Quality and employability of graduates questionable: Tharoor

Drawing attention towards the gap in vocational and university education, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said the quality and employability of majority of Indian graduates is questionable.
"At present, frankly, the quality and employability of the vast majority of our graduates are both, questionable," Tharoor said during his address at the launch of IT-ITeS industry body NASSCOM's occupational analysis report.
The minister further said: "I have spoken to CEOs, who feel that once you get beyond the top institutions, the graduates they hire from the rest need a year's training and I don't mean on-job training, which any big company would do. But, actual education to make up for the deficiencies."

Tharoor said that it is a very crucial period for India and reports like that by NASSCOM shows that companies target entry level jobs amongst others.
"I think institutions must make note of the findings and impart training so that graduates are ready to be absorbed into the industry workforce without additional time consuming and expenses training," he added.
The view is to focus on developing ready-to-deploy talent with the standards of skill requirement for IT-BPM industry. These requirements entail defining consistent standards of performance and quality and stabilising recruitment procedures, Tharoor said.

Targeting this gap, AICTE chairman S S Mantha said the government is setting up community colleges across the country to provide vocational education in a quasi-university environment.

"The government is setting up 120 community colleges by next year, of which 70 would be on lines of polytechnic and 50 would impart education related to Arts, Science and commerce," Mantha said.
These colleges will impart vocational education to the youth to prepare them for the job requirement demanded by the industries, he added.