis 15 years old and above)…reports Asian Lite News

Saudi Arabia’s unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 7.4 per cent of the last quarter in 2020, state media reported.

The General Authority for Statistics measures the rate based on total working-age populations (Saudis and non-Saudis 15 years old and above), Xinhua news agency quoted the state media as saying on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of total Saudis decreased to 11.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 12.6 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2020.

The results of the Labour Force Survey also show that the labour force participation rate of the total working-age population increased to 61.1 per cent during the first quarter of 2021 compared to 61 per cent in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

The survey and many other labour initiatives aim to further reduce unemployment rates, along with making Saudis the preferable job candidates in various vacancies through training and government support to the private sector.

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-Top News Arab News Saudi Arabia

850 firms join Made in Saudi initiative

Companies who want to be part of the program can apply online to check eligibility, reports Asian Lite News.

More than 850 companies have applied to join the ‘“Made in Saudi” program.  Faisal Al-Bedah, the secretary-general of the Saudi Export Development Authority, said the program’s objectives of increasing domestic consumption and market share of domestic goods and services. The program will also look to increase Saudi non-oil exports in priority export markets, and enhance attractiveness of the Saudi industrial sector for domestic and foreign investment.

He said the “Made in Saudi” program promoted national identity, boosted the contribution of the private sector to the economy, launched the capabilities of promising non-oil sectors by developing their exports, and enabled the creation of teams through small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises.

Companies who want to be part of the program can apply online, with an initial verification done through a dedicated website to check companies’ eligibility.

Products should be grown, extracted or produced in Saudi Arabia and fall under one of the listed industries: Construction, textiles, pharmaceuticals and medical, processed foods, or fresh produce.

“Made in Saudi” will play a role in achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan by supporting Saudi products and directing purchasing power toward local products and services, leading to the private sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 65 percent and raising the proportion of non-oil exports in the total non-oil GDP to about 50 percent by 2030.

Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, who is also the authority’s chairman, launched the initiative under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The program aims to help local businesses grow by encouraging local consumers to buy more locally made products and helping businesses to increase their exports to priority markets,” said Al-Khorayef. “Under one unified brand, the ‘Made in Saudi’ program will bring significant opportunities for businesses to expand their reach and promote their products domestically and globally.”

Move to create 1.3 million mining, industrial jobs

Earlier, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef said the initiative will create 1.3 million jobs in the mining and industrials sectors for the citizens.

“We currently have 10,000 factories in the Kingdom, with investments of 1.1 trillion ($293 billion), and the Kingdom’s products reach more than 178 countries around the world,” Alkhorayef said.

A strategic plan to develop the consumer products industry through localization is in place, he said.

Earlier, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Shareek, an SR12 trillion program to boost the role of the private sector in diversifying the economy.

Under the program, private sector businesses will be helped to invest SR5 trillion between now and 2030, along with SR3 trillion from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and SR4 trillion as part of a new national investment strategy.

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