Letters: Skill-based education

The new Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "Employment is not the only objective of education, building life skills and personality development are also important."

The galloping rate at which graduates are mass produced by universities is one of the reasons for a young workforce in organisations today. However, our education system is one-dimensional and lays emphasis on scoring marks, not on acquiring skills required for jobs.

The skill profile of the modern day employee has changed radically - organisations prefer hiring people with multiple skills: a good team player who is able to take initiative, has leadership quality, is flexible, adaptable and creative.

New policymakers should review the situation and reorient the education system to bridge the gap between demand and supply of employable graduates.

Also, since today's young workforce suffers from work-related stress more than their predecessors, the new education policy should include a course on tackling this problem. This way, they would be in a better place to balance their work and life responsibilities and be happy.

T S Karthik, Chennai

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