Over 80% young professionals think traditional degrees insufficient, want to acquire job-ready skills: Report

Despite holding degrees, a staggering 82.9% of young professionals feel their degrees are inadequate for their current job role and future aspirations, according to a recent report published by Hero Vired in collaboration with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

While 65% of these professionals responded that they lack real-world practical skills, 77% felt unprepared for the job market due to insufficient exposure to real-world applications, highlighting the need for hands-on, tech-enabled learning to bridge this gap.

"The archetype of the young Indian professional is being redefined. Success is no longer about mastering a single function—it’s about cultivating a dynamic synergy of functional and soft skills,” said Akshay Munjal, Founder, Hero Vired, while commenting on the findings.

“In an era where the workplace is evolving at breakneck speed, stagnation is not an option. The true differentiator, as our report reveals, will be the ability to fuse technical prowess with agile, strategic thinking— and those who fail to adapt will be left behind,” he added.

Notably, 92.6% of respondents emphasized the importance of tech proficiency, with data analytics (89.6%) and ethical AI technology use (90.1%) being particularly crucial.

The report underlines the widening gap between academic qualifications and industry requirements along with a growing shift in career motivations as 59.4% of respondents prioritized in-demand domains that require continuous skill evolution.

However, 58.1% favored higher-paying fields, but job satisfaction and global opportunities also played a major role with 59.8% and 48.4% of respondents favoring both respectively.

The survey revealed a strong preference for short-term, intensive upskilling programs, with 42% of respondents opting for six-month courses and 38% favoring one-year courses.

Industry mentorship (40.1%) and internships (25.1%) are also highly valued, reflecting a preference for experiential learning over conventional classroom instruction.

"The way professionals approach education today mirrors how they consume content—on their terms, tailored to their interests, and with immediate applicability," said Prakhar Kasar, CEO of Hero Vired.

“This shift towards personalized, bite-sized learning underscores a broader demand for education that aligns with real-world challenges and market needs. On the back of our report findings, we have also created Skill Tests that offer an easy checkpoint for checking personal proficiency across multiple domains.”

Dr. Kulveen Trehan, Associate Professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, and a collaborator on the research, shared her views on rising skills, saying, “The future isn’t just AI-driven—it’s shaped by how we innovate with it. Content creation, data analytics, and prompt engineering are leading the charge, but the real frontier lies in sustainability, ethical AI, and creative entrepreneurship. As industries evolve, the biggest opportunities will emerge at the intersection of technology, impact, and unconventional thinking.”

As Data Science is on the rise, 42% of professionals recognized its rapid expansion, yet 26%—mainly from non-tech fields—remain unaware of its potential.

Meanwhile, once-thriving domains like engineering, media/entertainment, and medicine are witnessing a slowdown.
Only 5% of professionals perceive engineering as a growing field, while 62.3% believe its growth has stagnated.

Similarly, the medical profession, long associated with financial stability, is now seen as a less lucrative career option, with only 13.5% of respondents considering it a growing domain.