Thursday, 6 August 2020
Wednesday, 5 August 2020
Impact of new education policy on employability
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,” said Malcolm X.
Yet for a long time now the Indian education system was being questioned for its lack of effectiveness. Business leaders struggled to find job-ready talent and job-seekers grappled to find a job where their skills match the demand. But now the future looks promising with a new revised policy in process that aims to focus on the holistic development of the emerging workforce- students.
On Wednesday, July 29th, the Indian government introduced the new education policy which has created multiple debates across the country about the future of the education system in India. This new policy has proposed significant changes in school and higher education.
The National Education Policy, 2020 is meant to provide an overarching vision and comprehensive framework for both school and higher education across the country. Till now, It is only a policy, not a law; implementation of its proposals depends on further regulations by both states and the center as education is a concurrent subject. But if implemented effectively, the policy can help reshape the future of the workforce and help the emerging job seekers become more job-ready.
Among the multiple elements of the policy, some are directly linked to employability. There is no doubt that with a better education system the chances of employment becomes better. But how will the New Education Policy help bridge the job readiness gap? Let’s explore.
Job readiness: An unsolved challenge
Various surveys have suggested that most of the passing graduates don’t feel ready for their first job and they always remain in the dilemma of staying or leaving the job. Freshers are not fully prepared for their working life and lack of proper education is one of the main reasons. Industry-Academia gap is probably the most discussed thing by employers and job seekers.
With the new policy coming in picture, the school and college education will not only be seen as a facilitator of degree but it will be treated as a medium to build personality and it’ll help the students in their holistic professional growth.
When asked how this policy will impact employability in the longer run, RP Yadav, Chairman & Managing Director, Genius Consultants, said, “This policy will be very lucrative, students will be awarded certificates for the completion of every academic year, during graduation. This will encourage them to hone their skills with more confidence, with the backing of a degree, even if they need to leave mid-way due to some issue. Other points like making colleges autonomous, a single governing authority for colleges, inviting top global universities, multi exit and entry for courses will surely favor our student community. All in all, the new policy seems to focus more on skill development over points like just building a good “report card” and hence, will lead to the creation of a more educated and employable Indian population.”
With the NEP 2020, the industry will witness a shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment, which is more competency-based that promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, logical thinking and clarity.
Sumesh Nair, Co-founder of Board Infinity feels that these measures will create a potential workforce in the future. He said, "50% gross enrollment target in higher education and multi disciplinary education are progressive measures towards creating a high potential workforce. Also, making more institutions go autonomous gives the flexibility to decide the curriculum and pedagogy. If we are able to combine this with skill-based education focusing on what the contemporary needs of the industry are, we will be able to create world-class talent in India in pure absolute numbers because of our demographics".
How can NEP help?
Choice Based Credit System & a break from traditional career paths
NEP empowers the future workforce with more flexibility to choose their courses. As the policy says, “There will be no hard separation among ‘curricular’, ‘extracurricular ’, or ‘co-curricular’, among ‘arts’, ‘humanities’, and ‘sciences’, or between ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ streams.” Further to close the gap in achievement of learning outcomes, classroom transactions will shift, towards competency-based learning and education. In addition to all of this NEP will also allow students to accumulate & retain credits which will enable them to continue their learning process from where they had left, in case they discontinue for some reason.
“One of the key aspects that the policy has addressed is the implementation of the Choice Based Credit System- a multi-disciplinary approach which will provide flexibility to students to choose between programs of choice. It is a huge step towards improving the employability of the students in the future,” says Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services.
The flexibility and autonomy now presented to the future workforce will enable them to explore a variety of options and build more relevant and in-demand skills rather than following traditional career paths. However, this emerging workforce will need mentorship, coaching and guidance to ensure that the given flexibility doesn’t lead them to get more lost than before. If implemented effectively, a flexible learning ecosystem will create a more self-driven workforce.
A focus on essential subjects, skills, and capacities relevant for all
In recent times the need for behavioral competencies like resilience, agility, innovation and adaptability in the workforce has increased. From hiring to performance reviews, these skills are always prioritized. The traditional education system lacked the focus on building such competencies but the new policy has increased the scope of learning beyond subject-matters and made learning these skills essential.
In addition to proficiency in languages, these skills include scientific temper and evidence-based thinking; creativity and innovativeness; sense of aesthetics and art; oral and written communication; health and nutrition; physical education, fitness, wellness, and sports; collaboration and teamwork; and problem-solving and logical reasoning, among others.
Additionally, these essential skills also include vocational exposure and skills; digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking. The future workforce shall now be more digital-ready. They already had the advantage of being in the digital era, and now with skills like coding becoming essential to learn, they will further have the edge when it comes to being future-ready.
But how will these skills be taught and what teaching methods should be used by all? Will uniformity of learning methodology be an important element to ensure that each and every student/emerging job seeker gets equal exposure.
Source: People Matters 05 Aug, 2020
Tuesday, 4 August 2020
Sashidhar Jagdishan to replace Aditya Puri as HDFC Bank CEO
Sashidhar Jagdishan will replace outgoing chief Aditya Puri who will step down in October after a 26-year stint at the bank.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on August 4 cleared the name of Sashidhar Jagdishan as the next chief executive officer of HDFC Bank, according to a senior RBI executive who didn’t want to be named. “Jagdishan’s name has been approved,” .
