I have been travelling around the state and giving presentations and initiating discussions on the need of 21st century workplaces and making the youth ready for 21st century jobs since the last few years. As each and every citizen needs a job or any decent and dignified work to live a livable life, it is also essential to understand the prerequisite to have it.
The future of learning has to ensure a respectful earning for the learner. Today’s economic survival for most of us depends on our skill and the ability to continuously re-skill ourselves in our profession (regardless of what it is). If we don’t learn, unlearn and relearn constantly, we will fall behind.
As per UNICEF, by 2030, half of the Indian youth will not be able to find a decent job for lack of required skills. Technological transformation demands stronger and more continuous connections between education and employment in the 21st century.
In the course of my visit to different parts of the state, I have been interacting with the youth, teaching fraternity and parents to understand their perspective of learning and consciousness regarding the demand of the current time and workplaces. Many of the participants showed their concern about a job or decent work post completion of education, without having a fair knowledge of the current skills required for it. It necessitates the requirement of skilling and reskilling youth to empower themselves to get jobs in the changing aspect of technology and industry.
A youth, after completing his/her education looks for a decent job with many expectations, hopes, future, dignity and self-respect. The opportunities for the youth are many but not in the traditional pattern of jobs like government or even permanent private jobs. On the one hand, traditional jobs are shrinking and on the other, more tech and gig jobs are emerging.
Are they aware of the skills needed for them to learn before they can enter the emerging new job market?
Do they know the demand of the fast changing 21st century workplaces?
According to a World Bank report, ‘Jobless Growth’, published on April 15, 2018, more than eight million jobs are required every year for India to keep its employment rate constant, as its unemployed number is increasing by 1.3 million every month. As per an estimate, the gig economy is generating huge employment opportunities in India and will grow 25-30 per cent per annum.
In this radical situation of unemployment and rise in gig economy, the latter is emerging as a promising employment solution for unemployed students, experienced professionals, less educated workforce, retired people and women who quit their jobs for family responsibilities.
The major platforms for gig workers are ‘freelancer.com’, ‘truelancer.com’, ‘sheroes’ and ‘work and hire’ to name a few. Many such platforms are offering and predicting millions of decent and dignified jobs and offering gig workers a decent earning for a reasonably good life.
Looking into the type of work being offered on freelancing platforms and the skills required to perform it are encouraging. A bit of digital, communication and freelancing skills are needed to bid for such work and start a new career opportunity. Additional requirements are a laptop/smartphone, 4G connection and an online bank account.
As per gig jobs study, some of the top paying gig jobs in India are Content Writing, Translations, Transcription, Creative Works, Recruitment, Sales, Digital Marketing, Branding, SW Development, Architecture, BIM, Accounting, Data Analytics, Consulting and Counselling. Our youth can participate in such jobs by skilling and reskilling themselves. Freelancing jobs in cyberspace as well as in the physical spaces are emerging like never before.
As India has a potential to develop 20 million online freelancers to earn US$ 20 billion through online freelancing by 2025, now it is necessary to create such a workforce in the rural, semi urban and urban communities to tap the opportunities. It will bring good results in a way that is essential in this critical situation of unemployment.
Although Information Technology (IT) has created an unprecedented wealth for a few enterprises, the mass have been largely deprived of the great developmental potential and the fruits of IT.
This Digital Divide is a potential threat to development and it is critical to bridge the Digital Divide and the resultant Knowledge Divide by offering actionable knowledge to the mass for their socio-economic transformation in the emerging knowledge society – a society to build knowledge and wealth for the common mass.
In view of this, to provide IT-enabled education and IT enabled services, Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited is in action with a few committed partners in each and every block of the state to bring fruits from the emerging gig economy. Thanks to all my committed PPP entrepreneurs (ALC) for their dedicated work towards producing a workforce with actionable knowledge in digital, communication, soft and freelancing skills.
We’re an equal opportunity initiator, to have a decent and dignified work for the youth without any discrimination of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin and veteran or disability status.
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