Amritsar, 26 October 2026

The Commonwealth of Learning–Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (COL-CEMCA), in collaboration with Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, commenced the three-day Commonwealth Asia Workshop on Graduate Employability, titled Open Course on Graduate Employability, on 26 October 2026 at Shri Guru Granth Sahib Bhawan, GNDU. The workshop brings together around 60 academic leaders, faculty members and higher education professionals from India and across Commonwealth Asia to strengthen institutional approaches to graduate employability and co-create an open course on the subject.

Prof. Karamjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, GNDU, delivered the inaugural address, emphasising the need for higher education institutions to connect knowledge, technology and people, draw on international experiences and equip graduates with practical competencies relevant to employment and professional growth.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. B. Shadrach, Director, COL-CEMCA, highlighted the mismatch between higher education curricula and labour-market requirements, identifying curriculum stagnation, soft-skills gaps, limited academia–industry engagement and the tendency to address employability only at graduation as key challenges. He presented the COL-CEMCA Graduate Employability Model, emphasising institutional readiness assessment, curriculum reform, work-integrated learning and continuous evaluation. He also called upon participants to contribute to a flagship regional MOOC that can support employability-focused transformation across Commonwealth Asia.

Prof. Ganesan Kannabiran, Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), during his address, spoke on graduate employability under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. He outlined an institutional framework linking inputs, processes and outcomes, highlighting curriculum flexibility, industry engagement, skill-oriented learning, internships and project-based activities. He also emphasised student-centred approaches, academic–industry collaboration, administrative flexibility and continuous improvement in building nationally relevant and globally recognised entrepreneurial institutions.

The technical sessions of the day introduced approaches to assessing institutional readiness, identifying gaps and integrating employability attributes, practical competencies and skill development into curricula and teaching–learning practices.

The workshop will continue until 28 October 2026, with sessions on institutional employability frameworks, implementation planning, industry expectations, curriculum mapping and the integration of employability attributes into academic programmes. Through this collaborative initiative, COL-CEMCA and GNDU aim to support higher education institutions in embedding employability across the student journey and strengthening pathways from academic learning to meaningful employment.