Jagdishan's selection confirms HDFC Bank’s outgoing Chief Aditya Puri’s recent comments that his successor will be an insider. “There has been a lot of talk about the successor not being with us for a long time. Our potential successor has been with us for 25 years. My successor was always in place, at least in my mind. It is now for RBI to decide,” Puri said at the bank’s recent AGM.
Jagdishan is currently serving as the additional director of HDFC Bank and has been with the bank for nearly three decades. Jagdishan served as the Group Head of Finance, Human Resources, Legal & Secretarial, Administration, Infrastructure, Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility.
He joined the bank around 1996 as a Manager in the Finance function, and then went on to become Business Head - Finance in 1999 and Chief Financial Officer in the year 2008.
Jagdishan, along with Kaizad Bharucha, another HDFC Bank senior executive, was among the top three names recommended by the bank to RBI early this year. The third name was Sunil Garg, CEO of Citi Commercial Bank.
Puri’s term is ending in October this year. Paresh Sukthankar, deputy managing director of HDFC Bank and a trusted lieutenant of Puri was seen as a worthy successor to his boss. But Sukthankar surprised the markets by quitting in August 2018, thereby confirming the ensuing hunt for another candidate.
Jagdishan will be taking over at a time when the banking industry is in the middle of a crisis following the onset of Covid-19. About 9 per cent of the HDFC Bank’s loan book is under moratorium as on June 30. The bank has admitted that COVID-19 has already taken a toll on the retail loan book.
“The continued slowdown in economic activity has led to a decrease in retail loan origination, sale of third party products, use of credit and debit cards by customers, efficiency in collection efforts and waivers of certain fees. As a result, fees/other income was lower by approximately Rs 2,000 crore,” the bank said announcing the first quarter results.
In the retail loan portfolio, the auto loan portfolio has shrunk to Rs 81,082 crore from Rs 83,935 crore while the home loan portfolio declined to Rs 62,652 crore from Rs 63,445 crore. Two-wheeler loans shrank to Rs 9,568 crore from Rs 9,855 crore. Clearly, the COVID-19 stress is visible on the books of HDFC Bank.
Also, the successor to Puri is entering at a time the bank is under the shadow of a controversy surrounding auto loan division. There were allegations that the bank’s vehicle financing division flouted rules to sell GPS devices bundled with auto loans. Post an internal investigation, the bank had sacked a few officials. Puri’s successor will have to take steps to send a message to the investors about good corporate governance standards in the bank.
Source : www.moneycontrol.com
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Five reasons why technology needs to become more human
Needless to say that technology is raising people’s
expectations across the board and this is the ideal time to understand the
potential, risks, and opportunities in Humanizing Technology.
Humans are born with emotional intelligence while it’s
easier for AI to suggest what to do when you are feeling low. When John
McCarthy and Marvin Minsky founded Artificial Intelligence in 1956, they were
amazed to witness how a machine could perform incredibly difficult puzzles
quicker than humans.
However, it turns out that teaching Artificial Intelligence
to win a chess match is actually quite easy. What would present challenges
would be teaching a machine what emotions are and how to replicate them.
We are surrounded by technology and it has become so normal
that we don’t even think that we are using tech. We attend weddings,
conferences, birthday parties virtually, cooking using tech, planning our day
with the help of tech and all of this becomes a part of us. In a way, we have
‘humanized technology’. And the fact is it has immense potential and we need to
learn the opportunities and challenges.
As tech becomes more intelligent, it also needs to become
more human friendly. Needless to say that technology is raising people’s
expectations across the board and this is the ideal time to understand the
potential, risks, and opportunities in Humanizing Technology.
Five reasons why
technology needs to become more human:
The distant element that decides whether a technology will
be adopted is not technical at all. The most essential aspect is how well
technology can support our human cognitive capabilities and enhance how we do
things naturally. It needs to be easy-to-understand, convenient,
well-engineered and optimized around people and their habits.
Convenience:
Consumers are affected by information overload. They want personalized, quick,
and easy access to the information or results that are relevant to their
specific situation.
Emotive:
Technology is cold and flat, humans are not. They like to be vivid and varied.
A Performance Management System can incorporate visuals or graphic
representations of current status, as opposed to a box that asks you for
percentage completion. Engagement can mean more than surveys and focus-group
discussions. You can sense the pulse of an employee every day if you use simple
means of gauging their state of mind through mood polls, emoticon-selection
techniques, behavior during work.
Simplification:
Technology is supposed to reduce the complexity of our daily lives, which is
partly caused by technology itself. Advancing technology will continue to help
it become more human-oriented to help us to simplify, assess, and filter.
Experience &
Integration: Technology makes it possible to access personal, relevant
content and take action when and where we need to. Companies should foster such
a culture that supports employees to maintain their work-life balance and
monitor their health and well-being with the help of technology.
Inclusion: The
speed at which technology is advancing bears the risk of excluding less
tech-savvy people from its benefits. For example, people who don’t know how to
operate a search engine, smartphones, or apps, will have difficulties to access
information that may be relevant for them. But, tech companies like Google,
Cisco, Facebook, and others are trying to customize the technology for the new
entrants and making it easily accessible.
Going forward, we need to continue the moderate pace of
humanizing the technology; it will require more up-gradation to continue the
collaboration between humans and technology, especially in the field of work.
Source: People Matters 22 July, 2020
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