India’s CSR-led skilling ecosystem is trapped in a paradox. For years, companies have pumped billions of rupees into short-term, classroom-based skilling programmes. Yet, behind closed doors, the very executives funding these programmes now admit that these aren’t working.
An exclusive report to be released this week by TeamLease EdTech Foundation, titled ‘Projects to Pipelines: The Shift from Short-Term Skilling to Work-Linked Employability Pathways,’ notes that while “short-term skilling programmes have driven scale, they are being seen as insufficient for building long-term careers.”
The report – which surveyed 860 decision-makers across CSR, HR, and corporate leadership – adds that a staggering 95% of employers state that classrooms alone do not create job-ready talent.
If corporate India knows that classroom training isn’t working as well as it should, why are they still funding it?
The report reveals a disconnect: while 62% of organisations continue to fund short-term classroom initiatives – usually lasting 3-4 months and focusing on a single hard skill – they do so largely because these programmes are efficient to deploy and scale, rather than effective. This highlights a form of corporate inertia where ease of implementation often overrides actual employment outcomes.
“India’s skilling challenge is evolving from one of access to one of employability,” Shantanu Rooj, founder & CEO, TeamLease EdTech, told this newspaper. “In an economy where technology and job roles are constantly changing, individuals need more than training certificates—they need the ability to learn, adapt and remain employable throughout their careers.”
Industry experts and HR leaders note that short-term classroom training fits neatly into a spreadsheet. “The structure allows a company to train a batch of candidates, satisfy regulatory compliance, and secure brand visibility within a single annual reporting cycle,” an HR consultant working with the auto sector said. “But this system prioritises course completion metrics over sustainable livelihoods.”
But the report adds that this is changing, and there are signs that corporate India is ready to break out of its compliance comfort zone. According to the findings, over 75% of surveyed organisations indicate an intent to reallocate future CSR investments away from isolated training projects and towards long-term, work-linked pathways that incorporate workplace exposure. In addition, nearly 85% of corporate leaders acknowledge that blended, work-linked models deliver a far higher long-term social ROI than standalone classroom learning, and 79% agree that stipend-supported ‘earn-while-you-learn’ models offer a self-sustaining pathway for learners to complete longer training journeys.
Rooj said that for HR and CSR leaders, the recommendations are clear: stop funding isolated programmes and start funding career pathways. “We must move away from tracking the number of people trained, towards long-term job retention,” he said. “Only by shifting from short-term fixes to continuous talent pipelines can India transform its skilling crisis into a true demographic dividend.”