VIT Vice-President G. V. Selvam on Tuesday said students must continuously upgrade their skills if they want to remain competitive in a labour market that is changing faster than traditional education cycles can keep pace with. Speaking at a job fair organised to mark his birthday, Selvam framed upskilling not as an optional advantage but as a basic requirement for career survival and progression.
The event, held in an academic setting that has increasingly become a bridge between classrooms and employers, drew attention to a broader policy question now confronting Indian higher education: how to ensure that graduates are not only degree holders but also job-ready candidates. Selvam's remarks reflected a view widely shared by industry leaders and education reform advocates, who argue that employability now depends on a combination of technical knowledge, communication ability, digital fluency and adaptability.
Skills Over Degrees
Selvam's message was direct: a qualification alone is no longer enough. In a job market shaped by automation, artificial intelligence, data-driven workflows and shifting business models, employers are looking for candidates who can learn quickly and adapt to new tools. For students, that means the path to better prospects increasingly runs through short-term certifications, hands-on training, internships and exposure to real-world problem solving.
The timing of the job fair is significant. Across India, universities and private institutions are under pressure to demonstrate that they can produce graduates aligned with industry demand. Placement outcomes have become a key metric of institutional credibility, while students and families are paying closer attention to return on educational investment. Events such as this job fair are therefore not merely ceremonial; they are part of a larger effort to connect academic ecosystems with the employment market.
Selvam's emphasis on upskilling also speaks to a deeper structural challenge. India adds millions of young people to its workforce each year, but the quality of available jobs varies widely, and many employers continue to report skill gaps among applicants. This mismatch has made career readiness a central policy concern, especially in sectors where digital transformation is accelerating and entry-level roles are being redefined.
Campus To Career Pipeline
The job fair, organised in connection with Selvam's birthday, also served as a platform to showcase the institution's role in facilitating direct employer-student engagement. Such fairs can be especially valuable for first-generation graduates and students from non-metropolitan backgrounds, who may have limited access to professional networks or industry exposure. By bringing recruiters onto campus, institutions can reduce friction in the transition from education to employment.
At the same time, the event highlighted the growing expectation that colleges must do more than teach theory. They are increasingly being asked to provide career counselling, soft-skills training, aptitude preparation and industry-linked learning modules. In this context, upskilling becomes a shared responsibility involving students, faculty, employers and institutional leadership.
Selvam's remarks align with a national conversation on the future of work in India. Policymakers have repeatedly stressed the need for a workforce that can support manufacturing expansion, digital services, green technologies and advanced research. But that ambition depends on whether educational institutions can keep pace with changing skill requirements. The challenge is not only to create jobs, but to prepare people to move into them and grow within them.
The job fair itself, while local in scale, reflects a national trend: universities are becoming active participants in workforce development. For students, the message was clear. Career prospects will depend less on static credentials and more on the willingness to keep learning, reskilling and adapting as industries evolve.
Employability Becomes Priority
The event also reinforced the idea that employability is now a core policy and institutional priority, not a peripheral concern. As employers increasingly seek candidates who can contribute from day one, educational institutions are under pressure to produce graduates with practical competence rather than academic familiarity alone. That shift is likely to shape curriculum design, placement strategies and industry partnerships in the years ahead.
For Selvam, the birthday-linked job fair became a platform for a broader message: students must treat skill development as a continuous process. In a competitive economy, he suggested, the ability to learn new tools and respond to new demands will determine who advances and who falls behind. The underlying warning was unmistakable — in today's labour market, standing still is not an option.