Education and Skill Development go hand in hand. If youth is not even exposed to higher education, the modern day skills will not come to him. Training in BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) is one such modern day skill which can guarantee a lifetime’s employment and can even offer post retirement source of income. Acceptable academic qualification for this sector is graduation, in any discipline be it arts, science or commerce.

But when the youth is not even exposed to this higher education, the scope of providing him / her the needed skills diminishes. Let’s compare the level of possibilities of college education for the youth in various Indian states. Our level of further skilling and making a student ‘Job Ready’ is linked to the student’s formal education.

For every one lakh eligible youth (age group of 18-23 years), ideally there should be over 100 colleges. But the position of the country in some major is as below in this regard:

State No of colleges per lac students

Bihar 7

Jharkhand 8

Delhi 8

West Bengal 11

Assam 18

Odisha 23

Chhattisgarh 23

J&K 24

MP 25

UP 29

Maharashtra 32

Tamil Nadu 33

Punjab 33

Rajasthan 36

Haryana 36

Only Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala find a somewhat respectable position in the higher education scene. No wonder skill development has penetrated the maximum in these states.

Even if we consider 1000 students per college, a progressive state such as Maharashtra can accommodate only 32,000 students out of 1,00,000 aspiring youth. Where do the remaining 68,000 students go?

Now, these 68,000 students will not only be left out of the higher education but will also remain out of any skill development programme suited for graduates and above. On the other hand, the ones numbering 32,000 who got admission in colleges will consider themselves as ‘someone extraordinary’ and will hardly look forward to any skill oriented programme. These people will never take any skill development seriously. And that is exactly why skill development has not penetrated much in India.

We at Ursa Minor propose to correct this anomaly and propose to train all the youth hailing from this large geography of the country into BFSI.

Any takers?