At a time when employers are increasingly prioritising adaptability over static qualifications, VIT Vice-President G. Viswanathan Selvam underscored a message that has become central to India's employment debate: career prospects now depend as much on continuous upskilling as on formal degrees. Speaking at a job fair organised to mark the birthday of G.V. Selvam, he said students and young professionals must prepare themselves for a labour market shaped by technological change, shifting industry expectations and tighter competition for entry-level roles.
Skills Over Degrees
Selvam's remarks reflect a broader policy and economic reality that has been building across India's education and employment ecosystem. While academic credentials remain important, recruiters across sectors are increasingly looking for candidates who can demonstrate practical competence, digital fluency, communication skills and the ability to learn quickly. In that context, job fairs are no longer merely placement events; they have become testing grounds for how well institutions are aligning education with employability.
The vice-president's emphasis on upskilling also speaks to a persistent challenge in India's higher education system: the gap between classroom learning and workplace demand. Engineering, management and other professional graduates often enter the market with theoretical knowledge but limited exposure to real-world problem-solving, collaborative work environments or emerging tools. That mismatch has long been cited by employers as a reason for slower hiring or the need for additional training after recruitment.
By framing upskilling as a necessity rather than an option, Selvam placed responsibility not only on students but also on educational institutions to build stronger industry linkages. Universities and colleges are increasingly expected to offer certification programmes, internships, soft-skills training and exposure to new technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and automation. The message is especially relevant in a period when job roles are evolving faster than academic syllabi can be revised.
Job Fair As Signal
The job fair itself carried symbolic significance beyond recruitment. Organised to coincide with the birthday of G.V. Selvam, it served as both a celebratory and practical platform, linking institutional identity with student opportunity. Such events have become common across private and public educational institutions in India, where placement drives are often used to demonstrate commitment to student outcomes and industry engagement.
For job seekers, these fairs offer direct access to employers and a chance to understand what companies are actually seeking. For institutions, they provide a visible measure of placement support and a way to strengthen their reputation in a competitive higher education market. But the deeper value lies in the feedback loop they create: employers signal their expectations, students gauge their readiness, and colleges can identify where training must improve.
Selvam's remarks come at a moment when India is trying to expand both employment generation and workforce quality. The country's demographic advantage will matter little, analysts have long argued, unless young people are equipped with skills that match the needs of a modern economy. That includes not only technical expertise but also adaptability, teamwork and the willingness to reskill repeatedly over the course of a career.
Wider Employment Challenge
The focus on upskilling also highlights a policy question that extends well beyond one institution or one job fair. India's employment challenge is not simply about creating more jobs; it is also about ensuring that graduates are job-ready and that workers can transition between sectors as industries change. This is particularly important in technology-driven fields, where the shelf life of specific skills can be short.
In that sense, Selvam's comments align with a growing national consensus that education must be treated as a lifelong process. The old model of earning a degree and relying on it for decades is increasingly outdated. Instead, students are being urged to view learning as continuous, with short-term certifications, hands-on training and industry exposure becoming essential parts of career development.
For institutions like VIT, such messaging also reinforces the role of universities as career enablers rather than degree-awarding bodies alone. The job fair, organised in connection with a personal milestone, was therefore also a public statement about institutional priorities: that employability, not just enrolment, is now central to the value proposition of higher education.
As India's job market becomes more competitive and more technology-intensive, the vice-president's warning was clear. Those who do not invest in new skills risk being left behind, while those who keep learning will be better positioned to navigate the next phase of economic change.