What does the industry expect from high school graduates?

For far too long, the incumbent education system has grappled with the concept of ‘readiness’. This is partly because we are educating our children to be ready for jobs that may be redundant or obsolete in the future. Nobody knows what the jobs of the future will look like at this point. As a result, our learners are only being armed with our education system’s understanding of the industry needs. When a majority of our decision-making is based on assumptions and chance, it is little wonder that a multitude of our youth is deemed unemployable even after being subjected to years of rigorous schooling.

So where exactly is the chink in the armour?

If the academia needs to prepare learners better for college, career or life in general, it needs to join hands with the industry for the long run. Students greatly benefit from the mentorship of industry experts who have gathered insights and experiences during their journeys to the top.

At Beyond 8, we have built strong bonds with the industry leaders through the Tathastu program to help ourselves and our learners to stay relevant. We recently sat down with some of our industry partners to talk about their views on the kind of people they are looking to hire.

Suresh Sambandam, CEO, Kissflow:

“You don’t need to master every subject to succeed today. You only need to know how to upscale your skill set when the situation demands it. It is a myth that skills can be learnt only through three- or four-year college degrees. You can learn the same skills in a shorter time through other unconventional methods (such as online courses), apply those skills on a project and still be at par with those who went to college.” – Karthikeyan Sivasubramanian, Data Scientist and Analyst

How do you think learners of today can better prepare for the constantly evolving job market? Tell us in the comments below.