Indian teachers rate majority of Indian students as inept for employment

While teachers from higher education institutes opined that 64 per cent of their students were incompetent for employment , school teachers felt only 48 per cent were unemployable.

It’s an eye-opener for the entire industry. Teachers across the country believe that 57 per cent of the students are inept for employment.

The opinion of teachers of higher education is even harsher. They feel 64 per cent of their students are inept for employment, whereas school teachers say that only 48 per cent are unemployable.

The teachers believe that the current lot of students lacks knowledge, skills, attitude and ethics.

This was revealed by the Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey.

When asked what could improve the current status, 75 per cent of Indian teachers opined that industry–academia partnership was important to restructure the courses. Around 48 per cent of teachers suggested merit-based industry internships across all courses as the solution, while 44 per cent wanted industry training for teachers. Around 44 per cent of teachers gave higher credits for practical assignments.

Interestingly, teachers in Karnataka and UP are more optimistic than their counterparts in Haryana and NCT (National Capital Territory) of Delhi.

For instance, around 68 per cent of teachers in Karnataka believe that the current Indian education system is providing holistic education to learners, whereas in the NCT of Delhi, the figure is only 46 per cent. The national average, though, is around 60 per cent.

Similarly, teachers in Haryana are of the opinion that 67 per cent of students in India do not possess the skills required for employment, whereas according to teachers in UP, the level of incompetency is only 49 per cent.

As scope for improvement in terms of holistic learning, 47 per cent of teachers across India suggest that there should be continuous assessment of students’ performance. It seems teachers aren’t too happy with the abolishment of school exams and marking at the board level.

Around 44 per cent of teachers also feel that there should be better integration of technology and digital content into the teaching methodology, and around 43 per cent of teachers want linkage between concepts across subjects and disciplines. Surprisingly, only 23 per cent of teachers place greater emphasis on physical education and arts and craft.

The survey represents the views of 5,387 teachers from schools and higher education institutes across 527 cities and towns of India.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, the newly formed company hopes to reduce costs by $ 2.7 billion through this layoff.

In October, 2014, Hewlett-Packard had decided to split into two new companies — Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. (HPI). While HPE would be dealing with the businesses of enterprise technology infrastructure, software and services, HPI will comprise the personal systems and printing businesses.

Unfortunately, this split has come at the price of 25,000 to 30,000 jobs. In order to achieve a cost savings of $ 2.7 billion, HPE will ask as many people to leave. The company has to cut on the expenses following the separation and also to meet certain demands of the Enterprise Services business.

HP’s current workforce strength is around 300,000 and this job cut will bring the size down by 10 per cent. In the past, H-P had laid off 55,000 employees.

The company said in a press release, that the cost reduction strategy, including the $2 billion restructuring programme, is expected to improve operation profit. It will also result in a long-term, sustainable, market-competitive cost structure with a 7–9 per cent operating margin, by fiscal 2018.

Meg Whitman, current chairman, president and chief executive officer of HP, who will become president and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said in an official communique, that “These restructuring activities will enable a more competitive and sustainable cost structure for the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise."

“We've done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes, and these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring,” she added.

According to the company’s official statement, “This will result in a GAAP-only charge of approximately $2.7 billion, beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. The cash impact will be approximately $2.6 billion over the next three years, beginning in fiscal 2016.”

HPE expects around 37 per cent of its revenue to come from the enterprise solutions business.

Organizational Behaviour : Team-Building activity

TEAM -BUILDING:

Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences.

PICTURE PIECES ACTIVITY

1. This problem solving activity requires that the leader choose a well known picture or cartoon that is full of detail.
2. The picture needs to be cut into as many equal squares as there are participants in the activity.
3. Each participant should be given a piece of the “puzzle” and instructed to create an exact copy of their piece of the puzzle five times bigger than its original size.
4. They are posed with the problem of not knowing why or how their own work affects the larger picture.
5. The leader can pass out pencils, markers, paper, and rulers in order to make the process simpler and run more smoothly.  
6. When all the participants have completed their enlargements, ask them to assemble their pieces into a giant copy of the original picture on a table. 
   
