The Rising Demand For Skilled Professionals In The Modern Workforce

As technology continues to reshape a global workplace dominated by automation, AI, and business model evolution, the demand for applicable, job-relevant skills has never been higher. Presidency School of Commerce at Presidency University understands changes in the workplace and is cultivating skill-based learning in its curriculum to prepare students for the workplace, not just the classroom. What was once thought to be enough was only the beginning of one's career path.

 

Employers are looking for candidates who can demonstrate functional competencies, flexibility, and application of the theory in practice when hiring. In contrast, the Presidency School of Commerce encourages students to build real-life knowledge with domain-based knowledge through many curriculum embedded and co-curricular opportunities to participate in internships, simulations, project-based learning, and industry engagement opportunities.

 

Service-oriented and advanced industries such as: software development, data analytics, digital marketing, renewable energy, and health care services are in dire need of skilled workers. Employers' hiring trends around desired experience suggest that individuals with skills, demonstrated through actual outputs, are preferred over individuals with academic credentials; teams look for outputs like well-done coding for a site, campaign stats from a successful marketing campaign, or an applied research project that produced real-world outcomes. This is representative of similar outcomes in the rest of the workforce.

 

Skill-Based Learning in Higher Education: An Operational Imperative

In an employment ecosystem that is characterised by disruption, the value of higher education increasingly relies on an institution's ability to produce work-ready graduates. Skill-based learning is not merely a best practice but a factor of pedagogy. Institutions with curriculums designed to respond to an institutional and social crisis are better poised to add to graduates' employability and social value; therefore, adding to the value of higher education.

At Presidency University, skill-based modules are integrated into all parts of the curriculum - from subject and industry certifications to assessments that measure students' analytical toolkits; soft skills; and digital fluency. Courses are designed with an outcome-based orientation that focuses on learning as a measure of demonstration rather than retention. This means students complete their degree with a portfolio that shows their ability to undertake quantitative analysis, policy recommendations, marketing plans, business process models, etc., rather than transcripts.

 

Experiential Pedagogies: The Bridge Between Theory and Practice

Experiential learning has taken hold as a form of bridging the gap between academic notions of understanding and realities of their industrial applications. For example, at Presidency School of Commerce we use live business simulations, financial modelling labs, real-time data interpretative workshops and entrepreneurship development cells enable students instead of being passive, approach their learning in more active ways that can formulate questions to solve.

This form of pedagogical approach increases engagement, greater depth of cognitive skills, and an agile formation of thinking. The soft skills introduced, developed and refined are reflective of those needed to work in formal, informal, and ad-hoc operating positions with organizations including teamwork, communication, situational awareness and critical thinking.

 

Skill Demonstration rather than Credential Inflation

The modern employer has the ability and aptitude to place a higher value on demonstrated and observable outcomes than equivalent paper outcomes. This is especially true in high growth sectors such as software development, data analytics and interpretation, digital marketing, renewable energy, and healthcare service. If you take into account social innovation, hiring will increasingly focus on validation and evidence of actual demonstrated skills in the intentional world of work – demonstrated skills, as examples, of developing an algorithm, vectoring market data, optimizing a supply chain, and conducting a cost-benefit analysis.

Students coming from academic ecosystems which value this mode of performance-based learning will find themselves in a much more advantageous situation. At Presidency University, this is accomplished by emphasizing student portfolios, project banks, and making students' work and professional portfolios digitally accessible.

 

Conclusion: A curriculum that reflects the future in a world of skills at Presidency School of Commerce at Presidency University believes that preparing students for the world of work is no longer about providing them with knowledge; it is equipping them with competence, context, and confidence.

 

The growth in the demand for skilled professionals will require a committed and intentional reorientation of educational priorities. Higher education should account for the necessary skill competencies and the students' value beyond their degrees.

 

All stakeholders including faculty, curriculum developers, and institutions must be clear from the outset of the student learning journey to work collaboratively to develop a transformed learning environment where students are not just graduating with a degree, but graduating with a demonstrable value.

 

 

Written by,

Dr. Meenakshi Y.

Assistant Professor, Presidency School of Commerce