India 2030: Vision of assessments in creating a skilled nation
As per the Population Foundation of India, the average age of India’s population is between 28 to 29 years. Over 62% of our population is between 15 and 59 years of age. The data is clearly indicative that our demographic dividend is the cornerstone of our present and future economic growth. However, presently it’s facing a unique challenge. It is confronted by a global economy undergoing a never-before churn, thanks to a trio of the pandemic (now morphing into an endemic), the Great Resignation and Digitalization. Thus, we are witnessing an AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data-driven economy where new skills are being created, few others are fast becoming obsolete, and the definitions of a few have evolved. Furthermore, the reconceptualization of ‘work and workplaces’ is also underway. All this poses an important question: do our youth have the employable skills required to respond to a perpetually evolving economic landscape?
Skills Gap
As per the World Economic Forum Report, unemployment rate in India in 2020 increased to 23% from 10.4%. One of the key reasons for this conundrum is the employability skills gap. It was observed that skills imparted to our youth during college education become obsolete by the time they enter the industry. McKinsey Global Survey 2020 also reported - 92% of Indians agree that there is a skill gap regarding employability.
From a global perspective, the World Economic Forum Report, launched in October 2020, stated that 40% of employees would need to learn new skills in the coming years and would be expected to perform distinct roles within the company.
Additionally, around 94% of business leaders expect their employees to acquire new skills on the job. The takeaway is unambiguous that if India wishes to establish itself as a skilled nation in the future, it must invest in skilling, reskilling and upskilling of its youth.
Assessments - Current Status
But how do we begin and take the first steps? To begin with, we need to establish and standardize the meaning of talent in the current climate. A framework needs to be put in place to assess talent—scientifically, authentically and credibly. A synergy needs to exist between mapping talent and its assessment. In the current context, talent is defined either as digital competency, communication skills or business agility. Assessments are defined and done basis this.
Vision for Future Assessments | Key Themes
Going forward, assessments will be defined as mapping a journey of learning, un-learning and re-learning to respond to the unprecedented changes occurring in the workplace. The purpose will be to gauge the gaps between existing and employable skills.
Foresight will be required to pinpoint the skills that would evolve, skills that would come up and skills that have an expiry date. Clarity on the problem statement and an actionable strategy without assessing the youth’s existing skills level is not possible. We must base our education policy and framework on them, focusing on educating our youth on practical and applicable competencies rather than merely cracking exams.
Our universities need to implement a cycle of monitoring continuous progress, which are assessments enabled, whose data can provide insights on what is working and what is not. We can neither evaluate nor implement strategies and processes without them. It is also crucial to establish a baseline to understand the value that our educational institutions add in developing the skills in various stages and cycles. But, again, this is not possible without regular assessments.
Additionally, our youth will require customized learning and skilling plans to keep up with constant technological changes in the economy. Here, we can employ assessments to ascertain the gaps in youth's skills and plug them accordingly.
Assessment data can help assessors align their learning objectives, assessment evidence and teaching-learning strategies. Furthermore, they can analyze their instruction quality and introspect on their practices to make the necessary amends to better suit them to the current learning demands.
Role of Mercer | Mettl
Assessments are already the bedrock of GOI’s skilling initiatives, such as PMGDisha (Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan) and NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation). Mercer | Mettl has been a key partner in both.
Besides IT/ITeS SSC (sector skills council), Mercer | Mettl has partnered with 25 other SSCs -Aerospace and Aviation, Agriculture, Automotive, BFSI, Electronics, Healthcare, Logistics, Telecom, Retail, Hospitality, etc. since 2014 and has successfully assessed and skilled 25 lakh youth till date.
As we step into 2022, we must aim to build an agile, digitally-ready workforce for the new world. Authentic, meaningful assessments should be the foundation that drives our education policy, vision, digital infrastructure development and curriculum planning. However, with changing times, offering memory-based assessments that only evaluate students’ ability to memorize content is not enough. Instead, we need to develop critical thinking, communication, information management and problem-solving skills that assume significance at the university level and in different work situations.
‘Change’ will be the only constant in the digital economies of the world. Hence, this will be an era of lifelong learning, equally for our youth and teachers/assessors. But what to learn and how to learn? The answer to these questions lies in assessments.
Written by Siddhartha Gupta CEO, Mercer |Mettl