Integrating Skill-Based Education in Indian Higher Education Sector: Transitioning From Academia to Workplace

Skills are considered as the essential pillar for employment and enhanced economic growth of a nation. The persistent industrial market demand for employability skills has provided a requirement to integrate skill-based education in higher education intending to develop graduates' future work-ready. Thereby, a considerable necessity has been felt to align higher education with skill-based education and to incorporate skill-based education as the essential part of the higher education system. Expanding access to skill-based education in higher education can enhance the competitiveness of a nation in the global world. Countries like Switzerland and Germany well-renowned for their extensive dual systems of vocational education and training have attained worldwide recognition. Thus, the present paper focuses on Swiss and Germany dual systems and provides an overview of how such dual system of vocational education and skill training brings together classroom learning and learning at the workplace. Furthermore, in perspective of India, having an advantage of demographic dividend signifies a huge opportunity for the nation to enhance its economic growth by effectively investing in skill-based education and learning to develop the nation’s youth self-reliant and industry work-ready. Thereby, considering the requirement for entrepreneurship and employability, the Indian Government has taken several key initiatives on skill development based higher education leading to the launch of various vocational programmes in higher education. The present paper discusses about such key initiatives and highlights higher education institution initiatives in the form of establishment of Skill Universities in India and outlines the perceived learning outcomes as the development of employability skills. The paper further explores the challenges still facing the skill development system and suggests key recommendations that could be emphasized and adopted to resolve such challenges in the context of India.