Degrees vs Skills: What India's employers really want in 2025

In the fast-changing job scenario of India, traditional qualifications are gradually giving way to the relevance of practical skills. In a country where academic qualifications have been a guaranteed way to get jobs, today it is competencies required to meet specific industry needs that employers want. All this has been triggered by technological development, change in employer expectations, and increased consciousness about the worth of experience.

THE CONVENTIONAL VALUE OF DEGREES

A degree has conventionally served as an entry ticket to a well-paying job in India. Certain fields have conventionally been associated with employability and social respect, such as engineering and medicine. But with every evolution of the industries, questions have been raised over the relevance of certain degrees.

India Skills Report 2024: Only 51.25% of its youth are employable, while states like Haryana and Maharashtra top the chart with a higher employability rate, underlining a big gap in skills overall. Mercer-Mettl's India Graduate Skill Index 2025: Employability has come down to 42.6%, with the sharpest decline in non-technical streams comprising HR and digital marketing, while technical domains buck the trend, with AI and machine learning leading the charge at 46.1% employability reported in such streams. Economic Survey 2024-25: While as many as 50% of the graduates are underemployed in low-skilled jobs, only 8.25% had jobs matching their qualifications. This mismatch brings forth the dire need for the alignment of education with industry requirements. BRIDGING THE GAP: INITIATIVES AND SOLUTIONS To bridge the widening skills gap, a number of initiatives have been launched: National Internship, Placement Training, and Assessment: NIPTA, recently launched by IIT Madras, is intended to provide a standardized benchmark on job readiness in the country and enhance relevance between education and industry requirements. Vocational Training Centres: Centres such as Unnati Foundation offer skill development programs and guarantee placements in a job in 35 days or even less. Such centers train small-town youth in BFSI, BPOs, and telecalling. Government Schemes: The scheme Yuva Nidhi and other such schemes launched in Karnataka provide financial assistance to unemployed youth to train in skills for enhancing employability, hence reducing underemployment. THE FUTURE OUTLOOK With India marching toward a knowledge-based economy, the focus is bound to shift to skills. As per the World Economic Forum, this is a trend most likely to continue, with 63% of the Indian workforce needing to be retrained due to new technologies by 2030. As a matter of fact, this underlines an increasing need for continuous learning and adaptability within the workforce. While degrees are going to remain important in certain fields of study, the future of employment in India will be accomplished by skilled professionals. Both educational institutions and employers must join hands in making sure that curricula are matched with industry demands and individuals are provided with those skills needed to thrive in a dynamic job market.