Lack of skills in the education system is indeed a major situational quagmire as it not only leads to several losses of manpower but also erodes the economy.

According to IBM’s global higher education study report, 73 per cent of Indian education influential said that innovative technologies are distracting higher education. In India, an outworn curriculum is challenging higher education levels to equip graduates with job-ready skill sets. Both advanced technologies and techniques are entailed to improve this scenario and make these graduates ready to swiftly fit in the real-world work environment. This can be done through changes in higher education, importantly, by focusing on integrating skill with education and by introducing experience-based and practical learning.

Adding more Flexible, Purpose Driven, realistic, functional, practice-based learning and creating deeper relationships with the real-world business and technology ecosystem are the important recommendations for bridging the skill gap in India that were depicted in the study. For any country, their students are the human capital and it is essential to empower them for the development of the economy.

As per the eighth edition of the India Skills Report (ISR) less than half of the Indian graduates are employable due to a lack of professional skill sets. The report stated in 2021, nearly 45.9 per cent of graduates are found employable, a decline from 46.21 per cent in 2020 and 47.38 per cent in 2019. India has a large population of unemployable youth in the current scenario.

Mostly, the industry complains about the lack of practical training by the universities during UG and PG programmes. The academia claims that non-cooperation by the industry for students’ internships and project works and in all the country bears the brunt of that. Speedily after 2010 Indian economy has shown massive growth prospective with entrepreneurship development in India. But the threat of a skill gap is a foremost roadblock for this growth in India.

For the sound economic development of any economy skill-based learning and training is an integral component of increasing efficiency and productivity. In India, it’s still at a nascent stage. However, the demand for skilled manpower is extreme, and to cover this gap, it is very advisable to re-engineer the skill ecosystem. Skill-based learning in schools and colleges can provide various benefits

❖ Increasing employability through a series of inputs to equip students with appropriate hands-on skills helps them to be job-ready.

❖ Uplift confidence, enhance productivity and competency of individuals through focussed outcome-based learning.

The Indian higher education system has consistently recognised the need to become more entrepreneurial and innovative with a view to supporting the economic, social, and cultural development of the country and its regions. In the present time, several universities understand that entrepreneurship and innovation are the need of the hour and it should be part of the curriculum as well. For instance ( Delhi Government started Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University aims to skill the youth of Delhi) These kinds of steps by the government are counted as measurable steps to enhance the future growth of Students.

To fill the skill gap, universities and educational institutes offer entrepreneurship courses for students that could help them build necessary skills and competencies in their desired field. Also, the whole degree-centric higher education entails skills and values-centric education. Some of the factors introduced to students regarding entrepreneurship and innovation are following:

Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Educational institutes must reorganise their curriculum in a way that will push students out of the classrooms and embrace learning by doing their own. Early-stage innovation and experimentation will be the key for students because Experiential programs let you immerse yourself in life, and this process helps students to identify hands-on entrepreneurial opportunities and spend their time on building and executing a business idea.

Mandatory Students Participation in Entrepreneurship Boot Camps

Institutes must entail offering dedicated entrepreneurial education by organising boot camp in campus or sending their eligible candidates because boot camps are intensive programs which last over a week or a month and gives rewarding opportunities to students to show their skills and learn how to create, innovate, collaborate or compete on a national or global platform in boot camps.

Nowadays higher education has been considered as an ‘engine’ for innovation but the innovation process needs to be better managed by Institutions.

Build Experiential Learning and Job-oriented Education

To build India Atma Nirbhar, the youth of the country need a skill that makes them self-confident, reliant, purpose-driven, and also future-ready. The education sector dedicatedly works on improving the higher education curriculum by finding more opportunities to introduce skill based and realistic knowledge experience sharing by implementing new learning techniques with students rather than stress on written exams. Institutions should join hands or build partnerships with business industry and skill assessment organisations to contribute to reforming hands-on learning strategies.

Grip Technologies with Advanced Educational Understanding

Technical sound with good communication skills is a basic criterion to get a job in this competitive world to be a part of this world education institutes to entail measuring every existing educational capability . Institutes from time to time conduct experiments utilising innovative technologies and extend potentials through network partners by organising a visit or webinar.

We are entering into a modern era of multi-skilled human resources, where job markets of the future will require emerging qualities such as AI, innovation, creativity, improvisation, systematic thinking, and social intelligence to solve unexpected problems. The current Indian market scenario mandates that youth need to keep themselves updated from time to time about future trends of employment and understand the value of a more specialised course, skill-intensive, technology-based career would help them stay relevant.

Considering it as a need of the hour, industry and educational institutions must join hands together with the support of the government to create a holistic eco-system where skills can be developed, nurtured, and honed.

The author is Chancellor, Sanskriti University

DISCLAIMER: Views expressed are the author's own, and Outlook Money does not necessarily subscribe to them. Outlook Money shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.