Educational Reforms to Enhance Employment
EDUCATIONAL REFORMS TO ENHANCE EMPLOYMENT
According to the projection of the United Nations Population Division, currently young people between ages 15-24 constitute 18 percent of world’s population at 1.1 billion and the world is very close to reach the peak of historically highest youth population (Lam, 2007). These young people, across the globe, especially in developing countries, where the population density and growth is also highest, face unprecedented challenges in their capacity to access public resources and family resources, stemmed from waves of cultural and economic globalization. Most critical issues for youth development are poverty, health practices, gender biases, education, employment, social responsibilities and good citizenship, juvenile delinquency etc. (World Youth Report, 2003).
Demand of skilled workers in the knowledge economy has created hindrance for a large portion of world youth, especially in developing countries, where higher education system has not been able to realize sufficient ‘value addition’ in terms of enhancing the employability in the new age labor market. Noteworthy point is that, today’s youth find themselves in an era, where for the first time in the modern civilization, purely economic value of higher education has reached an unprecedented proportion. According to UNESCO, “higher education is no longer a luxury; it is essential to national, social and economic development”. Educational reforms, therefore, are more intrinsically tied-up with and can have stronger influence on the youth employment opportunities than ever before. Even more pertinent issue is that, while numbers and analyses show that the standard and accessibility of elementary and primary education have improved for most of the developing countries for the last two decades yet that success story has not led to a consequential fruition, as expected from a complete education, in terms of enhancing the employment opportunity or
According to the projection of the United Nations Population Division, currently young people between ages 15-24 constitute 18 percent of world’s population at 1.1 billion and the world is very close to reach the peak of historically highest youth population (Lam, 2007). These young people, across the globe, especially in developing countries, where the population density and growth is also highest, face unprecedented challenges in their capacity to access public resources and family resources, stemmed from waves of cultural and economic globalization. Most critical issues for youth development are poverty, health practices, gender biases, education, employment, social responsibilities and good citizenship, juvenile delinquency etc. (World Youth Report, 2003).
Demand of skilled workers in the knowledge economy has created hindrance for a large portion of world youth, especially in developing countries, where higher education system has not been able to realize sufficient ‘value addition’ in terms of enhancing the employability in the new age labor market. Noteworthy point is that, today’s youth find themselves in an era, where for the first time in the modern civilization, purely economic value of higher education has reached an unprecedented proportion. According to UNESCO, “higher education is no longer a luxury; it is essential to national, social and economic development”. Educational reforms, therefore, are more intrinsically tied-up with and can have stronger influence on the youth employment opportunities than ever before. Even more pertinent issue is that, while numbers and analyses show that the standard and accessibility of elementary and primary education have improved for most of the developing countries for the last two decades yet that success story has not led to a consequential fruition, as expected from a complete education, in terms of enhancing the employment opportunity or
Citations: * Zenskey, Robert Making Reform Work: The Case for Transforming American Higher Education. New York: Reuters, 1999 * Karpe, Ninad www.reformingeducation.in “High Cut-Offs” September 5,2011 http://www.reformingeducation.in/?p=243 * Agarwal, P., Higher education and the labor market in India, 2007. * Shukla, R., India Science Report, National Council for Applied Economic Research, 2006. * World Youth Report, United Nations, 2003.