Ways to develop industry-aligned pathways to bridge the gap between education and employment | Chhandan Chakraborty | Co-Founder | Third Bracket (A leading smart hiring platform)

The education and employment gap is a global concern, particularly in rapidly changing sectors. The existing curriculum often falls behind industry requirements, leaving graduates unprepared. In my opinion, it’s not just a need but a necessity to have a skilled workforce, especially as entry-level jobs are vanishing.

While organizations are keen to on-board skill-ready professionals, universities seek to enhance employability. Organized and industry-aligned pathways are needed; we require a more skills-driven curriculum to minimize this gap. With international evidence and creative training, this gap can be effectively bridged.

Understanding the Gap: Why Education Falls Short

One of the biggest reasons for the education-employment gap lies in the lack of alignment between academic education and the demands of corporations or organizations.

These points are discussed globally, and we are all aligned with them.

Gap in Skill Alignment: A recent report from the World Economic Forum talks about a 40% skills mismatch, highlighting the difference between what organizations expect and what they are getting from the labor market. This is a significant gap in the current scenario, and it will continue to increase unless we take specific steps to resolve it.

Speedy Technological Innovations: McKinsey, along with similar reports, indicates that 60% of current job roles will become obsolete due to automation and the increased use of AI. Are educational bodies aware of these reports? Are they proactively introducing new curricula to support the industry?

Lack of Hands-on Training: The existing curriculum places a heavy emphasis on theoretical knowledge, resulting in less exposure to real-world problem statements that are more aligned with industry needs.

Obsolete Models of Assessment: Competencies are important when creating a holistic assessment plan. Most current assessments measure knowledge, not skills. Hence, a structured assessment model is needed to understand the gap and create a contextual plan to minimize it.

Steps Towards Minimizing this Gap and Developing Industry-Aligned Pathways These are global issues, and both corporations and academia must come forward to create a joint roadmap to structure the way forward.

Here are five points where industry and academia have to work together:

1. Industry-Education Partnerships Strengthened
We need a strong and regular connection between industry and academia. This will help in generating employment opportunities. We can highlight two successful initiatives:
 Industry-Oriented, Skill-Focused Training: Organizations are partnering with universities and colleges to focus on customized courses and train professionals with specific skills.
 Collaborative Research & Development Projects: Large organizations are proactively setting up incubation centres within academia campuses. This initiative helps them bring their use cases and allows academia to focus on specific scenarios to build talent.

2. Skill-Based Certifications
Organizations are placing more importance on certifications than degrees. The inclusion of certificates can effectively fill the skill gaps.
 Credentials & Bite-Sized Learning: Bite-sized learning and focused certifications help learners specialize in specific domains and industry applications.
 On-the-Job Learning & Internships: Practical skills are provided to learners through real-world projects and during internships.
 AI-Driven Industry-Specific Assessments: AI-based platforms help organizations test knowledge of specific industries and competencies.

3. Bring New Age Technologies into the Curriculum
While not all organizations are IT companies, all organizations rely on IT. The inclusion of advanced or new-age technology-oriented courses will help learners become part of a future-ready workforce:

1. AI & Data Science, ML, NLP, LLM
2. More emphasis on OEM-driven new-age tech training and certifications
3. Utilizing VR & AR simulated environments will help learners’ access actual working environments.

4. Skills-Based Assessment – Weightage on Skills, Not Knowledge Assessment will play a critical role in this journey.

Assessments should reflect industry-valued competencies, and academic bodies should consider implementing the following steps:

Business leaders will look for critical skills in the current age, such as a data-driven approach and storytelling. There has to be an exhaustive assessment where organizations can assess such capabilities before making final decisions.

Recruitment and internship phases can be improved by assessments created using AI-driven simulations, which will help candidates become job-ready.

Academic bodies should make continuous assessment part of the curriculum, which will help them judge candidates continuously, not based on a single point exam.

5. Create a Culture of Learning & Upskilling
Lifelong learning is a strong theme organizations are following. This initiative also creates a sense of urgency among learners due to the volatile outside world. Major steps are being taken in this space:

 Reskilling initiatives by Industry
 AI-driven learning paths & platforms
 Global Workforce Mobility Training
In the end, we need all hands on deck.

We need to take strong steps to bridge this gap. Industry and academia must work on a strategic roadmap to minimize it. We need strategic and industry-driven approaches, integrating skill certifications, greater adoption of innovative technology, more emphasis on assessments focused on competencies, and encouraging lifelong learning to become part of the global talent pool.