Skills are involved not only while undergoing technical courses but in all spheres of life. Skills add feather to the way we do routine and special tasks, and also come to our rescue in hard times.
Skilled persons have always been in great demand; they know they shall never be jobless. Yet it is passion that makes one truly skilled.
The young veg seller was rhythmically naming the sundry items in his small cart. As I neared him, he welcomed me with his usual, ‘Namaste Uncle ji’. To my remark, “Tomatoes don’t look fresh; appears this is yesterday’s stuff”, the young man retorted with his reflexive smile, “The scorching sunshine has somewhat withered its outer layer, but it is garden fresh, juicy inside, I can bet”. Buying a single item from him meant coriander leaves and green chilli complimentary without asking. Every time I happened to pass his cart, he would invariably salute me with a pleasant smile. When his stock didn’t have some vegetable of my liking, he would happily tell me, it is available with the vendor ahead. “Treat me like your child”, he would often say.
The demeanour and the marketing skills of the new breed of vegetable vendors, the labourers of yester years, are remarkable. But for honing their newly acquired selling skills during serial lockdowns that ushered in March 2020, they could hardly make livelihood. It is learnt that they are now earning much higher than their fixed salaries in pre-Corona days, and may not revert back to their earlier workplace when the situation turns normal. Unlike several grumbling employees rendered jobless in Corona, and not knowing what to do, ironically the Coronavirus showed the neo-vendors a way, and changed their life for better. “To me, Corona has been a boon,” confided the young veg seller one day.
Rather than doing whatever one can, many curse the government for loss of employment due to pandemic, ad infinitum blaming the leaders for not creating alternative means of livelihood.
Did Corona made people jobless?
Apropos of the unemployment scenario in several countries in pre-Corona era; it has been a formidable challenge. Corona provided a ready excuse for keeping many chores and duties unattended. Confining themselves to their own self or spouse & children at most, most people’s interest in wellness of others was cosmetic; they were just curious about others are about, including kith & kin. They avoided visiting friends & relatives because there was no will. Now they could attribute their inability (read unwillingness) to meet you in person or invite them at your place to Corona; a great savour indeed!
Quite many ladies, household or working started giving tips on cooking or craft in Corona times.
Power of upskilling
What goes into making of a skilled person?
Wherever ‘works’ is involved, there is skill at work, be it cooking, sewing, shoe polishing, white washing, carpentry, operating or repairing tools or machinery, farming, milking, the list is endless. Skills cover all human activities including academics, studies, arts & craft.
A batch in a particular batch of a skill/ technical/ vocational course after schooling (class 10 or 12) usually consists of 20 or 30 learners admitted after qualifying a test. All of them know that skilled hands are in short supply, and shall be readily absorbed by the industry after completing the course. Yet about half of them quit the course mid way, and only two or three of the entire lot emerge as truly skilled. Isn’t it strange to know?
Far more than clearing any skill course – graduate programme in engineering not excluded – it is ‘passion’ that catapults even a person of mediocre calibre to great heights. Alas, most candidates in technical courses lack passion, an essential ingredient in skills acquisition. Unaware what Norman Vincent Peale said, “Nobody ever mastered any skill except through intensive persistent and intelligent practice”, their primary concern is on acquiring the certificate, and not on imbibing the workshop skills. It is due to power of passion that a lady cooks so delicious a cuisine that you lick your fingers after having had to your satisfaction while while the other lady, with exactly same ingredients spoils the show.
A raw engineer becomes an asset to a production house only after hard work of assorted nature at shop floor under the guidance of an experienced foreman. In the process, the novice engineer may have to do several petty chores like re-cleaning the still dirty machine, bringing the nut bolts of appropriate description from box at the behest of the master, the Ustad. It is only after passing several non-descript chores that he evolves as a fine, sophisticated, seasoned worksman. I am not referring here to computer clerks – sorry, software engineers.
No wonder, out of about three lakh engineers churned by Indian universities annually, hardly 15 percent are of use to the industry; these are the ones who have acquired the trade’s knowhow.
Skills are not for engineering alone. For a project to go through, a plan to succeed, an individual to achieve the coveted goal or to have good relationships in family, workplace or society, knowledge and wisdom are lame without relevant skills. “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways” said the American author Robert Greene. Remember, in life success of an individual is a function of the skills one has developed over years of persistent practice.
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