Preparing for industrial revolutions

 I recently come across a video in Instgram, in which an young man was saying he was a winner in school but became a failure later in life. He showed off the orange Swiggy uniform as proof. There were several things wrong with both his assumptions and a lessons for adults.

Firstly, he is no failure. Temporary workers earn more than their peers. While the average median income is 8000 rupees as per glassdoor, the median among delivery workers is rupees 12,000. They beat the average by a handsome margin.

So what made the young man to think of himself as a failure? It is due to the change in the nature of work. Our social expectation of a good job is centered around the first industrial revolution. Either a cozy government job or a well paying manufacturing job.

By contrast a food delivery job, is back breaking work. No different from manual labour. And Indian society thinks less of such, demanding and necessary tasks.

Secondly, he thought he was a winner in school. That too is problematic. Our education system too is built around the first industrial revolution. Success in it could not be interpreted as an indication of merit in the world of industrial revolution 4.0.

That is the core reason why about 50% of our graduates are adjudged unfit for employment, as per Indian graduate skill index. Very few of our full A+ holders can code, solve problems or have the patience to work diligently. Exams today rarely test these parameters.

Finally, there are several things we should learn from this. But the top most lesson is, we all need to adjust our expectations according to the new realities. Have some humility and sympathy, especially towards the young.