Broad Based Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

On August 15^th 2015 on the Independence Day I happened to watch the evening show or discussion on the television channel of Lok Sabha TV. At the background stood the Parliament building well lit under the dark shadow of the evening sky. A lady whose name I cannot recollect now was the anchor and facing her on the well prepared dais were two ladies and two gentlemen. The discussion was generally focused on the state of policy matter in India and the excerpts of the speech by our Prime Minister. The discussion was held in a cordial atmosphere and every one had their points ranging from economic issues to education.

It was the discussion or the few words uttered by a lady that struck me and rather well resonated with what I too was thinking then. The lady anchor asked a question as to the nature of education policy and the Prime Minister’s emphasis on skill development. This lady on whom the question was asked was emphatic on her preference for broader education within the country and generally was not taking it lightly for the reduction of the fund allotment for the sector. She wanted everything done in a planned manner starting from the primary level of schooling to the graduation and post graduation level so that every citizen after a few decades would be having a certificate to hold and the level of literacy in the country would grow.

It was later on that I pondered over the matter sitting in a chair as is characteristic of me. What I actually thought was a perfectly made response surprisingly had as many flaws as well when I thought over the matter. The emphasis on broad based education level has nothing whatsoever with development of skill although skill development is embedded in all technical educations. This means broad based education may not be the answer to lower level of skill development among people at the grassroots level of employment opportunities.

Unraveling the mystery of both level of education

It is quite true that the broad system of education must be there fed with funds from the government as there are hundreds and thousands of aspirants to pursue a career based on the broad system of education that is largely theoretical with some parts practical in the country. However, broad based education that is schooling from primary level, secondary level and the graduate level although a comprehensive package is nevertheless time consuming and requires a lot of money too in spite of the fact there is a planned allocation for it and thoroughly subsidized one too. This is all right for population that has the means, but surely not for those who has already crossed the age of secondary schooling or are middle aged.

The problem with broad based education is that it doesn’t act as a guarantee to employment whereas on the other hand the grass root level of skill development there is better scope of optional employment although may be at a lower scale of pay or earnings. To make it even more clearer broad based education is a move towards gaining a comprehensive package of learning theoretically and technically, skill development is like nudging people to get on to the next level of viable employment options especially at the lower levels.

It is also seen if you take a survey then skill development by and large contribute more to entrepreneurship than broad based education. To understand this further let us look at an example.

Example of a lady’s famed soft drinks

A dozen boys are playing football on a ground near to several neighboring houses where a generous lady has her house too. The boys would naturally be tired at the end of the game and this lady has placed a dozen or more glasses of soft drinks made by her for the boys at the window sill. It is famed in the neighborhood that she does make unique refreshing soft drinks made out of fruits.

That day she announced the drinks to the playing boys and left to gossip with yet another lady at the back of her house and quite away from hearing distance. However, in her rush to talk with her neighbor she forgot to leave the tall gates open and there was only the slightly difficult wall to climb for the boys to get at the glasses of fruit juices.

Now after their play the thirsty boys gathered at the front entrance of the gates of the lady’s home. The boys belonged to different families having different levels of earnings and this means they ranged from poor, medium to well off boys.

Now the problem started as to whether to scale the wall was a risk worth it or not. The gate was impossible to climb they all knew.

Here, in this example the boys who think that they can have similar drinks at home would abstain from scaling the wall and not try to move out of their comfort zone. A few others may think of remaining thirsty for a while till the lady came back or opt to drink ordinary water. They obviously didn’t like to take any risk. A few others may make half hearted attempts individually and when they fail they would give up the attempt and walk away.

There are yet three boys who would nevertheless take the risk of scaling the whole wall not just because they are thirsty, but because they never really had any drink other than water at home. For these lads scaling the wall is rather mandatory. Whether they take in partners is a different matter altogether.

Why the lads vary in their level of response to risk taking? This is mainly because the level of perceived risk has a direct correlation with the levels of comfort a person forgoes as well as an attitude towards risk taking.

Here, in our earlier discussion the perceived risks of persons with broad based education are relatively much higher than the perceived risk of persons having lower level skills.

When jobs may mean self employment too

In a country where jobs are not so easy to come by especially for the educated people with broad based education it is well known fact that laborers who are not educated stand to loose out if they don’t adapt to some skilled work. Here, skilled work is that kind of work that has a degree of low level specialization and can be obtained within a few months or at the most a year through some kind of technical training.

Suppose a farmer has four sons and finds that his small land may not be able to support all of them in the future encourage one or more of his son to look for other options. Say one of the sons under an apprenticeship learns some electrical skills in the town and starts to repair irrigation generator sets at his village the farmer gets some respite. Suppose the lad starts to spread his activities in the nearby villages too then he becomes self employed or an entrepreneur.

This is because the farmer’s son is able to transit from one occupation to another with little risk due to skill development at a low level. It would be fine had he educated himself in the broad based education yet his immediate problem wouldn’t have taken care of and that is livelihood.  He may even start his own workshop too.

Again, if a person comes out of a broad based education then apart from government jobs, teaching and employment in large companies he or she wouldn’t take the risk due to perception of risk from that level. In other words, a bank manager or an employee of a public limited company if he or she takes to business then it is at a tremendous risk for if they fail in their venture they may not get another similar paying job whereas for a skilled person at the lower level transition from one job to another is simply a walk through and hence there are more chances of entrepreneurship at this particular level. In fact, many skilled workers take to entrepreneurship knowingly or unknowingly because of easier transition and lesser perceived risks.

In conclusion one can gather that both type of education system should be there including broad based education as well as skill development so that there is lesser burden on government generating employment as it is rather impossible to employ every citizen of India by the government. Banks too may identify such skilled people to lend better for making investments boom.