Employability and Skill Development in India: A Review and Future Directions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review research on Employability and skill development in India to find out the input and output measures and causes of unemployability .The research aims to identify gaps in the current body of knowledge, which justify future research directions. Design/Methodology/approach – Using literature review (LR) method, the present study reviews 30 articles from newspaper, journals of International and National repute published on relevant themes. Findings – Detailed content analysis reveals that most of the research work is descriptive and highlights required employability skills in graduates ,engineers and MBA’s .The research work concludes that % of students who are aware of employability skills are not known .There was no research work on the methodology to assess skills and the selection tests used by different firms .The industry academia linkage is missing and hence the curriculum updation has not kept pace with changes in technology everywhere i.e. automation and robotics .Another issue is that there is a deficit in training capacity and 90% of workforce doesnot have a formal training in India and youth dropout is observed in rural India.Mismatch in pace of job creation and workforce generation is resulting in increased unemployment . Practical implications –Research papers on how institute should adapt to external changes are rare and the “TRANSITION” model recommended in this paper explains the methodology to adapt to changes in technology, Government laws etc which can help in strengthening the industry academia linkage. Originality/value –The research paper proposes the TRANSITION MODEL which highlights how an institute can adapt to external environmental changes and changing skill set requirements of employers .An ishikawa diagram for unemployability is prepared which lists all the factors that have an effect on skill development and employability .It lists the most sought after skills required by Indian graduates, Engineers and MBA based on literature review