   
   
   
     Picture Pieces Activity of a picture of a 'Rabbit'
   
   LEARNINGS :
   

                       The Part-time students Batch 2015-18 consists of working professionals who attend lectures on week-ends, in the evening after work. They have shared their learning from this activity as follows:

                             This Team Building activity along with others are of utmost importance as they help in the overall development of the team members and in turn improving the team's performance. It also strengthens the bond among the students and they feel motivated to work and achieve the targets. Some kind of team building activities must be undertaken from time to time to encourage the team members to work hard and realize their dreams.

Prof. Rangana Maitra on Work-value system in organisations:

In today’s competitive era due to globalization, liberalization and privatization, wherein employees have many choices, many options, companies need to be dynamic to attract and retain human capital. Again, the changing regulatory framework and highly inconsistent demand-supply market has thrown new challenges for HR.   Organizations are now-a-days apprehending that if they do not fulfill the promised value propositions, employees will leave for greener pasture. A Corporate culture will augment a firm's long-term economic performance if managers care deeply about their customers, their stockholders, and their employees. With this value system, satisfied employees will be directed and encouraged to produce products that their customers really interested in. A future employee is not just looking at what a company offers in terms of job or compensation, rather he would research on what the overall positioning with the customer is, how it is better than the competitors in all respects, whether his personal aspirations match with the overall organisational portfolio and, above all, whether the company is delivering what it is promising as a brand.

 Here the example of Google can be sited.   Google started India operations in 1998.  Its corporate values include the following. Focus on the user and all else will follow, It’s best to do one thing really, really well, fast is better than slow, one does not need to be at one’s desk to need an answer, one can make money without doing evil, There's always more information out there, The need for information crosses all borders, one can be serious without a suit, great just isn't good enough. It encourages innovation and iteration. It anticipates the needs and meets them with products and services that set new standards.

To manage diversity, Google starts with treating everybody with respect regardless of role, gender and position by providing freedom and involving employees in the decision making process. Further, Google keeps on conducting formal and informal forums and one-on-one meetings to enable employees across functions and levels to interact with each other. The three things that make Google India a great workplace are “The sheer brilliance and caliber of great minds they get to work with, the sense of pride they get out of this unique opportunity to make a change to the world, and lastly, the extensive focus on innovation that enables them to passionately and constantly think of innovative products and services and keeps them motivated each single day.” The focus is on technical innovation, the emphasis on aiming big, and the benefit of building on the world's best cloud computing infrastructure.  According to the founders, every employee has something important to say, and that every employee is integral to the success. They provide individually-tailored compensation packages that can be comprised of competitive salary, bonus, and equity components, along with the opportunity to earn further financial bonuses and rewards. To name a few good practices that Google India follows is to create a collaborative work culture encouraging employees to build a unique camaraderie among each other through programs such as ‘Peer Bonus’ (where an employee nominates a co-worker or a colleague for a bonus for helping him achieve his target or complete an assignment), ‘Know Your Noogler Wall’ (where interesting trivia about new joiners are put up along with their goofy pictures to help others know them well), et al. The best part about Google is that it allows people to take risks and fail in their pursuit for technological excellence. Google has Flexible, project-based approach, innovative perks and benefits, everything to make sure employees not only have great jobs, but great lives as well.

DR. M.W. SHAIKH'S CONDUCT OF ROLEPLAY : ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PERFORMED BY IES-MCRC 2nd YEAR H.R. STUDENTS

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms etc.

ABC PVT. LTD.

       The company in which the collective bargaining process is being carried out is ABC PVT. LTD. which manufactures automobiles. The company is based in Mumbai. It has earned reasonable profits this year. However the profits earned this year are less than the profits earned in the previous year where a 10% hike in wages was granted by the Management to all the workers. This year the Union wants a 50% hike in their wages.

PARTIES INVOLVED AND CHARACTERS PLAYED
MANAGEMENT		UNION
Kaiwan Avari	Managing Director	Shahzad Bhiwandiwala	Union Representative
Tushar  Gupta	Marketing Manager	Mamta Khurana	Treasurer-Union
Neha Khan	Production Manager	Vidhi Timbe	Union Representative
Yohaan Bhagwagar	HR Manager	Sunayna Langeh	General Secretary -Union
Priyanka Patil	Finance Manager	Kainaz Patel	Labour Commissioner
		Advita Sejekan	Union Member

 SCENE 1

       The Labour Union sends a notice to the management which contains a charter of demands to be fulfilled by the management such as a hike/increment in the wages of the workers by 50% of the CTC.

