They paid Rs 50 lakh for MBA, tech degrees but only 'polished skill' is PPT: Entrepreneur after hiring 3 students

Time of India

2 days ago

When Sanket S, founder of Scandolous Foods, decided to hire
fresh graduates
from some of India's most prestigious private colleges, he expected talent that could keep up with the demands of his growing startup. Instead, what he found was disheartening. In a viral LinkedIn post, Sanket shared how hiring three students—an MBA graduate, a hotel management student, and a tech degree holder—left him more concerned than optimistic.
'These kids paid ₹40–50 lakh for degrees from India's top private MBA, food, and hospitality colleges,' Sanket wrote. 'But they walked out knowing… nothing that actually matters.'
What was meant to be an onboarding of future industry shapers quickly turned into a revelation about the stark mismatch between academic credentials and
workplace readiness
.
The Only 'Polished Skill'? Making PowerPoint Slides
Sanket explained that the MBA graduate couldn't grasp basic financial concepts like profit and loss or cash flow. The hotel management student had never been inside a food processing facility. Even basic knowledge about precision fermentation—vital in a food-tech startup—was missing.
'All of them are brilliant at making PPTs. That too, stuff Gemini or ChatGPT can do in seconds now,' he added, expressing how automation had surpassed the one skill they came equipped with.
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A Broken Pipeline, Not a Broken Batch
The reaction to Sanket's post underscored a wider problem—India's education system, not its students, may be failing the
job market
. Netizens argued that graduates aren't inherently lacking, but are products of outdated curricula that prioritise rote learning over real-world application.
One user called the system 'a bottleneck,' especially in emerging sectors like food tech and biotech, where theory-heavy teaching leaves students unprepared for practical challenges. Another pointed out the mismatch in expectations, noting, 'Most of these graduates are fit for Fortune 1000 companies, not startups that demand flexibility and critical thinking.'
Several commenters also criticised how both schools and colleges suppress creativity and curiosity in favour of memorisation. 'There's little focus on inventions, discoveries or deep research,' one said, while another called for a bottom-up overhaul through a robust
STEAM education
strategy.
The consensus is clear: India may be producing degrees, not doers. Unless systemic reforms take place, young professionals will continue entering the workforce ill-equipped—not because they lack talent, but because they were never trained to apply it where it matters.
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Startups Want Builders, Not Bookworms
For startups, the gap between a glowing résumé and on-ground ability comes at a cost. Founders who are trying to build cutting-edge ventures in medtech, biotech, and climate tech need team members who can hit the ground running—not those who need to be trained from scratch.
'Train them from scratch, then I'm not running a company, I'm running a classroom,' Sanket wrote, highlighting the dilemma founders face—whether to invest time in training underprepared local talent or look abroad, betraying their 'Make in India' dreams.
A Call for Urgent Reform
The post has also reignited the conversation around STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) education and the need to shift from outdated curricula to skills that matter in the modern world. One commenter emphasized that unless India builds a bottom-up education strategy rooted in innovation, 'we will lose the global innovation competition.'
Sanket ended his post with a strong cautionary note: 'At this rate, we're not just 10 years behind—we're raising a generation that doesn't even know what the world looks like today.'
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As the debate rages on, one thing is clear—India's talent pipeline might need more than a polish. It needs a full-scale reboot.