Vocational Education in India - Next Blockbuster or Dud?

Historically, the Indian subcontinent, which covers the modern day Pakistan, India & Bangladesh, had its own system of education. Some say, they had the best system of the time, while some others, as usual, disagree. One thing is sure, in the historical entity called India, there were many avenues of learning. And this learning process not only included the teaching of Vedas or Economics or Jurisprudence etc. but also included different trades, so vital for the effective running of a society. The education systems of those era, not only concentrated on creating white collar professionals by teaching the Nyay or Niti-shastras, but also produced workmen. A person, who wanted to be a carpenter or a soldier or a blacksmith, could learn the art of their chosen trade through their Gurus - that too, theoretically as well as practically, through apprenticeship, and the society accepted this as the general practice. It's true that a person with knowledge of all the Vedas, Niti, Nyay and economic theories would be revered by the society. But that did not mean that the carpenter or the blacksmith or the masons were looked down upon as being part of lower strata. This ensured the rise of the Indian kingdoms, which in turn gave rise to the stories of their legendary wealth. On hindsight, these stories of richness attracted the attention of many groups of people, who, although not as sophisticated or civilized as the locals, definitely had better martial skills.
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Over the centuries, the region has been invaded by numerous groups, some of whom assimilated with the locals while others chose to retain their distinct identities. These people also brought along themselves, new beliefs, new systems and of course a different social structure. This melting pot of a country or sub-continent, thus developed a mixed system of beliefs, religions, social practices and over the ages, the dignity of labour was forgotten.
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Cut to current day India. An India, which has grown at a blistering pace over the last 20 years. A country, which has one of the largest talent pools - in terms of number of persons within the working age - and despite that there is a scarcity of employable candidates in almost all the fields. Now, isn't that a bit confusing? On one hand, we have the largest talent pool and on the other, we are not being able to effectively feed the hunger of industry's ever-increasing requirement of the manpower. This can only mean that either the industrial growth has been too high and as such the manpower requirements cannot be met from within the country or that our education system simply does not produce the skilled manpower that the industry is looking for. As we know that our growth-rate or actual growth hasn't been that high, so the only answer would lead us to accept the shortcomings of our education system, which, according to an industry veteran, teaches us to play Cricket, while the industry demands that we should be good in Baseball. You'll have to add to it the perception of social status among a large section of India's population.
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I was earlier talking about the great education systems of yesteryear, but can I claim the same for our present systems too? The answer is a plain and simple "No".

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If we look in to our education system, we'll find it to be divided in to pre-schools/KG/pre-primary, Primary, Secondary & Higher Secondary and Tertiary sections. Out of these, pre-schools are mostly in private hands and the Government's real intervention starts from the Primary Education. In these divisions, where does Vocational Education & Training (VET) fit in? The best fit would be to introduce vocational education parallely along Secondary & Higher Secondary and may be allowed to continue up to the Graduation. Of course, professional and technical education run along a different track on a separate plane altogether. This would have solved the problem faced by numerous "educationally qualified" but unemployed, as well as unemployable youths.
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Let's take the real life example of a person, who had cleared 10th standard with 41% marks and enrolled in the 10+2 Arts stream. He cleared the Higher Secondary examination too, but with a similar 43% marks and then enrolled in B.A. with Bengali, Political Science and Philosophy. In due course of time, he graduated with 42% marks and then started looking for a job.
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A couple of very valid questions then arose regarding his employable skills and those questions are valid even today for thousands of youth like him. What kind of job is this guy fit for? And, where is the scope for practical application of whatever he had studied/learned for 15 years?
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Unfortunately, this person, who had been one year my senior, has remained unemployed till date. In his case, the degrees obtained were merely for decorative purposes, so that his parents and family could claim that he is a graduate. The Indian psyche would still rate this "good for nothing" educational qualification as higher than that of a classmate who had enrolled in an Industrial Training Center (ITI) and earns five figure salary per month working as an automobile mechanic!
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Luckily for us, the situations have started to change at last, although the rate of change is way too slow. The ruling powers at both the center, as well as the states have or at least claim to have understood the importance of vocational training and have come forward with active support in terms of resources as well as creating an atmosphere that is conducive for such training and education. Suddenly, there has been a bevy of activities in this "supposedly" lucrative market segment in India and every Tom, Dick & Harry are coming up with a vocational education division. This may actually backfire and may result in people losing whatever faith they have in these training programs. Many of these companies also have some kind of tie-up with either the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) or some state government department(s). But the unrealistic target that they quote in terms of number of youths to be trained within a certain time period, makes one wonder about the long term ramifications.
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My personal experience tells me that no amount of Government subsidies or grants can ensure the success of the vocational education & training initiatives till the mindsets of the population are changed to accept the vocational qualifications as at par with the traditional degrees when it comes to deciding the social status. But, for that to happen, the entire primary education system, including the teaching methods, need to be overhauled completely. Moreover, the recruitment process for teachers should also be made free of the political considerations. But, in India, no one will seriously believe that such a thing could happen overnight. The Government can also help in this regard by designing courses/degrees which will be equivalent to the traditional ones.
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May be, the best bet for the vocational education & training would be to continue working with the same zeal and the results will start to show 5 years down the line. Its a long term business proposition in India. If the companies are there to make a quick buck, then they should rethink their position & goals and should take an informed decision whether they are in the right business or not.
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Ultimately, the success or otherwise of vocational education in India will depend on the seriousness of the training providers, quality of training being provided, a positive push from the Government's side and the perception of the general population, especially the middle class, about the vocational degree, diploma and certifications. By 2016-17, it should be clear to us whether we have been able to bridge the targeted gap or not.

