India bags 25th position in QS World Future Skills Index 2025, world’s 2nd-highest score in Future Work Index

NEW DELHI: The QS World Future Skills Index has identified India's job market as one of the top places for recruitment for the most in-demand future skills. As per the QS World Future Skills Index 2025 report, India excels in the Future of Work index securing the world’s 2nd highest score of 99.1 in the key areas of AI, digital, and green.

The index is prepared by higher education experts QS and evaluates how well countries are equipped to meet the job demands of the international market by measuring four main points including skills fit, academic readiness, future of work, and economic transformation. The QS analysis highlights India’s readiness to integrate AI into its workforce, setting it apart from other countries that are slower in adapting emerging technologies.

The QS ranking classifies economics into four categories based on the overall performance including future skills aspiring, practitioner, contender, and pioneer, and India is positioned in the contender category.

QS World Future Skills Index 2025

The QS report also highlights the critical areas for improvement within the country’s higher education system, industry collaboration, and employment markets. The report notes opportunities to better equip graduates with digital, AI, and green skills that employers demand.

Also read QS World University Rankings 2025: IIT Bombay, Delhi in top 150 universities; DU jumps one tier up

QS World Future Skills Index 2025: Key recommendations

According to the QS World Future Skills Index 2025 report, the key recommendations for India are as follows.

• Increase tertiary education supply: The focus should be on the supply of industries that will drive India’s long-term growth, with more routes into tertiary education.

• Focus on green skills and integrate sustainability into education: Higher education must play a leading role in advancing India’s sustainability goals.

• Bridge investment and innovation gaps: Limited investment and innovation could hinder the country’s growth so aligning with the aligning India’s economic momentum along with higher education reforms and targeted skills development is important.

• Increase research and development investment: Improvement in India’s research and development department funding is crucial to drive innovation and competitiveness, especially in green skills in which the index shows a low score for academic readiness.