How capable are you?

By Ranjan K Baruah

One of the common words in our country is employment. It may be employment or unemployment, both words are used. Students use it because they are aspiring to get jobs or employment. Mostly people would blame that the reason of India’s poverty is due to unemployment.
This way, we can hear the word everywhere whether students, job seekers or even politicians. In every newspaper we can see a page related to employment and various advertisements. We need to understand more about it when it comes to our career and about our future planning.
There are differences in jobs in case of male or female. In Assam or in our northeastern region, many students are fond of getting government jobs. We are aware that fewer aspirants will get into government sector but in spite of that majority want to get a job in government sector. The term employment is widely used by final year students.
There are differences between employability and employment.
Employability refers to a person’s capability of gaining initial employment, maintaining employment and obtaining new employment if required. It can be defined as ‘a set of achievements — skills, understandings and personal attributes — that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy’.
In simple terms, employability is about being capable of gaining, retaining and excelling in employment. It means that there is difference between employment and employability.
Employment means any legal income generating activity. It is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract where work is paid for, where one party, which may be a corporation, not-for-profit organisation, or other entity is the employer and the other is the employee.
Employees work in return for payment, which may be in the form of an hourly wage, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does and/or which sector she or he is working in. Employees in some fields or sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payments or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment.
For individuals, employability depends on the attitude, skills and knowledge they have and the way they execute and present them to derive maximum benefit to realise their set goal. Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are different and they may fit in all sort of industries or areas of work. It is employability skills that enhance the growth and progress in any employment.
When we talk about employment and employment the key things coming to our minds are skills or employability skills. There are different employability skills but in simple they can be termed as academic, creativity and thinking skills or personality or personal qualities, etc. We shall publish more in the next edition.

Updates

Colgate Scholarship 2017: Colgate Scholarship 2017 is an initiative launched by Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited offering families a chance to win scholarships of up to Rs 1 lakh. The scholarship is provided for the higher education of the individual. Last Date to Apply for Colgate Scholarship is July 31.

ECSS from HDFC: Educational Crisis Scholarship Support is a CSR initiative of HDFC Bank with the aim to provide interim support for children facing a personal/economic exigency. Last date of applying is August 15.

(Ranjan K Baruah is a career mentor and can be reached at [email protected] or 98640 55558 for any career related queries)