Employability Gap

The Indian higher education system has witnessed significant expansion in recent years,

both in terms of the number of institutions as well as the student enrolment. Around 21.8

million students are enrolled in more than 45,000 degree and diploma institutions in the

country. Another 4.2 million students are enrolled in Open and Distance Learning (ODL)

Programme but the 'Employability' of students passing out of higher education

institutions is a major problem both at national level and state level. Corporate Sector has

been constantly highlighting that India does not have an unemployment problem but an

'unemployability' problem.

A survey conducted by Purpleleap across 12 states in 2012 revealed that only one tenth of

students of tier 2, 3 and 4 engineering colleges are readily employable. A McKinsey report

finds only 25% engineers, 15% finance graduates and less than 10% of the other

graduates to be employable. A recent study conducted by Assocham reported that apart

from the top 20 business schools like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), merely

10% of graduates from business schools manage to get hired by corporate India.

The problem of unemployability has arisen in India and particularly Rajasthan as

traditional colleges are currently not meeting expectations when it comes to delivering

quality education and training. Their textbook approach to education doesn't provide the

practical perspective that students need in order to be workplace ready. There is a huge

gap between the expectations of a company from job aspirants and the curriculum taught

to the students in the colleges.

The focus of this study has been to identify the reasons for the problem of

unemployability in Rajasthan and come out with recommendations on how to bridge this

employability gap, suggesting ways how to strengthen academia-industry partnership,

imparting skills that are valued by employer and making curriculum industry relevant

and hence preparing 'Industry ready professionals'.

The team interacted with key stakeholders