A focused approach in education helps students enhance their chances of employability and prepares them from an early age for the career landscape. With the fast-changing dynamics of the job market and spiralling competition, a simple college graduate has negligible chances of securing a job despite his merit. Today, the industry is so fast paced that in order to land a job one needs to have a sound knowledge of how the industry functions.

The current education system does not fully equip the students with skills required by the industry at present or in the future. The diverse industry segments require people with diverse specialisations to meet the business needs and requirements. Today’s increasingly globalised workplace calls for highly specialised and skilled workforce and therefore, it has become imperative to equip the youth with the right kinds of skills-set so that can adapt to newly emerging job roles and demands.

The banking and finance industry in India is evolving rapidly along with the economy and is making its presence felt globally. This industry is a crucial growth sector, indicative of the country’s growth. Skill development in the banking and financial programmes for graduates has to have a practical pedagogy where learning can be enhanced through field-visits, e-learning modules, industry driven projects, digital or video inputs which will make the learning interesting and fun and help them develop a skill gradually in the course of time.

For students particularly in the banking and financial sector, a comprehensive skill development program to equip students’ with the understanding of crucial programs like the CFP Certification Program which is strategic for advice on investments, insurance, tax, retirement and real estate planning. The other is PROBE (Professional Banking Executive Program) which covers crucial banking areas like banking channels, payment modes, accounting areas and bank’s third party products. The next crucial course is BSO Program (Bank Sales Officers), it teaches students to manage presentation skills, league skills, team building areas and others which helps them promote sales of different product offerings by the banks.

In India, this need is more profound as it has the largest youth population standing at 28 million youths. More than 50 percent of its population is below the age of 25 years while 65 percent of the population are aged below of 35 years. In the present context of globalisation, the demand for skilled and multi-skilled workers has increased rapidly. Therefore, in the context of developing countries like India, there is a critical need for quality skill development and training across sectors.

To transform India into the skill capital of the world, the school curriculum will need to undergo a sea change in due course. Integration of skill development and education is essential for skilling to develop and nurture as it cannot be done in isolation as it needs to be imparted also through schools besides just academics. The induction of skill development in school curriculum will also enable the students to learn what vocation is as per his/her liking. In the Indian population scenario there is acute need for training the young workforce which has talent but lack of knowledge for the same. Apart from this, introducing the students to some employable skills will also help them prepare and adapt to real work situations without much effort. The transition ease from student to a professional will be easier.

Also, with respect to skill development, we need to follow a bottom-up approach rather than top-bottom approach because in the latter, the policies are formulated at the top rungs and implemented at the grassroots level without much awareness about the grassroots levels whereas in the former approach, the policies are designed keeping in mind the ground realities and situations that need quick attention.

Authored by Santosh Joshi, CEO – BankEdge