The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India through its major delivery arm the National Skill Development Corporation has been spending enormous money and resources in trying to skill the youth with the aim to make them employable. However, the overall experience in most of the states is not very encouraging. The so-called trained youth are often rejected in the first interview by the company. Often these candidates do not possess the skills to present themselves and mess up the interview. Simply mechanical training by incompetent teachers floods the market with average candidates resulting in overall frustration. Also, there seems complete mismatch between the skills needed by the organised sector and the training. But that is not the main thrust of this note. I have observed in India too much focus on direct technical training. The entire aspect of behaviour modification is completely missing. Also expecting a change in thinking and behavior with 240 hours of technical training is fooling ourselves. Skilling youth must result in behaviour modification. In this sense, it is the management of change. Change in behaviour, change in thinking, change in the way decisions are made. It also implies a lot of unlearning. In this context, the " Nudge Theory" is the most relevant approach which regretfully many so-called trainers are blissfully unaware of. In the transactional analysis framework under the parent mask, there are two operating ways namely the prescriptive behavior and the nurturing behavior. Under prescriptive behaviour, the assumption is that others need to be "enforced" with the dos and don'ts. The nurturing approach creates a facilitating climate for learning. Likewise, the nudge theory believes that indirect encouragement and enablement rather than direct instructions are the only ways to change the behaviour. Cathy Norton has described simple examples of everyday life that show the two different ways of instructions:
Enforce Nudge
Erecting signs " No littering" Improving the availability and visibility of litter bins
and warning of fines
Joining the gym Using the stairs
Counting calories Smaller plate
Weekly food shop budgeting Use of basket instead of trolley
The central point I wish to make is most of our vocational education is prescriptive and enforced which not only builds resistance but also creates a resistance to learning. The training has to follow the 'nudge model' and make the youth ' think' why is he behaving the way he is behaving. Automatically the mind gets ready to learn and accept the change. Again let me explain the difference between ' enforcing' learning vs. 'Nudge' learning as explained by Richard Thaler. Looking from this perspective we need to have a complete re-look at the way we are forcing the youth to 'learn' which is completely a misdirected approach.
