By K Pushpanadham & Ashok K Pandey
For millions of young Indians, a university degree represents more than an academic qualification. It is expected that education will lead to meaningful work, economic security, and a life of dignity. But degrees alone cannot guarantee a demographic dividend. What matters is whether education develops capabilities that young people can use productively, and whether the economy creates opportunities for them to do so.
If every difficulty in the transition from college to work is described as a ‘skills gap’, the response may be more training even when suitable jobs are unavailable. Conversely, focusing only on job creation can overlook the preparation people need to enter, perform, and progress in the workplace. India must address both sides.
Beyond the ‘employability’ label
The India Employment Report 2024, prepared by the International Labour Organisation and the Institute for Human Development, estimated unemployment among young graduates at 29.1% in 2022. This highlights the difficulty many educated young people face in moving from higher education into employment. But unemployment does not, by itself, establish that graduates lack ability.
Some graduates may lack the competencies their qualifications are expected to represent. Others may have useful capabilities but find too few suitable opportunities. Wages, location, working conditions, and access to professional networks also influence employment outcomes. Young people may even be expected to have work experience before they have had a meaningful opportunity to acquire it. The language of ‘unemployability’ can, therefore, obscure a shared responsibility.
Connecting learning, work, research
Education, employment, and research should be viewed as parts of one knowledge ecosystem. Education develops the capacity to understand and investigate; employment provides opportunities to apply and refine those capabilities; research generates knowledge that can improve products, processes, services, and public policy. India’s research trajectory offers encouragement. According to the Department of Science and Technology’s Research and Development Statistics 2025-26, R&D expenditure increased from 0.64% of GDP in 2020-21 to 0.84% in 2023-24. Researchers per million population increased from 262 to 354. Yet investment must be accompanied by institutions capable of producing credible knowledge and translating it into practice.
The foundations begin in school. A project on campus water consumption, for example, could require students to measure usage, identify wastage, calculate costs, and test solutions. Science, mathematics, communication, and teamwork converge around a real problem whose answer is not supplied in advance. Such learning requires teachers trained for inquiry-based pedagogy and assessment systems that value problem-solving.
Higher education should build on this foundation. Programmes should make clearer what graduates can investigate, design, create, or improve. Projects, fieldwork, research assignments, and practical tasks should complement conventional examinations. Universities must continue to cultivate critical thinking, ethical judgement, citizenship, and intellectual curiosity.
From placements to pathways
Two changes could give these ambitions practical shape. First, colleges, universities, and industrial training institutions should establish sustained partnerships with employers for paid and supervised work experience. Each placement should have a learning plan, workplace mentor, and academic supervisor. Industry associations can help smaller enterprises share coordination costs. Access should not depend on a student’s ability to undertake unpaid work.
Second, universities should develop continuing research partnerships with enterprises and public institutions around clearly identified problems. Collaboration should move beyond memoranda of understanding towards jointly defined research questions, reliable funding, and shared responsibility. Desired outcomes should protect fundamental research whose value may emerge over time.
A billion possibilities become a national dividend only when people have both the capability to contribute and the opportunity to do so. That responsibility belongs collectively to India’s schools, universities, employers, research institutions, and public policy makers.
Prof K Pushpanadham is a senior professor and head, Department of Educational Administration, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara. Ashok K Pandey is director, GEMS Millennium School, Ghaziabad, NCR