Universities must better prepare young people for labour market

By Yojana Sharma. Asia’s universities must align more closely with labour market needs to ensure graduates have the skills and knowledge demanded by employers, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, one of many released by international and regional organisations this year stressing the need for higher education to produce labour-market skills.
“Higher education is increasingly expected to address the issue of employability,” said the just-released report Improving Transitions from School to University to Workplace.
A rapid expansion of higher education has the potential to complicate employability rather than address it efficiently, suggests the report, which covers 15 countries in Asia and noted that employability can become a major drag on Asian countries’ development in the coming years. Read more...