Preparing Gen Z for the Viksit Bharat mission

This article is authored by Shailendra Bhadauria, chancellor, Pratap University, Jaipur (Rajasthan).

Having a career once meant embarking upon a road for life. You learned your trade, took a job and generally remained in the same type of work until retirement. Changing careers appeared to indicate uncertainty, and perhaps even failure. However, for Gen Z, this definition of a career is not quite relevant.

Gen Z (Representational)

A young person may earn an engineering degree and end up founding a start-up. A graduate in literature can work for digital media companies. A designer may become a web developer, while a doctor may create a health-tech business. The borders between professions become increasingly blurred, and young people are ready to move across them.

This is not just a change in the way people work. It is a change in the way they see their lives.

For India, it is an important moment in history as well. As the country proceeds with fulfilling the Viksit Bharat vision, its young population is going to be among its biggest advantages. Preparing young Indians for that future will not mean training them for one type of job only. It will mean giving them the skills and the confidence to become many versions of themselves.

The workplace that Gen Z is entering is rapidly evolving. With technology changing the way companies do business, green energy, biotechnology, space technology, and digital services are creating opportunities that did not exist before. The first job may not resemble the tenth job.

Recent research indicates that technology, the green transition, demographic change, and economic change are key factors that are transforming jobs. For young Indians, learning how to learn new things may be more important than knowing everything about one subject. The challenge is to make adaptability a strength instead of a source of stress.

The classroom should be the first place to notice this change. The world has treated education as a race, a competition for grades, certificates and finally a job. While these are important aspects of education, they cannot be the only goal of education anymore.

Young people need to learn how to think critically, solve new problems, communicate effectively and work with people having different opinions. They need to have opportunities to study outside their stream. An engineering student should be aware of business. A commerce student should know about technology. A student of humanities should have a chance to study entrepreneurship or public policy.

One of the principles of the National Education Policy 2020 is a focus on intercalary education and skill development. However, this is only a start, and one must ensure that these ideas are embedded in students' lives. Education cannot only prepare a person for the first job. It should prepare them for their future career paths.

The competencies that make it easy for a person to land their initial position may not be the same ones that enable them to prosper in the next few years. For example, a fresh employee might not only acquire new technology but also undergo a shift into management. Learning is not limited to improved technical proficiency only. Knowledge of communication, collaboration, leadership, conflict management, and decision-making can play a crucial role in one’s career development as well.

The Viksit Bharat mission adds a new perspective to the discourse. A developed India will not only need people who are looking for job security, but also people who would solve problems. India has problems in plenty, like health care, education, clean energy, sustainable agriculture, affordable technologies, and infrastructure. For Gen Z, these problems could be viable opportunities.

A young entrepreneur working on a platform for rural health care is already doing her part for the country. So is a scientist working with clean energy or a teacher making education accessible to children in faraway places. Nation-building cannot be considered only the prerogative of government offices or boardrooms. It is something that happens on the ground through choices that individuals make in their work, profession, and communities.

It is known that the youth cannot find their way in this changing world alone. It is required that schools provide students with the opportunity to experience things without the fear of failing. It is essential for universities to bring different disciplines closer together to help students find their way in the world. Companies need to give young employees the platform to learn through internships, apprenticeships, and mentoring programmes. Moreover, these opportunities should not be limited to big cities only. Talent is everywhere, and so should be the opportunities for developing it.

The young people of Gen Z start becoming adults during a period when change is already a normal thing. Some will change careers, some will even launch businesses, while some of them may consider going back to school or doing several jobs at once. We should not take it as a sign of confusion.

In the transition to Viksit Bharat in India, it is perhaps time for the question put to youngsters to change. Instead of asking: "What do you want to be?", one could ask: "What do you want your contribution to be?" Answers may vary over time.

A young engineer might turn into an entrepreneur. A teacher might go on to be a policymaker. A researcher might become an innovator. The key is for youngsters to have the fortitude to make such switches, the skills to make them happen, and the willingness to contribute. Viksit Bharat will be shaped by the willingness to learn, change course and start again shown by the young generation.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Shailendra Bhadauria, chancellor, Pratap University, Jaipur (Rajasthan).