Only 21% Employable!
Dear All
In India, Master of Business Administration (MBA) is one of the most sought after professional courses. With over thousand business schools, universities and institutions in India, every year lakhs of students enroll for the most esteemed course.
India, in its attempt to not get affected by the so called global recession, has been breeding industries, corporate forces, financial institutions as well as IT and outsourcing companies. Due to this there has been an increase in the demand for skilled manpower specifically for managerial functions. An MBA is the most appropriate candidate for such an opportunity. But have we got enough ‘right’ candidates for such opportunities? According to MBAUniverse.com-MeriTrac Employability Study 2012, the employability of management graduates in India has declined in the past five years, as only 21% of MBAs surveyed are ‘employable’. The information was collected from 100 B-schools (beyond the top 25) in 29 cities, well SCIT was not covered in this survey, else the percentage would have certainly shot up!
The most interesting fact of the study is that number of MBA seats in India has grown almost four-fold – from 94,704 in 2006-07 to 3,52,571 in 2011-12. But it’s quite alarming to observe that the rate at which the seats have grown has not been followed by the rate of employability of the MBA graduates.
For India, unemployment has become like a perpetual problem, with which it always seem to have been struggling. Keeping in mind this kind of a crisis, an MBA degree in India is expected to provide a high salaried and stable job. Due to this reason a Post Graduate program in management has become one of the expensive courses in India.
In the study, the students were tested for verbal ability, quantitative ability and reasoning by using internationally standardized tests on behalf of recruiting companies.
The study mentions that organizations completely bank upon the talent pool created by the employable 21%. This is the managerial pool that companies hire from. However the index of employability leaves scope for improvement.
Overall average percentage score obtained by MBAs in verbal ability was 52.58%, quantitative ability it was 41.17% and reasoning was 37.51%.
As is evident from the above data, the area where there is scope for improvement is – reasoning. This is the most crucial area which helps in making sound management decisions. Performance in verbal ability and quantitative ability seems to be satisfactory.
As quoted by Amit Agnihotri, chairman MBAUniverse.com, students were asked questions regarding their understanding of business. They were questioned, whether the talent that is coming out of MBA colleges, is capable of creating a workforce responsive to the needs of economy. This also helped in valuing decision – making skills of the students.
Rashmi S Gairola
Assistant Professor- SCIT
