EducationWorld Interview | Pravesh Dudani on Education, Employability & the Future of Work - EducationWorld

EducationWorld Interview | Pravesh Dudani on Education, Employability & the Future of Work

May 20, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

In this insightful conversation with Pravesh Dudani, founder and Chancellor of Medhavi Skills University and Dilip Thakore from EducationWorld explores the future of skills-based education in India.

From the shortcomings of India’s traditional degree-centric system to the urgent need for vocational and experiential learning, this interview dives deep into why employability, hands-on training, and industry integration are critical for India’s growth.

Key topics discussed:
• Why India needs more skills universities
• The disconnect between education and employability
• The importance of apprenticeships and experiential learning
• Why vocational education should begin in middle school
• The social stigma around skilled trades in India
• AI’s impact on traditional careers and coding jobs
• Why plumbers, electricians, and technicians deserve greater respect
• India’s manufacturing ambitions and the need for skilled talent
• The future of research, innovation, and higher education in India

Pravesh Dudani also shares insights from his journey—from IIT Kharagpur and Stanford to building a university focused on work-integrated learning and industry partnerships.

Watch this thought-provoking discussion on the future of education, skilling, and employability in India.

Also Read: EducationWorld Interview: Global leadership & India’s future – A conversation with Jayant Sinha

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“An uneducated Indian is not a free Indian. India’s education system remains trapped in regulations that reward compliance over learning and scarcity over opportunity. The solution to exam leaks, coaching factories and unemployability is not more licensing, but more supply. We need more schools, more colleges, more competition and more education entrepreneurs. A 21st-century education must not only impart knowledge but encourage questioning. India does not need fewer cooks in the kitchen; it needs more cooks, more recipes and fewer bureaucrats guarding empty plates.”

- Manish Sabharwal, The Indian Express, (2/6)

"The larger issue is not political but intellectual. No serious scholar argues that Indian Knowledge Systems begin and end with Sanskrit; rather, Sanskrit served as a connective layer linking diverse philosophical, spiritual and regional traditions. While historical exclusions must be acknowledged, the answer is wider access to knowledge, not rejection of inherited traditions. India’s deeper challenge is the rupture colonial education inflicted on its knowledge culture and the tendency to separate Sanskrit from the living traditions around it. The IKS movement is not a triumphalist celebration of the past but a serious effort to rediscover, debate and revive India’s knowledge traditions, despite the inevitable exaggerations and political appropriations that accompany such a process."

- Swati Ramanathan & Ramesh Ramanathan, The Indian Express, (8/6)