Building effective career ecosystems

In spite of acquiring several degrees, students are not equipped with relevant knowledge and skills warranted by the market. The need for structured assessments and embedding key skills in the curriculum is important, explains an expert

Recruiting the right talent is a challenge for employers and finding a suitable job with clarity and transparency is the biggest challenge for jobseekers. With a majority of the population aged below 25, unemployment is one of the major barriers of a developing country like India.

Talking about the employability quotient, Stephen Jenkins, CEO, LetsCareerUp International says, “The employability quotient in the country is marked by a demand-supply gap, and there is a sharp disconnect between what is being taught and what the industry needs. About 90 per cent of the jobs in India are skill-based and only six per cent of the students are equipped with the right skill sets upon graduation.

Only two per cent of the Indian students in the age bracket of 15-25 years undergo vocational training. In this context, it becomes difficult for employers to continuously build their talent pipeline, and employers are burdened with conducting their own training for new hires because they are unprepared to be successful in the company.”

“To overcome these and offer additional benefits, there is a need to build an alternative careers ecosystem that makes use of technology and human intelligence to help students and graduates,” he adds. Commenting on different markets, he says, “The question of “What do I want to be when I grow up?” is universal and applies as much to high school age children in developed markets such as the United States as it does in India.

The lack of guidance, tools and help for both kids and parents is also similar. The penalties for unclear career choices in the United States are less severe because most educational programmes are open and children can switch between programmes. In India, however, the formality and importance of the educational 'stream” choice made by children after completing 10th standard raises the stakes for them to make an informed choice at an earlier age.”

On highlighting the need for an upgraded education and training system, he says, “In spite of acquiring several degrees, it is observed that students are not equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills warranted by the market. Structured assessments, which are specially designed to realise one’s career destiny, should become a part of the educational culture in India. While different professions demand different skill sets, an emphasis should be placed on embedding key skills that are transferable into the curriculum.”

“In my discussions with several school principals and trustees, they acknowledged the need to combine practical, vocational training with classroom theory and make available more student resources such as our LetsCareerUp.com solution,” he adds.

“LetsCareerUp.com, a flagship of LetsCorp, is an innovative end-to-end career transformation portal linking students and working professionals with academic institutions, training partners and employers. This product is a tool to evaluate students and working professionals and map their career journey according to their skills, competencies, aspirations and innate personality. The goal is to improve employability, placement, retention and employee satisfaction,” says Stephen Jenkins who has a decade experience in high tech and software industry.

“By 2020, we plan to have strong analytics to confirm our end-to-end ecosystem approach. Our core focus upon helping people pursue careers should produce strong job satisfaction, job retention and job satisfaction statistics. With these analytics, our solution can grow rapidly and serve a global audience. We have active engagement with over 250 academic institutions and over 100 employers from diverse industries,” he concludes.