About 54 per cent of the youth in India are not job-ready, the latest India Skills report 2019-20 states. The report, which is conducted by a public-private partnership including the AICTE, also states that the employability of female candidates will be a notch higher than male candidates — this is a step closer to minimising the gap between the number of male and female employees.

"Employability of India’s youth has remained stagnant for the past three years, only about 46% of participants are job-ready. The state of employability has not improved over the last few years, implying the need for more robust actions," says the report. The outdated curriculum has been cited as the biggest deterrent in the right skilling of a candidate. Making small tweaks to the system will not be enough, says the report. "The Government along with the industry and academia could plan to revise the entire curriculum and teaching practices. Reviewing the teachers’ training and infrastructure in schools and colleges would be imperative in this direction. Imparting practical-oriented knowledge and helping in cultivating the right attitude among students towards job and learning, beginning at the school level itself will result in effective influence over the individuals," it adds.

The report also states that even though MBAs are still at the top of the employability list, the employability of a graduate in Bachelors of Arts has doubled since 2014. BSc degrees have not been a hit in the current season even though till last year they were gaining ground. Degrees like MCA and BPharma have lost their market over the past seven years too. Banking and Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) BPO, KPO and ITeS Internet business will be the top sectors for 2020, predicted the report.

The report also explored which states have the highest employability — Tamil Nadu is set to have the highest employable population in 2020. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are also on the top slots. Mumbai is the highest employable city followed by Hyderabad. Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pune, Lucknow and Chennai have maintained their presence in the top 10 list over the past 6 years. States that registered a dip in their ranking were West Bengal (second most employable last year) and Haryana which could not make it into the top 10 list.

The report is a joint initiative of Wheebox (a Global Talent Assessment Company), Taggd by PeopleStrong and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with UNDP, AICTE and Association of Indian Universities (AIU). The survey was conducted from July 2019 to November 2019. More than 3,00,000 students participated across 3,500 educational institutions in India’s one of the most notable employability tests conducted nationwide