COURSE CORRECTION

The rising unemployability among Kerala’s educated youth has brought the state government to the classrooms. The higher education department has mooted fundamental changes in the structure of collegiate education, the central piece being four-year degree courses, to be introduced from the 2024-25 academic session.

- Jeemon Jacob

The state expects that the new undergraduate course, shaped under University Grants Commission (UGC) directives, will brighten the career prospects of youth.

Nearly 40 per cent of Kerala’s educated youth—23 per cent of the state’s population—have remained unemployed in the last five decades. Kerala has one of the highest rates of unemployment among the educated and skilled youth in the country, according to the state’s Economic Survey 2022. It has resulted in large-scale migration from the state for job opportunities elsewhere. Even the unemployment rate of women who are more educated than men presents a stark half-empty glass: 50.6 per cent in rural areas and 51.8 per cent in urban areas, states the Economic Survey. After analysing the core issues behind this endemic problem, the state on its part has launched several programmes for skill development and employment generation. It conducted the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme and job melas with the participation of private companies, and offered additional courses in Artificial Intelligence, blockchain technology, big data analysis and gene editing etc.