COPE

Background: 
India with the population of 1.2 billion, 17.5 per cent of the global population as on March 20112 has a potential "demographic dividend"; its millions of young people could be some of the major global consumers of the coming decades but only if they get the right education and work. However the fact is that 30 lakh graduate’s join the Indian job market every year of which only around 5 lakh are considered employable. Few of the sectors which are facing acute manpower shortage are IT, BFSI, pharma, healthcare, infrastructure, retail, auto and consumer durables. By 2025, India’s demographic dividend is expected to raise upto 25% of global workforce. This reflects the magnitude and significance of the skill Gap challenge that India is facing. 4

India has 40% of population below 25 years, of which only 5% of total workforce is skilled, in comparison to 85% in South East Asian Countries. Of 500 million (approx.) workforces in India, only 9% is engaged in the organized sector and only 5% have marketable skills. It is predicted that the largest share of new jobs would come from the unorganized sector, which also accounts for most of national workforce. The National Sample Survey reports states that only about 2% have received formal vocational training and 8% received non-formal vocational training. (CII and City and Guilds Summit).

In order to make the growth inclusive and opportunity provider for majority of India’s young people, skill gaps in informal sector needs to be closed with utmost efficacy by addressing these gaps. The Indian Confederation of Industries (CII) is conducting analysis of skill needs in various high growth sectors and already has completed a number of studies which confirm that skills gaps in employability, soft, technical, and English language skills are extensive and are found at all levels of enterprises – from entry level to professional and upper levels and with all levels of education –basic through university. This finding is echoed by World Economic Forum’s Global Talent Mobility report. 

Thus, the major skill gaps are uneven manpower distribution across the employment sectors and poor employability/ soft skills amongst youths. The latent reason behind this skill gap is lack of awareness about employment industries leading to incongruent aspiration mapping and absence of soft skills training which pre requisite for sustaining in any job are.

In order to address this issue, Besides soft/ employability skills training the other vital thing is to introduce education and career counseling as a significant part in adolescent engagement programs since the same goes hand in hand for right career choice. 

About UDGS career counseling & personality enhancement model [ COPE ] : To contribute its bit in filling the existing skill gap in country’s economy, UDGS proposes counseling and personality enhancement model (Henceforth referred as COPE) for adolescents and youths. This program model will addressing the major concerns related to skill gaps in India, viz; Counseling for informed decision making and soft / employability skills training. The objectives of proposed model are as follows;

1. To provide opportunities to the youths for taking informed decision about their career.
2. To provide soft/ employability skills training to the youths for their personality enhancement.

The program would envisage holistic learning and personality grooming of the community youths by providing information about market employability potentials against their aspiration and skill set. This helps in selecting best suitable education stream/vocational training program through planned counseling sessions. Besides opting for suitable education stream/ vocational training program, the youths get soft skill sessions with the intent of preparing them for gainful and sustainable livelihood opportunities.