Higher Education can a Pivotal Role in Bridging India's Skill Gap

The stakes related to the quality and the quantity of the education in our ever-connected and highly competitive era are steadily well-appreciated.

In effect, today's rapidly evolving economic environment makes developing new skills an imperative across job profiles and sectors.

A study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, to evaluate India's growing skills challenge and proposed recommendations to bridge the gap is clear.

• 61% of India's surveyed educators indicate that the higher education system is unable to respond to changing societal needs.
• 70% of India's venture capitalists indicated that startups cannot find employees with the right skills.
• Only 40% of Indian industry executives said new employees recruited in local labor markets have requisite skills.
• 73% of India's education leaders surveyed say new technologies are disrupting higher education.

Therefore, at IBM, they believe in providing an environment that fosters new learning and development experiences aided by the power of technology.

The firm recommends:

Develop more practical, experience-based education: Rethink higher education curricula by identifying opportunities to infuse experience-based and real-world learning experiences and embracing new teaching technologies and techniques. Higher education institutions should build alliances with industry partners, share learnings and refine strategies.

Embrace technologies that improve educational access, experiences, and outcomes: Assess current capabilities and requirements, experiment with using new technologies and extend capabilities through ecosystem partners.

Build deeper relationships with ecosystem partner: Define and reach consensus with key partners around a common vision for the education ecosystem, with clearly defined commitments from all partners.