New Delhi: India’s higher education system faces a growing disconnect with the changing demands of the labour market, with generic undergraduate degrees such as BA, BSc and BCom showing weak linkages with employment opportunities, according to a recent NITI Aayog report.
The report, titled “Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat 2047”, has called for a major restructuring of higher and technical education to make academic programmes more relevant to industry requirements and improve students’ employability.
It noted that curricula across a large number of educational institutions remain outdated and are not adequately aligned with evolving industry needs. Consequently, degrees, diplomas and certificates do not consistently translate into employment or job-ready skills.
The Economic Survey 2024-25 highlighted the extent of the problem, noting that only 8.25 per cent of graduates are employed in jobs aligned with their educational qualifications.
The NITI Aayog report also pointed to high levels of educated unemployment. Around 13 per cent of all graduates and 20.4 per cent of graduate women are unemployed, compared with the overall national unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent.
More Than 2 Crore Students Enrolled in BA, BSc and B.Com
The report has specifically raised concerns over the concentration of students in generic degree programmes that have limited direct links to employment.
Of the approximately 3.4 crore students enrolled in undergraduate programmes, around 1.13 crore are pursuing BA alone. Combined enrolment in BA, BSc and BCom programmes exceeds 2 crore.
According to NITI Aayog, a significant number of students pursue such conventional degrees primarily to remain eligible for government recruitment examinations and public-sector employment.
The intense competition for government jobs highlights the trend. Between November 2024 and July 2025, around 1.86 crore applications were received for just 55,000 government posts.
The report said this imbalance across degree colleges, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics underlines the need to fundamentally reorient the country’s education and skilling ecosystem.
Shift Towards Job-Linked Degree Programmes
NITI Aayog has recommended moving away from predominantly generic degree pathways towards specialised programmes designed around actual employment opportunities.
The report suggests introducing applied specialisations within high-enrolment programmes. Examples include BA Hospitality, BCom Analytics and BSc Applied Technology, which could provide students with both academic qualifications and skills relevant to specific industries.
Such programmes, the report argues, could help bridge the gap between what students learn in classrooms and the skills employers require.
Push for Apprenticeship and Work-Integrated Education
The report has also recommended a significant expansion of work-integrated and apprenticeship-embedded degree programmes (AEDPs).
Although frameworks for such programmes have already been introduced, their adoption remains limited compared with the scale of India’s higher education system.
NITI Aayog said wider adoption of apprenticeship-linked degrees could enable students to graduate with demonstrable workplace experience rather than entering the job market with only theoretical knowledge.
The report has further called for greater flexibility in the delivery of higher education through modular, part-time, hybrid and earn-while-you-learn models.
Such approaches would allow students to pursue education alongside employment, apprenticeships or other forms of practical training.
Greater Industry Role and PPP Models
NITI Aayog has emphasised that educational institutions cannot address the employability challenge in isolation and called for stronger participation from industry.
It recommended expanding public-private partnership (PPP) models and private-sector engagement in curriculum design, training and delivery.
According to the report, stronger industry partnerships would help modernise curricula, introduce job-linked learning and ensure that skilling programmes remain relevant to changing employment requirements.
The broader objective is to create an education system in which programmes are outcome-oriented, industry-integrated and flexible enough to respond to labour-market changes.
The recommendations come at a time when India is seeking to build a workforce capable of meeting the requirements of a rapidly changing economy. NITI Aayog’s assessment suggests that increasing the number of degree holders alone will not be sufficient; greater emphasis will have to be placed on the quality, relevance and employment outcomes of higher education.
