Staff Reporter
Livingstone Foundation International College (LFIC) organised a valedictory programme for the two-day national seminar on “integrating skill development programmes in higher education”, sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) – NERC here, Friday.
Addressing the gathering at the valedictory programme, guest of honor, additional commissioner, Central GST Dimapur, Sashi Wapang Lanu (Indian Revenue Service) stated that at present, India had an unemployment rate of around 9%.
He lamented that the state had the highest unemployment rate in India at around 25% and that its nearest competitor was Lakshadweep at 13% and Andaman and Nicobar Islands with 12%, which were very small island union territories.
Pointing out that all North Eastern states had low unemployment rates, he questioned why the state’s labor market had not expanded itself in proportion to the increased education in the state and if the people were only chasing after certain kinds of “jobs”.
Sashi also questioned if there were gaps between institutions of learning and needs of industry or whether the graduates were lacking in employability skills.
Maintaining that the answer to all these questions would be affirmative, he talked about “The Nagaland Vision 2030”, a document released by the state government which gave a vision of how development in the state would take place in the next decade.
In the document, he said that in case of employment, it arrived at a figure of about 9,500 numbers of educated unemployed without opportunities every year being produced which was in addition to existing number of people on the register of employment exchanges, approximately standing at around 70,000.
In this regard, he stated that many young people seeking jobs were expected to have skills beyond their educational degree and that they normally found this out during their first job interview.
Sashi said that this was when they realise educational degrees were merely helping one qualify to apply for a job.
“Potential employers are looking for achievements beyond your subject area. Employers want you to have good communication skills, good at problem solving, a team person, tech savvy, have digital skills, have soft skills” he stated. He also stated that employability skills were something beyond qualification of education as it meant knowing how to use your knowledge, skills and attitude.
