As India pushes for closer integration between vocational and higher education, Pravesh Dudani, Founder and Chancellor of Medhavi Skills University, believes the country is moving in the right direction — but warns that structural gaps must be urgently addressed.
Pointing to initiatives such as Corporate Mitras, modular professional courses and NSQF pathways, Dudani said these efforts signal a clear shift towards convergence and a skill-first economy where capabilities and competencies will outshine degrees. Rising employability outcomes, he noted, indicate tangible progress.
However, he cautioned that curricula often lag behind workplace realities, industry engagement remains episodic, and work-integrated learning is yet to be embedded at scale. Bridging these gaps, he argued, requires deeper industry participation — from co-creating curricula and delivering training to building continuous feedback loops. While skill-focused institutions are advancing outcome-based, demand-aligned models, what remains mission-critical is systemic adoption across the ecosystem.
He stressed that scaling apprenticeships, internships and earn-while-learn pathways will be imperative if India is to position itself as a globally competitive talent hub powered by career-ready, future-first professionals.
Referring to recent Budget announcements such as Creator Labs, the AVGC push and AI-linked education-to-employment frameworks, Dudani said the recognition of technological disruption is timely. The real challenge, he emphasised, lies in translating policy intent into employability outcomes.
Skill universities, he said, must collaborate closely with industry to define roles by competency and design learning by outcome, embedding 50–70% practical exposure in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, animation, gaming and advanced manufacturing. Public-private partnerships (PPPs), he added, will play an indispensable role by enabling shared infrastructure, industry-first learning modules and tighter integration between education and market demand.
Calling this “the decade of execution,” Dudani underscored the need to strengthen competency-based skilling and work-integrated pathways to ensure measurable employability gains. “Walking the talk and ensuring implementation is a must,” he said.
Looking ahead to emerging sectors such as biopharma, creative tech, healthcare services and advanced manufacturing, Dudani advocated a shift from reactive workforce planning to anticipatory strategy. He proposed the concept of “Skillonomics” — viewing skills as economic capital that fuels productivity, innovation and long-term competitiveness.
For India to realise its ambition of becoming a global talent hub, he argued, skilling must be anchored in sectoral intelligence, labour-market forecasting and industry–academia co-creation. Industries, he said, should actively help upgrade curricula with a solution-oriented focus, particularly in rapidly expanding domains like AVGC, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
“The future of work will not reward degrees in isolation,” Dudani said. “It will reward competency over credentials — skills that make a difference and solve real problems.”