A Degree Without Direction No Longer Works Today. Here's What You Can Do | OPINION

What employers world over look for these days in fresh hires is skills and job readiness.

Source : ABPLIVE AI

-By  Pravesh Dudani

For generations, having a college degree was widely regarded as the surefire ticket to a well-paying job and economic security. But the sobering realities of the current job market paint a different picture. Merely possessing a generic degree no longer suffices.

What employers world over look for these days in fresh hires is skills and job readiness. When there is a gap between what students learn in the higher education ecosystem and what needs to be applied in the workspace, both students and industries suffer. Without the congruence of the educational qualifications and industry-relevant skills, a degree is like a map without pointed destinations, sounding great on paper, but directionless in reality.

Widening Skill-Job Gap

India's employability and employment figures highlight a stark mismatch. A Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation report states that the national unemployment rate in May 2025 is at 5.6%, while youth urban unemployment is approaching 18%. Meanwhile, just 42.6% of graduates are employable, based on the most recent Mercer-Mettl Graduate Skill Index. This means a significant portion of students complete their degrees, yet fewer than half are perceived as workforce-ready.

This underscores the long-standing issue of degrees that lack purpose and relevance in evolving workplaces. Education must transcend mere credentials and become an effective bridge between learning and livelihood.

Defining Direction In Higher Education

Direction, in the context of a degree, means relevance, a clear pathway from learning to livelihood, from classroom to career. It means integrating academic learning with applied skills, so that education leads to workforce readiness.

India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has acknowledged this shift. It emphasizes multidisciplinary, skill-integrated education and flexible academic structures. The introduction of the National Credit Framework (NCrF) is a landmark step. It allows credit accumulation from formal, informal, and non-formal learning, ensuring that skills, work experience, and academic learning are all valued equally.

This is why skill-based degrees are becoming highly important. Employers increasingly prefer candidates who have hands-on experience alongside their degrees so that they can adapt to their job roles with ease.

What Students Must Do Differently

Choose Purpose, Not Prestige: Look for programmes that embed internships, apprenticeships, studio projects or incubation semester. UGC’s new apprenticeship-embedded degree framework or the Work Embedded Degrees in partnership with Industries are a model to look up to for all HEIs.

Curate A Skills Portfolio: Beyond core domain knowledge, recruiters repeatedly list digital literacy, problem-solving, teamwork and communication as make-or-break attributes.

Harness Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): Artisans, gig-workers and NCC/NSS volunteers can translate their experience into formal credits under NCrF, shortening time-to-degree and widening career options.

Adopt Lifelong Learning: Micro-credentials in AI, additive manufacturing or climate finance can be stacked on top of a base degree, keeping professionals relevant as technologies leapfrog.

What Higher Education Institutions Must Deliver

Curriculum-to-Career Alignment: Boards of studies should include industry veterans who co-design syllabi and co-teach Industry projects.

Seamless Pathways: A student finishing a three-month skilling course in a Skill Centre or a one year course at a state ITI must be able to ladder up into a B.Tech. or B.Voc. without loss of time or credits.

Outcome Dashboards: Universities should disclose placement rates, median salaries and apprenticeship conversions - transparent metrics that compel internal reform.

Local MSME partnerships: When universities solve real production, logistics or design problems for nearby MSMEs, they create both jobs and regional economic resilience.

Every rupee invested in education must generate compounding returns for the nation: higher GDP per worker, faster innovation cycles, and inclusive social mobility. Degrees with direction are therefore not a private luxury but a strategic asset for Atmanirbhar Bharat. They convert youthful energy into productive capability and ensure that India’s growth story is authored by its own citizens, not outsourced expertise.

A certificate may hang in a frame, but a purpose-driven degree powers a nation. The sooner students, educators and policymakers act on this truth, the faster India’s classrooms will become launchpads for ideas, industries and independence.

(The author is the Founder & Chancellor of Medhavi Skills University)

[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.]