Employability skills: key for fresh graduates

With the challenging employment environment along with there being only a small fraction of fresh graduates actually employable, industry experts blame lack of awareness for there low employability quotient.

Beyond the academic knowledge that the colleges impart, industry expects graduates to possess foundational professional skills in their core domain, technology, communication and aptitude, collectively termed as employability skills.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) partner company, TalentSprint had organised the first-of-its-kind industry-connect event, where industry experts will share their views on emerging recruitment trends and their expectations from fresh graduates, in Pune on October 26. The organisation has also announced that it will organise such events for the benefit of job aspirants countrywide. 

CEO and MD, TalentSprint, Santanu Paul said that entry-level talent needs of industry are changing significantly and instead of conventional on-campus recruitment en masse, employers now prefer custom recruitment solutions that lead to greater workforce flexibility, leaner benches and reduced training costs. 

“For entry-level recruits to be relevant to the industry, colleges must avoid mediocrity and build a culture of skills excellence, to ensure recognition by employers,” he said.

Talking about their strategy, CEO and MD, NSDC, Dilip Chenoy, said they are very concerned about the low employability of college graduates. 

“Our strategy is to promote skills awareness and industrial training among the freshers through our partner companies. Connecting industry and academia to have candid conversations on prevailing skill gaps and using in-college interventions to address these gaps is a critical requirement for a competitive knowledge economy,” he said.

Some skills sought by employers:

Foundational professional skills in core domain 

knowledge of technology, 

communication skills

aptitude for chosen work