Be Skilled Be Relevant Contest: 15 Commendable Entries

Rizaul Karim, Senior Manager-Assessment, Quibus Technologies (P) Limited.

Skill Development means developing yourself and your skill sets to add value for the organization and for your own career development. Fostering an attitude of appreciation for lifelong learning is the key to workplace success. Continuously learning and developing one’s skills requires identifying the skills needed for industry. Developing your skills begins with assessing which skills are important for your desired career development. The core aim of Skills Development is to address the disparity of wealth, promote economic growth and achieve social development goals. This element supports Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic Learning programs.

The positive knock-on effects of these programs are set to achieve professional placements, work-integrated learning programs, apprenticeships, learnerships as well as internships, which are critical to economic growth and development. Focus is placed on encouraging the support of skills development initiatives, with an emphasis on developing skills as well as career paths to support the creation of employment.

Roshani Thakkar, RAC Retainer, Laurus Edutech

Skills and knowledge development are the driving forces behind the financial growth and community development of any country. Skill building is a powerful tool to empower individuals and improve their social acceptance. It must be complemented by economic growth and employment opportunities to meet the rising aspirations of youth.

As India targets to becoming a global economic powerhouse, it needs to equip its workforce with employable skills and knowledge to make India a developed economy. India is today one of the youngest nations in the world with more than 62% of the population in the working age group (15-59 years), and it is expected that in the next 20 years, the labour force in the industrialized world will decline by 4%, while in India it will increase by 32%.

In today’s age of globalization and technological volatility, skill building is an important instrument to increase the efficiency and quality of labour for improved productivity and economic growth.

Beyond the economic benefits of skills development, there are also enormous personal benefits. They will be able to consider things that never seemed possible before – new ideas, new job opportunities, the chance to get out of poverty – and achieve new levels of personal success. Skills development is the first step in the journey of further education and training

Prof T A K Sritharan, Laurus Edutech Life Skills Pvt. Ltd.

Being skilled is one of the best ways to hone your competency wherever you seek opportunities- be it a job or an educational programme. So, what exactly do you mean by being skilled? Often a labourer is considered to be skilled if he has the relevant qualification and eligibility to do a technical job at hand. But, on a broader aspect, this could include your soft skills, your skill to smile at others and build interpersonal relationships, to impress upon people, to identify a problem or an opportunity, to take decisions timely, to sharpen the skills you already possess, to acquire the attitude to learn new skills, so on and so forth. This is how you become relevant in a community, your presence would be much sought after in the industry and the academia.

Often, most of these skills are not included in your elementary education, especially in a country like India, where people lament about population explosion on one side and boast of the highest magnitude of ‘young talents’ on the other side. It is high time India included this as a prime academic concern so that the country witnesses a more promising, relevant and talented entrepreneur, professional, government servant etc. in the next generation.