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Ahead of World Youth Skills Day, education and industry leaders call for stronger industry-academia collaboration to make India’s youth job-ready
NEW DELHI / July 14, 2025: Marking the global occasion of World Youth Skills Day, Medhavi Skills University (MSU), India’s pioneering industry-integrated skills university, hosted a workshop in Delhi to spark meaningful dialogue around the future of education, employability, and India’s evolving skilling landscape.
Centered on the theme, “Industry-Led Skill-Based Education: A New Paradigm for Atmanirbhar Bharat,” the event underscored the pressing need to reimagine traditional learning frameworks in light of NEP 2020, which calls for a stronger emphasis on on-the-job learning, skilling, and real-world exposure. With technology and industries evolving at breakneck speed, staying relevant in today’s job market requires not just foundational knowledge but continuous upskilling, making industry-integrated education more important than ever for academic institutions.
The workshop witnessed insightful discussions led by Mr. Pravesh Dudani, Founder & Chancellor, MSU; Mr. Kuldip Sarma, Co-Founder & Pro-Chancellor; and Mr. Devender K Saini, Group Chief Strategy Officer, along with senior deans and academic leaders from MSU. The panelists emphasized that education must keep pace with the industry to harness the potential of India’s demographic dividend. Curriculum innovation must be agile, dynamic, and industry-relevant to meet the demands of a rapidly shifting technological landscape, they added.
The Employability Crisis: A National Concern
Speaking at the event, Mr. Pravesh Dudani stated, “Industry continues to evolve at a fast pace that traditional education struggles to match. While NEP 2020 lays a strong foundation for embedding skills meaningfully, there is now a valuable opportunity to accelerate its implementation and scale its impact through work-integrated education pathways. Over 60% of Indian graduates are not job-ready due to lack of practical training and workplace exposure. Industry integrated, on-the-job learning models present a viable way- enabling learners to gain real-world experience and earn through innovative industry-academia collaborations. This helps industries address critical skill gaps, improve retention, and foster greater productivity through a workforce that is industry-aligned from day one, massively solving the employability crisis.”
According to the India Skills Report 2025, only 54.81% of Indian youth are considered employable, and the figure is even lower in high-demand sectors like electric vehicles, renewable energy, and semiconductors. This skill mismatch is not just an educational issue; it directly affects India’s productivity, innovation capacity, and long-term economic competitiveness.
Bridging the Industry-Academia Divide
Stressing the critical need for deeper industry-academia convergence, Mr. Kuldip Sarma, Co-Founder & Pro-Chancellor, MSU, said: “The real breakthrough will come when industry stops being just a recruiter and starts becoming a co-educator. Educational institutions must move beyond theory-heavy teaching and focus on work-integrated learning where students are hired as trainees from day one, learn while working, and graduate with both a degree and 2-3 years of work experience. This pragmatic link between industry and academia equips youth with future-ready skills while expanding access to quality, affordable and work-relevant learning.”
NEP 2020: Enabler of a Skills-First Ecosystem
Experts at the workshop agreed that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 offers a powerful roadmap for change, promoting flexible, modular, and skill-integrated education frameworks that are responsive to industry needs.
Dr. Lalit Narayan, Dean – Academics & Skill Integration at MSU, said: “NEP 2020 enables us to shift from rigid degree models to outcome-based, learner-centric pathways. Through mechanisms like the National Credit Framework (NCrF), Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), we can recognise and reward practical learning, including workplace experience. This is not just reform, it’s a revolution in how we see learning and livelihood.”
Stressing upon the importance of changing societal perceptions around skill-based learning, Ms. Jassi Dimple, Vice President & Dean (Academic Affairs), MSU, said: “We must shift the narrative from ‘degree is destiny’ to ‘skills are the new currency.’ Students and parents must see vocational pathways not as second-best, but as equally prestigious and future-ready.”
India’s demographic dividend presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but only if the country can skill at scale, with quality and relevance. Mr. Devender K Saini, MSU’s Group Chief Strategy Officer, said: “India cannot afford to have a disconnect between education and employment. The future lies in integrated models that combine academic excellence, practical exposure, and policy alignment. As an NEP 2020-aligned skills university, MSU is proud to lead this national shift, delivering 50% of its work-integrated curriculum through on-the-job learning.”
Seizing the Demographic Opportunity
With nearly 1 crore young individuals entering the workforce each year, and only around half deemed employable, the need for skill-integrated, industry-aligned education models has never been more urgent. Bridging this gap is not just an economic imperative; it is a national mission. Institutions like MSU are proving that when academia and industry collaborate meaningfully, we can equip India’s youth with the skills, confidence, and global competitiveness required to lead the world into the future.
