NEW DELHI: Indians are graduating in greater numbers than ever, but only 8.25% are finding jobs related to what they have studied. A new Niti Aayog paper flags the widening gap between India’s education system and the skills demanded by the job market.
India is producing more graduates than ever before, but a new Niti Aayog paper published in August suggests that the country is struggling to convert those degrees into jobs that actually use what students have studied. The problem, according to the Niti Aayog paper, is not simply unemployment. It is a deeper mismatch between education, skills and the job market.
The paper, titled Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat @2047, published on Tuesday (August 18), reveals that “only 8.25% of graduates are employed in roles aligned with their qualifications”. The paper attributes this figure to the Economic Survey 2024-25.
The Niti Aayog is the main policy think tank of the central government that provides strategic and technical advice to the central and state governments.
The recent data from the Niti paper hints at a simple question that what happens to the millions of youths who spend years earning degrees but emerge without a clear pathway to a job related to what they study?
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in an interview with The Indian Express newspaper published on August 17, threw light on a similar concern. When asked about graduates who are neither employed nor in education or training, and the country’s heavy dependence on government jobs despite their small share of total employment, Sitharaman said that the fundamental problem begins with the courses themselves.
“Courses which all of us go and join and come out of don’t ready you for jobs,” she said, adding, “They often do not prepare students to become entrepreneurs either.”
The Union finance minister’s criticism goes to the heart of what is now revealed in the Niti Aayog report.
INDIA’S EDUCATION CRISIS: DEGREES WITHOUT A DESTINATION
Niti Aayog describes India’s higher and technical education system as having a “fundamental disconnect” between what is taught and what the labour market demands. The paper highlights that the curricula remain outdated in many institutions and are not sufficiently aligned with changing industry requirements. As a result, degrees, diplomas and certificates do not consistently translate into employability.
The scale of India’s generic-degree ecosystem makes the problem particularly significant.
Of the 3.4 crore students enrolled in undergraduate (UG) programmes, 1.13 crore are enrolled in Bachelor of Arts (BA) alone, while combined enrolment in BA, Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) exceeds two crore.
The paper says that these programmes have “weak job linkages”, with many students pursuing degrees partly because they provide “eligibility for government recruitment”.
Sitharaman in the interview made the same point through the example of conventional university education.
“A student completes a BA in economics or political science and then, what comes next? Often, another degree. But even after a Master of Arts (MA), there may still be no clear professional pathway unless the student moves into research or acquires something beyond the academic qualification,” she said.
Thus, the problem is not that a BA, BCom or BSc have no value. It is that the degree often does not tell the student or the employer what the graduate can actually do.
Niti Aayog puts it more directly in its paper, saying, “Generic BA, BCom and BSc degrees “seldom translate into direct employment, while even entry-level jobs can require additional workplace skills such as Tally or Office applications.”
INDIANS ARE GETTING EDUCATED BUT THEY ARE NOT JOB-READY
The mismatch highlighted by Niti Aayog’s paper is visible not only in employment figures but also in what students themselves say they are missing.
The paper cites evidence that 34% of students identify lack of skills as a key pain point while pursuing degrees, while 18% cite lack of interview preparation. It also points to gaps in digital and communication skills among workers.
Perhaps the more striking revelation is that 80% of learners cite lack of practical experience and industry exposure as a major gap in their degrees.
This exposes the central weakness of the education system that has traditionally measured success through enrolment, examinations and degrees rather than what happens when students leave the classroom.
