CMA 44th Foundation Year Event held at Hotel Shivalik View

Unemployability is a concern today: Preneet Kaur

Union minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur has said that a major problem facing the country in a highly competitive environment today is not unemployment but unemployability of our youth.Addressing a gathering, comprising mostly of students, during an interaction on “Human Capital and Skills Development for Economic Growth – Challenges and Opportunities” organized by the women wing of the Chandigarh Management Association (CMA) in its 44th Foundation Year here on Friday, the minister said therefore we need to pay greater attention to human resources development and equip our youth with the knowledge and skills for better performance.
To prepare our youth for the competition in the national and global markets, we need active involvement of all the stakeholders – academia, industry and the government.

“We will have to ensure that the graduates, even engineers and others, when they come out of the colleges, are not only polished in their academic skills, but have various other skills to be acceptable to the corporate world.

She said a recent Planning Commission report has estimated that by 2020 India needs to generate 200 million jobs, including 120 million jobs in the service sector which has emerged as the major engine of economic growth and employment generation.

“The most significant change that we witness today is the rapid shift from the agricultural economies and manufacturing to the service sector and from capital resources to human resources and knowledge resources. In most economies of the world, employment has also been shifting from the sectors that produce goods (agriculture and industry) to the service producing sectors.”

Preneet Kaur said “We all know that the character and strength of a nation is invariably tied up with the quality and attributes of its citizens. We have seen that industrialized countries with limited natural endowments like Japan, Germany Switzerland, and South Korea have emerged and achieved spectacular economic growth on the strength and ingenuity of their human assets.”

“On the other hand, there are countries that are well endowed with natural resources but have failed to capitalise on their wealth. These countries have failed to develop effectively their human resources to capitalise on their natural wealth. Human assets are much more valuable than material or financial assets.”

“There is no doubt that our youth, today, are our biggest asset and if we do not make them into fine Human Capital, we will be guilty of wasting this precious human resources. The Planning Commission’s estimates show that more than 80 per cent of Indian workforce does not have skills consistent with job market requirements. The skill gap is a key factor for India not being able to develop a diversified and competitive export manufacturing base.”

Mrs Preneet Kaur also released a booklet which spells out the roadmap on the subject of the interaction “Human Capital and Skills Development for Economic Growth – Challenges and Opportunities” (attached).

Among those present were Dr. Gulshan Sharma, President, CMA, Mr Neeraj Pasricha, Vice President, Dr Mrs Uma Vasudeva, Chairperson, Women Wing, and Mr J N Vohra, Secretary General of the CMA.

Several senior citizens of the tricity who have contributed immensely to their growth and development were honoured on the occasion. They included; Sh Nek Chand, Mr. M.N.Sharma, Maj Gen. Rajendra Nath, Brig K.S. Chandpuri, Dr. T.S.Mahant, Col. A.B.Singh (Posthumously), Air Marshal R.S.Bedi, Mr. Kamal Tiwari, Mr. Sathi, Ms. Dolly Guleria, Mrs Promilla Chandermohan, Dr. D.S. Jatana,