The Employability Lie
Why India’s Higher Education Is Still Producing Graduates, Not Professionals
By Mr. Ajitesh Basani, Executive Director, Acharya Bangalore B School (ABBS)
India stands at a critical crossroads in higher education. For decades, earning a degree was seen as the definitive pathway to career success, social mobility, and economic security. Yet, as industries evolve faster than classrooms and employers increasingly prioritise practical skills over academic credentials, a widening gap has emerged between education and employability. The challenge today is no longer about producing graduates in large numbers, but about preparing them to thrive in a rapidly changing professional landscape.
The Numbers That Should Keep Us Awake
India hosts over 70,000 higher education institutions, 1,338 universities, and more than 52,000 colleges. Every year, millions walk through convocation halls clutching degrees they believe will unlock professional futures. The scale is staggering. The ambition, admirable.
But here is the uncomfortable truth: a degree in India is increasingly not a proxy for professional readiness. According to the Mercer-Mettl India Graduate Skill Index 2025, drawn from 2,700 campuses and over one million students, only 42.6% of Indian graduates are employable down from 44.3% in 2023. The India Skills Report 2026 projects a more optimistic 56.35%, but even that means nearly half our graduates enter the market without the skills employers need.
The Scale of the Disconnect
India produces 1.5 million engineering graduates annually. According to Unstop’s study of 30,000 Gen Z professionals and 700 HR leaders, 83% of engineering graduates from the class of 2024 left college without a single job or internship offer. Nearly half of MBA graduates faced the same fate. While India’s overall unemployment rate is 3.2%, the graduate unemployment rate is 13% – four times higher. Among graduates in their early twenties, it exceeds 35%. Out of 140 million graduates, 45 million are entirely outside the labour force.
The gender dimension compounds the crisis. Women’s employability is declining – from 50.9% to 47.5% and only four in ten graduate women participate in the workforce. Two in three female Arts and Science graduates earn below ₹6 LPA, while male peers largely surpass that benchmark. Meanwhile, in 2024, one in four undergraduates took unpaid internships – double the previous year – simply to gain industry exposure their institutions failed to provide.
Why Degrees Are Not Translating into Careers
Curriculum fossilisation: Most programmes run on syllabi unchanged for a decade or more. Industries demand AI fluency, data analytics, and cloud computing; curricula remain anchored in legacy methodologies. With 82% of employers reporting difficulty finding right-fit talent and India facing a projected deficit of 47 – 49 million skilled workers by 2027, this is a national economic risk.
The soft skills deficit: Graduates score reasonably in communication (55.1%) and critical thinking (54.6%), but creativity and adaptability remain weak. Employability in non-technical roles like HR (39.9%) and digital marketing (41%) is dropping. In an era where AI handles technical tasks with increasing competence, the distinctly human skills – collaboration, ethical reasoning, creative problem-solving are what make professionals indispensable. We are training students for exactly what machines are replacing.
Faculty disconnect: A significant proportion of faculty have limited or no industry experience. Structural incentives reward credential accumulation over teaching excellence. An Assistant Professor who has never navigated a real business challenge is preparing students for a world they themselves have not experienced.
Building the Counter-Narrative: The ABBS Model
Critiquing a system without offering a constructive alternative is incomplete. At Acharya Bangalore B School (ABBS), we have been deliberately designing an educational model that treats employability not as a placement outcome, but as an architectural principle embedded into curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional culture from day one.
Autonomous Curriculum, Industry-Designed: ABBS’s autonomous status is a strategic enabler. It allows us to design and revise curricula with a responsiveness that affiliated institutions cannot match. Our courses are co-created with industry leaders, corporate partners, and international practitioners. Application-based learning case studies, live projects, simulations, and management development programmes are not supplementary. It is the backbone. Assessment methods evaluate reasoning and process, not just outcomes, fostering critical thinking that textbook examinations cannot measure.
Professional Certifications Embedded Within the Degree: This is where ABBS fundamentally departs from the conventional model. While most institutions treat professional certifications as optional extras, ABBS has structurally embedded over 20 industry-recognised certifications into the academic programme. Students earn credentials in Six Sigma Green Belt, Supply Chain Management, Digital Marketing, 21st Century Skills, and other industry-standard domains not alongside their degree, but as part of it.
These are tool-based, industry-inspired learning interventions. A graduate leaves ABBS not just with a degree certificate, but with a professional portfolio of verified competencies that employers immediately recognise. When 82% of employers struggle to find job-ready talent, a graduate carrying 20+ certified competencies enters the market speaking the language employers understand.
Entrepreneurship as a Mindset, not a Specialisation: At ABBS, entrepreneurship is woven into the institutional DNA. The MBA programme offers it as a full specialisation, but beyond that, the E-Cell, startup incubation support, and structured entrepreneurship development programmes ensure every student develops an entrepreneurial orientation regardless of their chosen stream. In a market where 25% of job offers now come from next-generation industries like e-commerce, startups, and product companies, training students to think like founders gives them an asymmetric advantage. Entrepreneurial thinking is not about starting a company. It is about approaching any role with ownership, initiative, and the ability to navigate ambiguity.
Industry Integration That Delivers Results: Corporate collaborations at ABBS are not ceremonial. Partnerships with Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra, Thomson Reuters, and Amazon translate into technical training, live research projects, and corporate internships leading to Pre-Placement Offers. Over 150 recruiters actively participate in the placement ecosystem. Global immersion programmes at international partner universities, Toastmasters International integration, and Centres of Excellence in Supply Chain and Entrepreneurship ensure students encounter real professional complexity before they graduate. As an advanced signatory of PRME, a UN-supported initiative, ABBS embeds sustainability, CSR, and ESG frameworks into its core curriculum, preparing graduates for a world where responsible business practice is a regulatory and reputational imperative.
The Broader Imperative
The ABBS model embodies principles every institution serious about employability must embrace: treat curriculum as a living system, not a static document. Embed professional certifications within degree programmes. Make entrepreneurial thinking a universal pedagogical outcome. Invest in faculty who have practised, not just studied. Close the gender gap with intentional, structural design.
The NEP 2020 provides the policy architecture. The India Skills Report 2026 provides the data. The National Credit Framework enables stackable, interdisciplinary pathways. What remains is institutional will.
We are not short of graduates. We are short of professionals.
The question institutional leaders must ask is not “how many students did we graduate?” but “how many professionals did we create? How many entrepreneurs did we inspire? How many certified, industry-ready individuals did we release into the economy?”
At ABBS, we have chosen a different path, one that integrates professional certifications into the academic journey, embeds entrepreneurial thinking as a universal competency, and treats industry alignment as a curriculum design principle, not a marketing claim. The employability lie is not something that happens to our students. It is something our institutions do to them. And we are the ones who must stop it.
Link of the Article:
https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/education-careers/the-employability-lie-why-indias-higher-education-is-still-producing-graduates-not-professionals-1076870
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About Author: Mr. Ajitesh Basani is the Executive Director of Acharya Bangalore B School (ABBS), Bengaluru. He writes on education, leadership, and what it might mean to build institutions that actually serve the people inside them.
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For media queries, please contact:
Dr. Nita Samantaray | dr.nita@abbs.edu.in
