Educated but unskilled: shortfalls of formal education in a narrowing job market

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"Lekha pora kore je, gari ghora chore shei!"- an idiom very familiar to Bengalis that promises "cars and horses", quite simply, wealth, provided we studied sincerely.

As a brand new post-grad student, I'm toiling two days weekly after work hours, sitting through three-hour night classes and breaking my neck over many assignments. And I'm yet to earn a "gari" (car) or a "ghora" (horse).

Despite doing work for seven years, it appears like skills in MS-Office or other software fall short to be relevant when trying to get jobs. Employers now put your logic and experience to check, to see how you tackle real-world problems they never wrote about in examination guidebooks.

Someone within an interview board once inquired, "If a colleague asks you for a confidential file under your reporting supervisor, what will you do?" Using my communications academic background, and my ad-hoc learned logic from past job experiences, I answered, hoping it had been the best answer. Clearly it didn't workout just how I thought it would. After almost ten years, the realisation dawns: the textbooks from our years of formal education never mentioned the abilities needed to flourish in the job market.

Increase that, the unrealistic "skill" expectations from employers that triggers graduates to have problems with cognitive dissonance regarding their formal years of learning. Unemployment, occurs in the absence of right skills instead of scarcity of jobs. In 2019, a global Bank report found: one in three students remain unemployed immediately after graduation and only 19 percent of university graduates are being employed in full-time or part-time jobs; while the rest are unemployed ("One in Three Students Unemployed", The Daily Star).


With most the youth sitting jobless, it's baffling to see that we're still clinging to the idea that, good grades ensure good jobs. Especially when the stats on unemployment suggests otherwise. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) demonstrates a lot more than 46 percent of graduates remain unemployed; additionally, graduate tracking surveys from this past year states that thirty percent of school graduates and 20 percent of university graduates have remained unemployed for over a year.

The impact of the asymmetry between knowledge read and knowledge learned in practice is most apparent when contemplating the bleak employment scenario for Bangladeshi youth, at the same time where there are 2 million people entering the labour force yearly as the World Bank says.

The reform of teaching practices (or having less it) in educational institutes is an account as old as time. A major dent inside our education system may be the reliance on rote-learning. Addressing the problem, a 2015 report in this newspaper said that "according to a 2012 baseline survey on class-III students conducted under the Third Primary Education Development Programme, only 20 percent of students had the competence degree of class-III, 30 percent had the amount of class-I, and 50 percent had the level of class-II", stating further that teacher's insincerity is what plays a part in the gap in learning.

We've received theoretical knowledge under local boards (SSC, HSC, Dakhil) or foreign boards such as for example Edexcel, Cambridge. Nurturing skills however had not been an area explored by our alma mater. This dire dependence on trained teachers is reflected in their methods of teaching with their proficiency in English. At the moment, 55 percent of English and mathematics teachers in secondary schools aren't built with any proper trained in their respective subjects, says the training Watch Report from 2018-2019. Looking back within my own schooling experience, I too can corroborate that many subject teachers didn't have a solid command over English, although they were following an English medium curriculum.

But despite knowing well there's a dearth of career-centric education in Bangladesh, employers expect prospects to think on the feet. So, imagine how puzzling it is, when students, regardless of which medium these were instructed in, trying to get jobs get rejected without the scope for feedback which would include their insufficient fluency in English and other job-related practical skills.

The problem isn't the shortcoming to learn a spanish, rather handling the rejection that is included with it. Rejection sans constructive criticism only makes a job seeker feel incompetent; and professional inadequacy at any level, is a major baggage to carry. Where to from here? There's academic merit, but spoken English isn't sufficient, there's experience however the skills aren't befitting. You're now riddled with enough anxiety to cause you to second guess your abilities.

With the rising uncertainties, eager graduates are exposed to inconsistencies of the advertised skills required in the work market. And I'm no stranger to the myself! So that they can transition my career in communications, I had accepted employment offer from an organisation, and then realise it had been more article writing and less communications; and from there commenced the monotony of serial underemployment.

Many like myself, dive into the rat-race of getting big money-only to wind up in a workplace with strict hours and decent salary-but with work that provides no scope for learning, thus, killing whatever is left of one's imaginative skills or productivity. With the work market being a tight squeeze, many professionals surrender to underemployment for the sake of survival; and the 1.38 crore underemployed masses can attest to this ("1.38 cr persons underemployed", The Daily Star, 2019)!

Hence, it's imperative that educational institutes teach these skills to the youth just before graduation, and make sure they are better armed with employer-approved skills and knowledge before entering the job market. Furthermore, partnerships with skills developing bodies will help rectify the misconceptions surrounding good grades and employment in Bangladesh.

A skills heavy curriculum like Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) has helped in tackling knowledge, skills gap and unemployment among students in English, Bengali and Madrasa schools since 2008, through various opportunities such as for example job placement opportunities, career guidance, mentoring, training on strategic thinking and capability to communicate, thus mitigating the divide and discrimination between students and employers.

Similarly, if advanced schooling was more subject specific, it might enable students to become more proactive when they are prepping to enter and out of jobs. For example, a journalism student, within the course, could be delivered to shadow print or broadcast media journalists for a simulation of what the work entails.

If employers are looking for a communications expert with tech skills in Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop, there must be a course or workshop that targets teaching the fundamentals of such software. At the end of the day, what needs to be communicated to students is that, CGPA is only an indicator of who to hire, the skills are what ensure job security.

While private universities are arranging job fairs regularly, there is no guarantee that usage of an organisation, aside from an interview may happen quickly after applying. Employability is dependent on communication skills such as for example speaking, listening, constructively arguing, resolving conflict, coping with failure and participating in teamwork. Such workshops and workout sessions, prior to graduation, will allow students to quote these talents within their CVs, showing tangible proof that they aren't just book-smart.

There are lots of students who still firmly think that a high CGPA could possibly be their saving grace. But rising unemployment is a clear indicator of it being otherwise. The complacency towards this learning loop would go to show that people are also section of the problem. The reform we've been discussing for ages should be addressed and implemented by universities. If that pans out, maybe someday, the unemployed population and people like me are able the "gari-ghora" that education promises.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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