MANAGEMENT TEAM MEETING:

       The Management Team comprising of the HR Manager, the Marketing Manager, the Finance Manager and the Production Manager have a discussion with the M.D. regarding how much increment/hike in salary should be granted to the workers based on the facts and figures given by the various department managers  as regards the balance sheet performance of the company, finances, profits made, cost of raw materials, product performance, H.R. budget and technology expenditure. All the departmental managers agree to the decision of the M.D. of granting a 15% hike in the wages of the workers.

1^st MEETING BETWEEN THE MANAGEMENT AND THE UNION

       The M.D. calls the General Secretary of the Union  and fixes a meeting to discuss the charter of demands.The management representatives in the form of the departmental managers tell the union representatives that they can offer a maximum of 15% hike in their wages based on the profits earned by the company. The Union representatives are adamant as they are not willing to accept anything less than a 50% hike in wages. Thus no agreement is reached between the management and the Union and the meeting is adjourned.

1^st UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICE BY THE MANAGEMENT

       The HR manager calls the Treasurer of the Union and warns her that it the Union does not agree to the 15% hike in the wages, she will get transferred to another city.

        The Union treasurer is irked by the call and discusses the matter with the Union.

SCENE 2

       The M.D. in consultation with his respective departmental managers agrees to increase the hike in wages from 15% to 25% of the CTC. The 2^nd meeting is fixed.

2^nd  MEETING BETWEEN THE MANAGEMENT AND THE UNION

     The management representatives in the form of the departmental managers tell the union representatives that they can offer a maximum of 25% hike in their wages after considering the percentage of profit and the cost incurred by the company on the new technology. The Union representatives are still adamant as they are not willing to accept anything less than a 40% hike in wages. Thus, once again no agreement is reached between the parties and the meeting is adjourned.

ILLEGAL THREATENING BY THE UNION

     The Union sends one of their Union members who comes and threatens to kill the HR Manager and the Finance manager if they do not agree to the demand of the Union of granting a 40% hike in the wages. The Union member also physically assaults the Marketing manager while he is returning back home and gives him a “warning”.

UNION MEMBER WHO ILLEGALLY THREATENED THE MANAGEMENT

SCENE 3

      The M.D. in consultation with his respective departmental managers agrees to increase the hike in wages from 25% to 30% of the CTC. The M.D. invites the General Secretary-Union for some snacks as a means for discussing the 30% hike in wages. The Union can sense the real motive behind the invitation. The 3^rd meeting between the management and the Union is fixed.

3^rd  MEETING BETWEEN THE MANAGEMENT AND THE UNION

     The management representatives agree with the M.D. to offer a 30% hike in the wages. The Union representatives are still very adamant as they are not willing to accept anything less than a 40% hike in wages as they feel they deserve that much at any cost as the company is earning reasonable profits. They are not willing to change their stand. Thus, once again no agreement is reached between both the parties and they agree to report the  matter/issue is reported to the Labour Commissioner.

2^nd UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICE BY THE MANAGEMENT

      The production manager offers a bribe of Rs. 5,00,000 to the Union representative to persuade her to agree to the 30% hike in wages and end the matter so that it does not go to the notice of the Labour Commissioner. However the Union representative does not accept the bribe(offer). The Union representative is angry naturally and reports the matter to the General Secretary-Union.

HEARING BY THE LABOUR COMMISIONER AND THE OUTCOME

      The matter is reported to the Labour Commissioner. This is known as 3^rd party conciliation where the Labour Commissioner assists both the parties in the collective bargaining process by giving a final verdict. The Labour Commissioner listens to the management’s side of the case in which the management accuses the union of indulging in illegal threatening. Also the Labour Commissioner listens to the Union representatives’ story and finally the Labour Commissioner announces the final decision of granting 30% hike in the wages to which both the parties agree. Thus the matter is resolved as both the parties reach a consensus (that is, a general agreement) and celebrate the same by having a party at Taj Lands Ends, Bandra. Thus the collective bargaining has taken place between the Union and the Management.