Kolkata: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and writer warned that jobs were scarce and degrees were abundant and if this mismatch continued many qualified graduates would end up jobless. An alumnus of St. Xavier’s School, Kolkata from 1969 to 1971, Tharoor stressed the need to identify the actual demand for engineers, advocates, medical, legal and high technology service industries before increasing or decreasing “seats for these in our institutes” to close this skill gap.
Tharoor was delivering the convocation address at St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata on Saturday, July 27. "I am sure this won’t be a problem for the graduates I am addressing today at St Xavier’s University. But you must be aware of the broader national picture,” Tharoor said. “Some 60 per cent of our engineers for instance find themselves in jobs that do not require an engineering degree, and I am not even counting those engineers who get no jobs at all. We are releasing graduates into an ecosystem that does not know how to use them: they settle for a constable post as an alternative”, he said.
“You don’t create graduates for the real world without knowing what the real world wants… Too many of our graduates are overqualified for the jobs available. For the talent we have, we don’t seem to know what to do with it.” Father Felix Raj, the Vice-Chancellor of St Xavier’s University, presented a report where he spoke in detail about the activities of the university in the last one year. The university gave postgraduate degrees to 135 students at the convocation held on the New Town campus. Father congratulated all the degree awardees.
“This is a historical moment for us and the students who received the degrees on this occasion will be remembered for years to come. They are the first fruits of this tree (university) and I thank the entire university community that has helped to build this great institution… St Xavier’s University, Kolkata, is just a two-year-old infant, but it has already taken great strides by contributing towards knowledge creation,” said Father Felix Raj.
Tharoor said that almost half of the country’s population was under 25 and approximately 65 per cent
under 35. As a young and productive workforce, Indian graduates are primed to take over the world, not only India's but the international society's greatest challenges. Tharoor said that “how to think” was far more important than “what to think” and the big successes in life were those who were able to think out of the box and to think beyond what was in the textbook. “…The big examination called life has a habit of asking you questions for which you couldn’t prepare answers from a textbook,” he said. Tharoor said he was looking forward to the New Education Policy aimed to create a new approach to education in the country.
Tharoor was delivering the convocation address at St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata on Saturday, July 27. "I am sure this won’t be a problem for the graduates I am addressing today at St Xavier’s University. But you must be aware of the broader national picture,” Tharoor said. “Some 60 per cent of our engineers for instance find themselves in jobs that do not require an engineering degree, and I am not even counting those engineers who get no jobs at all. We are releasing graduates into an ecosystem that does not know how to use them: they settle for a constable post as an alternative”, he said.
“You don’t create graduates for the real world without knowing what the real world wants… Too many of our graduates are overqualified for the jobs available. For the talent we have, we don’t seem to know what to do with it.” Father Felix Raj, the Vice-Chancellor of St Xavier’s University, presented a report where he spoke in detail about the activities of the university in the last one year. The university gave postgraduate degrees to 135 students at the convocation held on the New Town campus. Father congratulated all the degree awardees.
“This is a historical moment for us and the students who received the degrees on this occasion will be remembered for years to come. They are the first fruits of this tree (university) and I thank the entire university community that has helped to build this great institution… St Xavier’s University, Kolkata, is just a two-year-old infant, but it has already taken great strides by contributing towards knowledge creation,” said Father Felix Raj.
Tharoor said that almost half of the country’s population was under 25 and approximately 65 per cent
under 35. As a young and productive workforce, Indian graduates are primed to take over the world, not only India's but the international society's greatest challenges. Tharoor said that “how to think” was far more important than “what to think” and the big successes in life were those who were able to think out of the box and to think beyond what was in the textbook. “…The big examination called life has a habit of asking you questions for which you couldn’t prepare answers from a textbook,” he said. Tharoor said he was looking forward to the New Education Policy aimed to create a new approach to education in the country.
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