Report highlights revival of hiring intent, employability in higher education

New Delhi : The past five years have seen a rise in employability in higher education from 33 to 45 percent, a report drafted by a joint imitative of Wheebox, a global talent assessment company, PeopleStrong, an HR tech company and the CII stated.

While in 2014, the percentage of employable population was 33 percent, it has achieved a 5.6 percent increase to 45.60 percent this year. The key domains where the increase in employability has been very significant is engineering, pharma, MCA and other focused professional courses.

It has been found by Wheebox that focused vocational courses are creating more job ready candidates than generic courses. Also, the courses where practical experience and internships, have been included in the formal course content are faring better.

Another important aspect that has emerged from the supply side, came in the form of a reduction in employability amongst MBA courses. There is no such visible evidence; it seems that with exponential increase in the number of MBA colleges the quality of talent is seen to be declining, which needs government attention.

From the demand side, there is a positive indication as companies show a revival in their hiring intent. As per the India Hiring Intent survey, organisations across sectors expect 10-15 percent increase in hiring intent from last year to this year. While retail, banking, financial services and insurance sectors are anticipating an increase in the pace of hiring. Sectors like ITES, software, hardware and IT also foresee a moderate change in hiring numbers.

This year, the Wheebox report laid special focus on future jobs and the impact of automation to understand how they see jobs evolving in response to technology and innovation. 69 percent percent of the respondents clearly foresee the impact of automation, 24 percent employers indicate analytics and 15 percent foresee Artificial Intelligence as the emerging jobs.

Another insight from the Wheebox report is that close to 80 percent of candidates assessed are keen to explore internship opportunities and they believe that internship will help them in being employable, whereas 85 percent of the candidates feel that they are not fully equipped with information or guidance to take a conscious, thought-out career decision.

"India Skills Report findings this year has seen an improvement in employability, which is a good sign for the economy. The government's efforts towards skill development, especially in higher and vocational training institutions, are paving the way for quality hiring. Moreover, the efforts from the government and institutions are showing a positive trend. New career opportunity like AI, Robotics and data analytics are indicating an upward trend for these sectors," said Nirmal Singh, Founder and CEO of Wheebox.