Only 21% MBAs are employable in India: Study

The employability of management graduates in India has declined in the past five years, as only 21% of MBAs surveyed are 'employable', a study has said.

According to the MBAUniverse.Com--MeriTrac employability study 2012, which covered 2,264 MBAs from 29 cities and 100 B-Schools, beyond the Top 25, only 21% are employable.

The previous study of 2007 by MeriTrac had placed employability index at 25%.

However, the number of MBA seats in India has grown almost four fold -- from 94,704 in 2006-07 to 3,52,571 in 2011-12 -- resulting in a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 30%, but their employability rates have fallen, the study said.

The students were tested for verbal ability, quantitative ability and reasoning by using internationally standardised tests on behalf of recruiting companies.

The index of employability, at 21% mark leaves scope for improvement considering that organisations hire from this talent pool for strategic roles and this is the managerial pool that companies bank on, the study pointed out.

"This report clearly brings out the employability gaps across various competencies and highlights the need for scientific examinations and tests to align the candidate skills to employability metrics," MeritTrac Services India CEO and Director S Murlidhar said.

Overall average percentage score obtained by MBAs in verbal ability, quantitative ability and reasoning was 52.58%, 41.17% and 37.51% respectively.

While performance on verbal ability seems to be satisfactory, reasoning is an area where there is scope for improvement. Considering that the elements of the reasoning test are crucial to making sound management decisions, this is a result which warrants closer attention, the study noted.

"Questions are asked about the talent coming out of MBA colleges, and whether they create a workforce responsive to the needs of the economy like understanding of business and on-the-feet thinking. So, decision-making skills are being valued more than ever," MBAUniverse.Com Chairman Amit Agnihotri said.