Google, Copy, Paste. Are we going to be skilled manpower?

Young Indian graduates who complete higher studies from a reputed college face a very big prejudice, ‘The Indian students know only three things – Google, copy and paste.’ Yes, this is the conception about most Indian highly educated people despite holding a graduate or post graduate degree. It is also creating a big threat for employability of fresh college pass outs. Even I agree with this because I have observed this tendency of students to restrict to syllabus or curriculum only and taking help of search engines like Google to get knowledge and paste the entire information on a document without perceiving that information.

There is no problem up to googling but problem arises when the information is pasted without understanding it. The students who work on an assignment or a project prefer to copy the content from online sources and paste without knowing the content. Such students obtain the degree but do not obtain analytic, observation and result oriented skills. Such students cannot draft any blueprint or architecture of any plan. This kills employment opportunities of degree holders and for this college, government or industry is blamed. I hope you understand whom to blame for this. Anyhow, let’s not play blame game but try to know what is required to develop employability in young graduates.

College time is the best time to learn new things and get the exposure to various skills. It’s time when students have no mental stress of any family or occupational reasons. All universities and institutions want students to get practical exposure of the occupational skills and give various assignments and projects to complete. This is very good opportunity for students to complete these assignments and projects with their own abilities. Students should develop their technical skills as well as soft skills traits like time management, meeting deadlines, team work abilities and resources management while completing such assignment. Such real time practical assignments are given to students to develop their skills and to get them exposure to real time working environment.

But unfortunately students take it very casual and do not complete these projects seriously. A management student, who has been given an assignment to do a survey on consumer behaviour, is supposed to move into consumer market and do questionnaires with real consumers. But it does not happen and a fake report is prepared by students with help of online dummy material. Will such student develop confidence level in real time job? Most probably, No. When the students are asked about the job responsibilities or working of the job profile they apply for, the answer is blank. Had they completed the assignment or project without copying and pasting, they would have been able to answer confidently.

Degree is merely a document which certifies completion of number of years of academics study and job is a real time practical environment where a plan is prepared strategically and executed to maximize profitability. Students who critically work on internal assessments and assignments easily understand the corporate expectancies and are able to meet deadlines. Rest find it very difficult and give up easily, so their career gets spoil. So, when you search any information, do not paste without editing and understand the information. This will develop your critical thinking, analytical and research abilities as well.

All industries have ample opportunities but for those who find their way to get penetrate into industry. Do not create India’s image of having copy + paste (Ctrl C + Ctrl V) manpower. I hope my write will help to develop intellectuals of young pass outs and will make them ready to face and meet all challenges with their critical analytical abilities.