Definitely out of sync

Updated on: Monday, August 31, 2009

What is being taught in schools and colleges doesn’t match the skills that businesses are looking for in new recruits in countries like India, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says a new global study.

Recently released by Edexcel, the study that, according to IANS reports, focuses on five of the world’s fastest growing economies — India, China, Brazil, South Africa and the UAE, says that there is a “remarkable mismatch between what is being taught in schools, colleges and universities and the knowledge and skills businesses and organisations are looking for in new recruits, even in India.”

According to the study there is a major disconnect between businesses and vocational education with students feeling that their educational qualifications lacked relevance to the jobs they were hoping to apply for. With evidence that the relative demand for technically/vocationally qualified candidates in India had fallen over the last decade, the report stated that this was largely due to the quality of training provided which was poor.

Quoting a 2006 World Bank report for India saying only “one in every five school-leavers (secondary pass-outs) had the necessary skill to get a job and the figures for university graduates were one in four”, the report stressed that while “provisions for education were expanding rapidly in India, it was often at the expense of quality, relevance and value.”

Reports from IANS said that the study emphasised the point that quality and methods of assessment in vocational education lacked accuracy and relevance and that knowledge and skills taught in professional and education courses were outdated by the time the student reached the workplace.

Definitely out of sync

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