True potential of Indian youth must be realised: Governor P Sathasivam

KOCHI: The true potential of one of the ‘youngest’ nations in the world, which has 54 per cent of the population below 25 years and 64 per cent in the working age group should be realised, said Governor P Sathasivam while inaugurating the first annual lecture series on ‘Youth – The Architects of the Future’ at SCMS here on Saturday. The ‘series’ is instituted on behalf of the commemoration of the late Pradeep P Thevannor, former vice-chairman of SCMS Group. 

The Governor said that in 2015 there was a major survey among engineering graduates, which revealed that 80 per cent of the technology-graduates included in the survey was not employable. “Ever since such revelations shook us out of our slumber, our Prime Minister’s ‘Skill India’ Mission, which had set a target of imparting skills to over 40 crore young people by 2022, started becoming a top priority in our educational institutions. I am glad that Kerala is focusing closely on upgrading the functional and technical skills of our young students and work-force, both in quality and quantity,” said the Governor. 

He added that to make our youth properly skilled, we need to urgently finetune our syllabi to accommodate employability skills. “We have not achieved great success in this matter so far, but many of our colleges are offering add-on courses to enhance the skills of our students. I am glad that Kerala had managed to enter the top 25 percentile of the most employable states in as early as 2016 itself,” said the Governor. 

Like many other democracies, our nation is also facing many issues, including insurgency and unrest in some areas, and it’s quite sad to see the spirit of adventure and energy of young people being exploited by those who incite violence and unrest in society. 

“As a nation, we have a responsibility to save our youth from being misdirected by people and organisations with vested interests. Since understanding is key to the creation of awareness and a spirit of nation-building, we have to ensure the most socially meaningful interactions for the youth,” said the Governor. 

He added better education and involvement in social activities can trigger positive thinking and hope among our youth and current education structure has to look beyond the standard syllabus and textbooks and concentrate on Technical or Hard Skills, Soft Skills or Life Skills and a professional approach to work, coupled with the ability to handle stress. “Thus, skill-based education can change the philosophy of life of an individual, and nurture in him or her, a sense of belonging,” said the Governor. 
Radha Thevannoor, Registrar, professors S Gopakumar and Baiju Radhakrishnan and Indu Nair, Group Director, SCMS Group, participated in the ceremony.