Less than half of Indian graduates are employable: report

**New Delhi:**India churns out tens ofthousands of graduates each year but less than half of themare “employable” or possess the basic skills necessary for anyindustry role, says a report.

According to a report by Aspiring Minds, an employabilitysolutions company, around 47 per cent graduates In India areunemployable for any job.The report, which is claimed to be the first evernational audit of employability of 3-year Bachelor’s degreegraduates, drew inferences from data of over 60,000 graduatespan-India, based on Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test(AMCAT).

[caption id=“attachment_900755” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of college students. Agencies[/caption]

“The alarming statistics of nearly half of the country’sgraduates not being employable in the knowledge economy needsgreat attention with interventions at both the school andhigher education levels,” Aspiring Minds co-founder and CTOVarun Aggarwal said.

More from Economy

Inflation likely to be a big focus area for budget 2024, say sources Explained: Will the Bank of Japan break tradition and raise interest rates?

The employability of graduates varies from 2.59 per centin functional roles such as accounting, to 15.88 per cent insales related roles and 21.37 per cent for roles in thebusiness process outsourcing (BPO/ITeS) sector.

A significant proportion of graduates, nearly 47 percent, were found not employable in any sector, given theirinsufficient English language and cognitive skills. The report noted that since a graduation degree is considered a pathway to a job in the knowledge economy, substantive intervention at school and college level is needed to improve basic skills of students.

Moreover, a renewed focus on vocational training istimely now and should be re-emphasised.Employability varies from role to role based on varyingdegrees of proficiency required in language and cognitiveskills.

For an analyst role, close to 84 per cent of graduateswere found to lack the right levels in cognitive ability, thereport said. A significant majority 90 per cent graduates ofthose surveyed did not have required proficiency in Englishcommunication.

Interestingly, over 40 per cent employable graduates arenot from the top 30 per cent colleges and have no way tosignal their employability to potential recruiters.As much as 41 per cent of graduates employable inaccounting roles hail from colleges beyond the top 30 per centcolleges, whereas for the IT services sector this percentageis 36 per cent, it said.

PTI