Ninety three per cent of MBAs and eighty per cent of engineering graduates in India are unemployable, owing to the lack of connect between what they are taught in colleges, and the industry requirements. The fact has been highlighted in the latest Higher Education report by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and Ernst and Young (EY).

According to employers, often companies rely more on their own training given to the newly hired graduates rather than what the new employees learn in college, before assigning them work.

“The numbers are quite alarming and the credit for this goes to all the local institutes which have mushroomed in every nook and corner of India, certifying students as MBAs and engineers. It hardly matters what degree people have in hand but the point that matters is that they have to be ‘employable’ and future trainable,” Sunaina Mattoo Khanna, Chief People Officer & Head- Transformation, Bajaj Capital said. “We ourselves are surprised that many candidates with MBA degrees from these small institutes fail miserably in general aptitude or IQ tests. Even questions like what are the highest slabs of tax etc. are not known to them. Other factors include, students who have a vision of self-employment and remain unemployed for a longer time because of rising capital, discussing business plans etc,” she added.

Meher Sarid, Group President, Corporate Affairs, Marketing & HR, Oxigen Services, said: “I do not think that graduates are unemployable but there is definitely a need to train and handhold them to mould them in the organization’s style of functioning.

We hire engineers and MBAs from all kinds of institutes, from IITs to the smaller educational institutions, and training is common for all of them. Of course there is a difference in expectation from graduates who come from IITs and IIMs.”

India produces more than six million graduates every year. However, a majority of them are not ‘industry-ready’ because of the skill-gap, notes the report. According to the observations made in the report, the outdated curriculum being taught to students adds up to the skill-gap. Inadequate infrastructure and poor quality of faculty, combined with old delivery platforms, make it difficult to equip students with relevant skills, it adds.

Some universities have, however, now started to bridge this gap by including professional training and skills as a compulsory part of the curriculum. Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) Pilani has a Practice School, which provides industry training to students.

BM Munjal university also has a Centre of Excellence where students interact with industry experts to learn skills. Soft-skills, is an essential element in in the business world, which is a major hurdle in students being industry-ready, according to the report.