A few months ago, in a quiet room at a Tier-2 engineering college in Uttar Pradesh, Riya Sharma sat across from a panel of three hiring managers. She had built a small robotics project, aced her technical interview, and yet she never got a job offer. As the panel politely excused her, Riya replayed their feedback in her mind:
"You know your circuits well," one interviewer said,
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"but when asked to walk us through your design, you couldn't simplify it for non-engineers."
Riya's story is not unusual. In today's Indian job market, many capable graduates like her find that the most critical barrier isn't their technical knowledge but how they communicate, adapt, and collaborate. As recruiters increasingly say, soft skills (or "employability skills") now act as the gatekeeper between campus and career.
THE DATA SPEAKS: SOFT SKILLS STILL LAG
Each year, the India Skills Report (ISR) assesses thousands of students via the Wheebox GET (Global Employability Test) to benchmark employability across skills.
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