The other day I was invited to a college to speak about career opportunities.
The room was full of young faces. BCom, BA, BBA, MA, LLB.
Sharp minds. Curious eyes. Students who had done everything the system told them to do.
Study well. Pass exams. Get a degree.
They asked me just one question.
What job will we get? And how much will we be paid.?
That question stayed with me long after the session ended. Because I know the real answer.
Most of them will start with inside sales.
Customer support.
BPO night shifts.
Tele calling.
Back office processing.
Academic counselling with targets.
Data entry.
Sales Executives.
Some will move to gig work when this burns them out.
All this after spending years in classrooms. And lakhs on education. Take home salary. Somewhere between 20000 and 30000.That too in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai or Pune.
Now do the real math.
Shared room rent. Food. Transport. Phone bill. Basic life.
What remains is not savings. It is dependence. After graduation they still have to call home for money. So what exactly did this system give them. Then comes the next question nobody asks in the beginning. What is the growth in these jobs.
After three or four years, when they try to switch, they hear the same line.
You have not grown.
You are still doing the same work.
Your profile has no progression.
But how will they grow when the job itself is repetitive, target driven, and designed only for survival. So they remain stuck.
Low salary.
No real skill addition.
No career movement.
This is not just an employment issue. This is a career trap. And then we tell them they lack experience. Let us step outside the big cities for a moment.
Are there enough jobs in smaller towns. Are there industries in our districts. Are there opportunities near their homes.
Or is migration the only option.
A student from a village studies to lift the family. Then moves to a city where the salary is not enough to live, not enough to save, and not enough to send back home.
So what are we really building. Not careers. Just movement from one survival job to another.
We proudly speak about demographic dividend. But a dividend without employability becomes pressure.
And then there is the apprenticeship story. A different reality. Young graduates working full time. Getting stipends that do not even cover travel (Some times that is also not given). Doing all the routine work. No learning. No regulation on working hours. Just a certificate at the end. We call it training. Industry calls it experience. The student calls it survival.
So here are some questions. Not in anger. In urgency.
Why are degrees not mapped to real job roles.
Why are colleges not measured by employability.
Why are students not shown the real salary numbers before choosing a course.
Why is industry still missing from the classroom.
Why are smaller cities and rural regions outside the employment map.
Why is migration the default career path.
Why is a graduate salary not aligned to the cost of living.
Are we creating educated youth. Or financially independent youth. Because these are two very different things.
Today’s graduate is not asking for luxury. Not asking for a high package. They are asking for something very basic. A job that grows with them. A salary that lets them live with dignity. An opportunity that does not force them to leave home forever.
If we do not redesign education around skills, real industry linkage, and regional job creation, we will continue to produce degrees without direction and careers without movement.
And that is not the failure of the student. That is the failure of the system.
The real success of education is not a convocation photo. It is a young person who can stand on their own feet without calling home for money.
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