Zahra Ilyas, a Bachelor of Commerce student at Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, got a job with investment banker Goldman Sachs in July last year. Placements take place throughout the final year and she is just finishing her program this year. Zahra’s accomplishment is no small feat if the worrying conversation over vanishing entry-level jobs is taken seriously. While artificial intelligence has been around for some time, a lot has changed since the generative type of intelligence was dropped three years ago, allowing “top line and bottom line” to dominate every topic.It is not only changing the way work is done, but also shaping hiring decisions – especially for new hires. What has changed, says Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a Bengaluru-based specialist staffing company, is that the training runway for fresh graduates has become significantly shorter.The net result is a bit more demanding. “Companies want ‘ready-to-eat’ graduates – hire today, deploy tomorrow,” says S Sadagopan, founder and former director of IIIT-Bangalore. Recruiters today largely ask about projects, industry certifications, skill-based credentials and practical experience, says Lieutenant General MD Venkatesh, vice-chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). “Students who have completed these programs are generally more confident in interviews and handle technical and problem-solving questions better,” he says.a new kind of rat raceMany colleges in Karnataka, which have long been a center of attraction for students from across the country and abroad, soon realize what they are up against – a traditional degree alone will not cut it. “AI is now a key foundational skill for most roles that companies are seeking. Companies are always looking for certain skills, but they don’t mention that much. “When there are two good candidates, they choose the one who is more versed in AI technology and tools,” says Asghar Ahmed, dean of training and placement at Mount Carmel. Before recruitment, Zahra had to undergo 15 days of rigorous training which included both aptitude and soft skills. “When I realized Goldman Sachs was coming to campus for recruitment, I reached out to trainers to understand how to prepare,” she says. Mount Carmel’s training modules include algorithmic thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving, AI tools, and Microsoft Excel.Skilling is now the last strawIf upskilling was merely fashionable and a resume add-on until the pandemic, it has now become the last straw. For example, after the pandemic, Christ Deemed-to-be University introduced a ‘Digital Policy’. Designed specifically for the School of Commerce, it trains each student in AI baseline requirements, with a special focus on Agentic AI and tools like Visual Basic Code, Python, LLM, etc. Biju Toms, director of the School of Commerce, says, “These additional courses are the ones that are going to define the possibilities of the students, and not the regular traditional type of programs.” “Earlier, we used to say that learning in the classroom is important and the faculty were considered sages on the stage. All those things are gone. What is important today is how do you complement it? Most universities make the mistake of giving only theoretical experience. Students need practical training,” he says. Biju says corporates have become extremely demanding. “Earlier, they used to hire in large numbers. Now, many of them are cutting down the numbers. Although companies are not paying attention to a fully trained AI/ML candidate, when it comes to hiring, students with technical experience have a clear advantage.”Anil P, placement officer at St. Joseph’s University in Bengaluru, says the industry is constantly taking notice of what they expect from fresh graduates. For example, companies now expect students from both pure science and humanities streams to know MS Office and Excel. He says, “It used to be that only commerce graduates were familiar with these tools. Now this has changed. Hence, we have included it in our skill-based training program for all students.”‘The nature of jobs changes every 5 years’National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NITK) at Surathkal in Dakshina Kannada district is in constant touch with industry partners and alumni to understand the nature of changes taking place in technology at light speed. “The nature of jobs will change significantly every 5 years, making even the new curriculum obsolete by the time students graduate,” says Professor B Ravi, director of NIT Karnataka, Surathkal and Institute Chair Professor at IIT Bombay. Industry partners and alumni are regularly involved in evaluating the curriculum and individual courses, suggesting improvements, delivering lectures, offering project topics and participating in evaluations. “As far as engineering graduates are concerned, what really matters is the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations, this quality is increasingly preferred by companies during placements,” says Ravi.NITK, over the last two years, has been conducting several rounds of consultations, surveys and reviews involving faculty, alumni and industry stakeholders. Several important insights emerged from these exercises, says Ravi, including the need to reduce the overall credit load, bring in greater flexibility through electives, develop new shorter programs and enable multiple career pathways spanning academia, industry and entrepreneurship. “Students recognize that top jobs go to those who can demonstrate skills, not just academic knowledge. As a result, many are investing significant time in online