From Degrees to Gigs: Why Market-Relevant Skills Matter More Than Ever
By: Dinesh Sood
In today’s fast-paced and everevolving job market, employers are not just interested in hiring candidates with degrees from prestigious institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) or the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), they now prioritise hiring candidates with specific skill sets.
Despite the widespread recognition of IITs for academic excellence and coveted placement opportunities, recent worrisome reports have revealed that they are not delivering as per their ranking and perception. Thousands of students dream of attending IITs every year, but only 20-25 per cent are fortunate enough to pass the JEE Advanced exam. Those who secure admission pursue academic excellence and eagerly await the placement season, with an eye on big-ticket jobs. However, the 2024 placement season has been described as “lacklustre” by IIT students. This is a worrying situation in IITBombay, which is ranked third among engineering institutes in India by NIRF. According to the Global IIT Alumni Support Group, nearly 36 per cent of students were unable to secure jobs for the 2024 placements. Although IITBombay contested this report, stating that only 6.1 per cent of students remained unplaced, the situation is still concerning.The Global IIT Alumni Support Group data shows that nearly 30-40 per cent of IIT students are still unplaced in the top-ranked eight older IITs like Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, and others, while around 50-60 per cent of students are still unplaced in the 15 newer IITs like BHU (Varanasi), Ropar, and others.
The unemployment crisis in India is particularly acute among educated youth. The cost of an engineering degree remains at Rs 8-10 lakh, yet the placement rate remains around 30 per cent. Furthermore, there is an influx of MBA degree holders entering the market, even though the demand has dropped by 55 per cent this year. This raises the question of the value of a college/university degree.
Being highly educated is no guarantee of employment in India, as the International Labor Organisation (ILO) report reveals. Nearly 83 per cent of those unemployed in India are young, and among these unemployed young Indians, nearly 66 per cent are educated. According to the
ILO report, the “youth unemployment rate has increased with the level of education, with the highest rates among those with a graduate degree or higher.” On the other hand, those without university degrees or even school dropouts have a higher employment rate. Several highly educated youths have set an example by choosing the path of niche entrepreneurship, proudly titling it MBA Chaiwalas and Chatwalas.
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Despite the promise of creating 100 million jobs through the flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative, the expected job creation did not materialise in the last 10 years. Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has emphasised the need to make the workforce more employable and create jobs.