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Employability of Indian graduates today has become a topic of heated debates across business and academic circles. Institutions are churning out large number of graduates – general, management or engineering. Most of them do not find a job and roam unemployed. One the other hand experiments on corporate side to hire raw hands and then training them is also not giving adequate results. Training is becoming very expensive and making those business models unsustainable. No wonder some of the other south east nations and some central american nations are taking over even the outsourcing jobs away from Indian shores. This challenge is growing by the day. Why this war for talent is not showing any resolve in favour of both industry and academia? Why is the war for talent is still heating up d e s p i t e s e v e r a l k i n d s o f experimentation at different levels? What are we missing? Is there a simple but workable solution? I see a simple and workable solution that could provide value to our learning system. The learning system should incorporate values of vedic varna system and prepare our graduating students with these systemic values, not the varnas. I am consciously therefore using these varnas with a small letter. Let me explain what this systemic values are. The students must live through and build a quest for knowledge like a brahmin. One of the key challenges of graduating students is there complete lack of focus on acquiring knowledge. From day 1 in their academic pursuit, they are focused on getting a job. No wonder, their subject knowledge as well as application knowledge is very poor that makes them unemployable. This pure pursuit of knowledge will build much desired confidence, in what they know and do. Students must learn to focus and persevere with their efforts irrespective of hardships – a kshatriya value of the system. Taking ownership of efforts that may benefits others is the other part of this value. If a student focuses on tasks at hand and preservers with his efforts without being selfish about the outcome, they will achieve the results of a job because they are complete in its application, by the time they come out of safe confines of their institutions. Another key value of this kshatriya system is to develop confidence in ones abilities and appropriate competence in their area of work. This is an area where most of our students show weakness – rich over poor, urban over rural and so on and so forth. The students should learn the ropes of cost – benefit not only for selfish reasons but for all efforts, a holistic approach to welfare and growth. Another key value learning from vaishya system is continuous thinking of growth in whatever endeavour one is making. This mindset will ensure that one does not rest on past laurels and one is continuously seeking out for avenues and approaches for growth. The last learning value is where no work is menial and low – value of work; work is worship – the shudra value. No work should be considered below oneself. If a job demands some task that is important for completion, soiling hands is the best way to learn ropes and grow as a competent engineer/ manager. Most young people today go through a language of learning that is theoretical but do not know how to ‘do it’. This is one of the biggest bottlenecks in our mismatch that finds large number of educated but unemployable people. Ask an engineering graduate to read or prepare an engineering drawing or ask an MBA to prepare a business plan – most of them will find it difficult because they have not ‘done it’. Therefore, we need to build the following in our academic institutions to improve employability of our young minds – quest for knowledge not grades; take ownership, build focus and perseverance on efforts; growth orientated mind-set; value work and learn by being hands-on. If we could bring some of these learning values to our academic institutions, our employability challenges will be well taken care of.