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Why This Country’s MBAs Are Becoming Less Employable

Think an MBA makes professionals more employable? That may not the case anymore in India.

Quartz reports that the MBA, despite being a popular degree in India, has experienced a 3% year-on-year drop in the employability of its graduates.

A Drop In Quality

Wheebox, which conducted the study based on a survey of 300,000 students and over 100 large employers, found that the MBA in India has almost become too popular.

“MBA has become new B Tech where everyone wants to get MBA degree irrespective of their graduation degree and score in entrance tests,” Wheebox’s study reads. “MBA colleges are enrolling students even if the student has not appeared for any of the MBA entrance test. Drop in quality of student intake over years due to negligence in student selection process and lack of industry internship programs or low attendance in industry internship programs are reasons of this drop among many others.”

The Need To Reskill

What can India do to change this? Well, according to the report, there’s a need to reskill workers and graduates.

“Employers need to work with education providers so that students learn the skills they need to succeed at work, and governments also have a crucial role to play,” the report says. “But there is little clarity on which practices and interventions work and which can be scaled up.”

One thing is for certain: automation is putting a lot of jobs at risk. The best way to keep up with automation? Learn the skills required to capitalize on it.

“Rapid advances in automation technologies are affecting India’s information technology and business process outsourcing sectors,” the report reads. “These sectors have remained net job creators, and the industry estimates that companies could hire up to 2.5 to 3 million more workers by 2025, provided they can acquire the skills needed to meet changing needs.”

Part of reskilling, according to Wheebox, is learning how to work alongside automation.

“The emerging nature of work coupled with the impact of automation is likely to mean that individuals and organisations will have to look at (new) skill sets… which aid either the design of interactions or interactions with both humans and machines,” the report reads.

Sources: Quartz, Wheebox

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