Sexing Up the CV - An Indian perspective

Just the other day, I came across a message in an HR forum, posted by a lady who presumably works in an IT company. She had a major cribbing point about the background checks done by different IT companies and the resultant actions taken on the rogue employees. Continuing her whining, she tried her best to justify putting false credentials & experiences in the CV - which brings us to the point of trying to understand the general perception among employees in India about the practice of "window dressing" or "sexing up" the CV.
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Unfortunately, in a country like India, where corruption is omnipresent, candidates, especially at the entry level, do not think much about incorporating false information about a skill, a certification or diploma or work experience if that helps them in bagging the coveted offer. They would then hope that the falsification(s) would not be detected by the prospective employer and that they will get away with it. Over a period of time, these lies can get accumulated and may create a semblance of a profile which would invariably be as different as chalk and cheese from the real competence of the person.
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Going back to the post of "our lady in the HR Forum", the shocking part is the brazen manner in which she has tried to justify this unethical conduct. From my personal experience and inputs received from my professional acquaintances, this brazenness is reflective of the general perception of Indian professionals!
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A study by Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR) during the first few years of the century had revealed that the phenomenon of fake CVs was not just restricted to the software industry. It was also prevalent in other sectors like ITeS, BFSI, Retail etc. They also pointed out that Rs. 400 crores had been spent by Indian companies for filling 200,000 jobs a year in those sectors and 10-12% of the selected candidates had submitted false information in their CVs, leading to a huge waste in recruitment costs alone. Since then, this figure has been on the rise year on year. According to The Risk Advisory Group (TRAG), 65% of CVs submitted in 2007 contained false information, a rise of 16% on the previous year’s amount. The latest research figures suggest that as many as 3 in 4 people, i.e. a whopping 75% of candidates, deviate from the truth on their CV, mostly about qualifications, job description & period of employment and salary.
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What's more interesting, is the perception of most of the candidates towards the crime being committed. Most of them lie in their CV because they think that everyone else does it and hence, to remain competitive, they must do it too. The general perception is that the sexing the CV or windowdressing are ‘harmless’ and the benefits of lying far outweigh the risks of being caught.
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According to TRAG, women in their early 30s were the biggest culprits, with 77 per cent of resumes containing some kind of untruth. Even among the statistically most honest group, men in their early 20s, half of all CVs featured misleading information.
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Another company, which specializes in background verification services and screens over 3,000 candidates per quarter, said that job seekers misled firms over everything from gaps in employment to fraud committed against previous employers. The most common inaccuracies were in employment history, with 55 per cent of candidates inventing a more impressive career. A further 36 per cent lied about their qualifications. While many of the discrepancies are simple errors of omission, around one in ten are more serious, viz. failure to disclose criminal convictions, fraud against previous employers or even terrorist links.
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Although exaggeration is widespread, outright lies can lead to a doomed career as it’s not so much a moral issue as a legal one. If a candidate is offered a job on the back of information contained in her/his CV that the employer believes to be correct, then the employer is legally entitled to withdraw the job offer or sack the employee without prior notice if they discover that the CV contains false information. So employees found guilty of lying can lose their job and worse still, receive a reference that refers to the reason why!
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An ex-colleague's case is a classic example of this. We used to work in the same division, although in different profiles and he had been with the company for a far longer period than myself. During the last quarter of 2010, he received a good offer from an MNC with around 40% hike in the salary. He did not even bother to serve the notice period and joined the new company within a short period of time. One month down the line, he was begging our VP to get his old job back. As I knew someone in the other organization, I came to know the reason behind this. There was a discrepancy in his Graduation degree and so the MNC had withdrawn the offer. He was out of job for the next 8-9 months before joining a much smaller and downmarket organization with a lower salary than his previous job. I would still say that he has been lucky enough to get another chance, but there have been instances when the companies, especially in the IT & ITeS sectors, have sacked employees en masse on integrity issues or candidates even ending up in prison on forgery charges.
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The combined effect of all these have seen the birth of a new industry vertical in itself - that of companies specializing in Background Checking services. While many bigger organizations outsource background checking to these companies, even the ones which do not, are wising up to applicants' lies and doing more checks than before. Even industry bodies like National Association Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) have initiated efforts like National Skill Registry (NSR) in order to counter this ever growing menace.
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After being in the industry for a decade, it is crystal clear to me that if someone does not want to destroy her career, she should not resort to lying in her CV. There are ways of promoting a profile and making them look attractive to the prospective companies without resorting to lies. If one is gifted with words and expressions, one can do that herself. Else, one can always hire a professional CV writer. That really works. And, without having to jeopardize one's career prospect by lying.

