The Hindu Business Line : Call to improve employability of graduates

Kochi March 9 Mr Subir Raha, President of the All India Management Association, has stressed the need for promoting employability to graduates coming out of the universities.

Mr Raha was delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of the 26th Annual Management Convention organised by Kerala Management Association.

He pointed out that only 20 per cent of the fresh graduates from the engineering colleges are employable.

This is critical and grooming professional is a big problem, he said. Most of the engineering colleges and management institutes lack adequate faculty and efficient faculty, Mr Raha added.

Partnership

It is impossible to sustain growth without trained professionals. "We have to keep in mind the fact that the good students only can create brand India," Mr Raha said. He also added that at the end of this decade the requirements of employable people in the country would be 70 crore. So the prime agenda from the management associations should be to promote employability.

This can be possible through private-public partnership. To achieve this goal, Mr Subir put forward 3-point agenda upgradation of ITI's and polytechnics, promotion of small and medium entrepreneurship and faculty development.

Foreign Tourists

Earlier, inaugurating the function, the Austrian ambassador to South Asia, Dr Jutta Stefan-Bastl, said that Austria was interested in making partnerships with Kerala Government in ayurveda and tourism sectors considering the visit of foreign tourists for traditional treatments.

However, frequent hartals in the State are sending wrong signals to potential investors. She added that the frequent hartals and strong trade unions activities are affecting the potential and viable business environment of the State.

Austria, Ms Jutta said, is very strong in the manufacturing of specialised machinery products and joint ventures and transfer of technology.