Enhancing skill development for Indian youth

Schools in higher education space in India are going through an interesting phase. As the economy and political maturity of India grew, higher education became progressively decontrolled. National Education Policy, 2020 is one of the landmark policies as it brings in opportunities for private and international participation in higher education.

Higher Education Institutions are treated as a marketplace for talent. Therefore, Placement will continue to be a dominant determinant for a student to choose a HEI. In this context, it is imperative for a school to clearly announce to the stakeholders its mission statement on the kind of talent and the future workforce it nurtures.

In order to make education more relevant and to create ‘industry fit’ skilled workforce, the institutions offering skill-based courses will have to be in constant dialogue with the industry so that they remain updated on the requirements of the workforce. As a first step, a school must develop strength internally to deliver on its mission statement, curriculum inclusive of knowledge, skills, and Attitude. Identifying Program learning Goals and outcomes may be reviewed periodically.

IFIM School of Management’s mission statement is to nurture holistic, socially responsible, and continuously employable professionals. The curriculum architecture including Core courses, practice courses, majors and minors towards career pathways gives multiple opportunities to students to enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitude. Syllabus structures works best if we can design and offer logical progression through the topics from fundamentals to advanced or from general to specific. A strong undergraduate program has the power to overcome a weak performance in secondary school. Schools which are not clear on their path may miss out and this may further lead to flat and declining enrolments.

The school must then explore further and look at cross border partnerships in the areas of strategic importance as the next step.

Cross border partnerships for skill development

Each of the student segments or personas have a variety of needs and goals in terms of skill development as it relates to their education. The first year and second year of undergraduate degree emphasises on foundational and experiential skills and the third and final year focuses on transformative skills. Skills required for the global workforce 2023 report by World Economic Forum broadly classified the entire gamut of skillset into cognitive skills, engagement skills, Ethics, Management skills, technology skills, self-efficacy and working with others. Higher education Institutions should understand and be able to speak how their institutions can serve the students segments they plan to target. It is important to be open to collaborate with international players in areas aligned to strategic goals of the Institute.

The Strategic goals towards cross border partnerships should be clearly laid out. Academic Reputation is generally the most popular goal in cross border partnerships where the objective is to enhance teaching and student learning and build institutional reputation. This initiates activities like student and faculty exchange and enhances experiential learning.

Collaborative teaching with partner schools either face to face or online is a reality in most of the reputed schools in India. Interactions with Deans and connect with facultymay also create an opportunity to contribute towards research and connect with international faculty. Cross border interactions and exchange enhances curricular, research and administrative capacities.

Engagement with cross border partnerships can be more specific to sectoral skills related to career development which can help students to join global workforce. The partners may then decide on the duration of the programmes like short term duration programmes to consider student and faculty exchange programmes, collaborative research and internship programmes or long duration programmes by offering twinning programmes or collaborative degree programmes. This can be planned to offer advanced level of knowledge and skills in learning trajectories. These collaborations help leadership team to reconsider their own long held assumptions and to conclude multicultural perspectives must be represented in studies else education will be limited to the local setting of the university.

(The author is a Dean at IFIM School of Management)