Myspace.com - From $580 million to $35 million

When Justin Timberlake & Specific Media LLC bought Myspace.com, reportedly at $35 million, I was really curious to know as to what went wrong with the company. After all, it had been acquired by News Corp. at a whopping $580 million only 6 years ago. Even that amount comes across as a paltry sum when compared with its peak valuation in 2007, a cool $12 billion!
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Since its inception in 2003, Myspace had been leading the social media sites pack till March 2008. The following month, Facebook overtook it in the number of unique world wide visitors. It took Facebook another year or so to overtake Myspace in the USA rankings. Since then, it has been a downward spiral with no sign of a turnaround for the company to which many a widget or accessories providers like YouTube, Flickr, Zynga, RockYou!, Slide.com etc. owe their successes to. In fact, now a days, one can access Myspace with a Facebook ID! They are trying to position themselves as a complimentary service to Facebook instead of being a competitor.
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So, what went wrong with the first real behemoth in the social media field?
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There are many explanations and counter-explanations. But, as an early user of both Myspace & Facebook, I have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly sides of both. Myspace came across as too dependent on music & entertainment, that too, probably heavily tilted towards the tastes of a USA-centric audience. While Facebook, which initially looked cumbersome, added newer features, games, better security etc. to provide the users a whole "social media" experience, Myspace chose to remain largely the same, without caring for innovations.
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Moreover, Myspace had tied up with Google for a consideration of $900 million which enabled Google to serve ads based on Google Ad-sense. While this provided cash inflow for Myspace, it actually resulted in further slowing down of the site. At the same time, Facebook had been providing a clean, fast loading home page, which added with the offerings from different widget providers, further enhanced its appeal. At the same time, Myspace decided to do everything themselves and in trying to do that, spread themselves too thin instead of developing around the core idea of social networking.
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Security vulnerability was another negative aspect. Myspace was viewed as less secured than Facebook, which indeed was true to a large extent. The publicised incidents of cyber stalking & identity theft further dented its credentials. Ironically, this can happen in any social networking site.
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Probably, the last nail in Myspace's coffin was hit by its targeted user groups themselves. The "Myspace parties", where adolescent users organized parties and chose to spread the news over Myspace, leading to creation of law & order situations & even death of a teenager, created an overall negative perception among the prospective users. Myspace was being viewed by many as a part of the underground social network. While Facebook has been successful in attracting users from all age groups - young and the old alike, Myspace could not attract the older users and its appeal was more or less limited to the 13 years to 24 years age group.
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All these factors, combined together, led to a downfall in the fortunes of the very first truly successful social networking site. While many others started with the Myspace model in mind and then gradually redefined and reinvented themselves depending on the market responses, Myspace failed to change itself with the changing times and ultimately, has become an also-ran today with a user base of around 30 million unique users. The way its fortunes have nosedived, it will be nothing less than a miracle if the present owners - piggybacking on Justin Timberlake's popularity, to some extent - can turn things around. Till then, its fate has been signed and sealed. Just like the Myspace User ID and Password, that I have forgotten over the years, it has been all but removed from the average users' memory.