learning, holiday internships and weekend freelancing. All such activities that contribute to professional development should be formally integrated into the curriculum, academic calendar and weekly timetable,” he says.The rise of ‘add-on’ modulesManipal Academy of Higher Education says it hedges against adversity by regularly reviewing its curriculum with inputs from academia, industry and by looking at emerging developments. “These initiatives add an additional layer, more practical work, more exposure to real-life requirements and first-hand knowledge of how things work in industry and other workplaces,” says Venkatesh, VC, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).He notes that many recent additions are being introduced outside the formal university curriculum, primarily due to the need for speed and flexibility. “Formal curriculum revision takes time. Add-on modules allow us to respond much faster. If something new comes up, we can quickly introduce it, modify it, or even close it without disturbing the core academic structure,” he says.Venkatesh also points to a significant shift in higher education toward skill-based micro-credentials, which industries are increasingly expecting from entry-level employees. On graduate-level entry jobs, he said the university does not see this as a decline but as an adjustment to change. He says, “Entry-level roles are evolving. By exposing students to a broader range of skills, we are opening up more possibilities in internships, early career roles, startups, research, and interdisciplinary fields, rather than pushing everyone into a narrow path.”MAHE has a dedicated center for micro-credentials at the university that helps faculty actively design, guide, and oversee these initiatives rather than simply implementing externally driven ideas. “Faculty can develop micro-credentials independently in partnership with industry or industry experts or partner universities. The Government of India and regulators like AICTE are actively promoting these initiatives.“Affiliated colleges’ hands tiedCyber security expert and professor Ananth Prabhu explains that many colleges are unable to make timely changes in the curriculum due to structural differences in India’s higher education system. “Colleges in Karnataka fall into 3 categories: affiliated, autonomous and deemed-to-be universities. He noted that in affiliated colleges the university controls the curriculum, question papers and degrees, while teachers only give internal marks. The college has virtually no involvement in shaping the programme,” he explains. “On the other hand, autonomous colleges have the freedom to design their own curriculum, although the degree is awarded by the parent university. In the case of deemed universities, curriculum design, assessment and degree certification are all handled internally,” says Prabhu.AI divide emergingAnanth Prabhu ji, cyber security expert and professor at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management, Mangaluru, warns of a growing AI divide, similar to the digital divide of the past. “Some people know how to use AI effectively, while most people don’t understand how it works,” he says. He argues that AI education should start at the school level, especially because today’s students are digital natives. Parents also need awareness. He says cyber crime has become far more sophisticated, with criminals using AI to send flawless phishing emails. He says, “Earlier, we used to ask people to look for grammatical mistakes. Now you won’t find any mistakes.” AI education should not be confined to computer science departments but should be integrated into commerce, law, humanities and management programs. Despite widespread concern, Prabhu says a sharp decline in placements has not been seen yet. Although minor fluctuations exist, companies continue to hire, primarily because AI outputs are not 100% accurate, making human oversight necessary. However, he cautioned that a sea change is inevitable within the next 2 years, and AI disruption will not be limited to just engineering, but will impact commerce, management, and all other disciplines.‘Fundamentals matter more than any equipment’Whatever students read, read it well. This is the first and most important thing. They should not worry about tools. What AWS needs is what Microsoft doesn’t need, and what an oil company needs isn’t what a hospital needs. Once they have mastered their fundamentals, it only takes a few days or weeks to apply that knowledge to a specific domain. This way they become productive and retain their jobs.Many students do not have adequate background. Machine learning and these AI tools stem from years of research in statistics, inference, and neural networks. These are not new. These were developed in the 60s and 70s, but we did not have the computational power before. Today we do. Therefore students need time to build a solid foundation. Knowing a tool is never enough. If the tool becomes obsolete tomorrow and you only know the tool, you also become obsolete. But if you know what’s behind the tool, you can master it even when a new tool comes out.Students must also learn the art of learning to learn because new tools will keep coming and no one will have time to teach each one of them. They should always be open to new ideas. Something works in one domain, something else works in another, so they should not be associated with one tool. With strong fundamentals and the ability to continuously learn, they can handle any changes. AI will not replace people – with the right grounding, people can actually do much better with AI in the loop.-S Sadagopan, Founder-Director, IIIT-B
