KKHSOU Hosts Regional Workshop to Enhance Graduate Employability in Northeast

Guwahati: The Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University (KKHSOU), with the support of the Commonwealth of Learning – Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (COL-CEMCA), inaugurated a three-day Regional Workshop-cum-Capacity Building Programme on “Strengthening Graduate Employability and Career Readiness in Higher Education” at its City Campus in Khanapara, Guwahati.

The workshop, is being held from 4th to 6th June 2026, has brought together approximately 40 participants from higher education institutes in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram.

Prof. Pranab Saikia, Registrar, KKHSOU and Programme Director, welcomed the participants and underlined the importance to improve employability of Northeast's graduates. He presented the background and the rationale for the workshop, highlighting the importance of providing skills, competences and attitudes to the learners of the higher education institutions for employment, entrepreneurship and lifelong learning.

Prof. Nripendra Narayan Sarma, the Director of the Maniram Dewan School of Management, emphasised the need to set standards and successful institutional models for higher education institutions to restructure their programmes and adopt new practices to boost the employability of graduates during his inaugural address.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Basheerhamad Shadrach, Director of COL-CEMCA, explained the COL-CEMCA Graduate Employability Model and the different stages of its implementation to the higher education institutions. He said that the participating institutions be encouraged to design draft institutional employability frameworks which followed the model of COL-CEMCA during the workshop and be implemented in the respective institutions considering the large number of graduates who are not employable, not career ready particularly in the Northeast region.

Prof. Anirban Ghosh, the Resource Person from COL-CEMCA, gave an overview of the programme and explained the objectives and scope of the workshop for three days.

During the workshop, participants will engage with discussion, group work and sessions with experts on the concepts of employability frameworks, transformation of curriculum, requirements of the labour market and career readiness strategies. It is designed to build the capacity of the institutions to improve the employability of graduates in the context of changing demand in the job market.

The first session ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Indrani Kalita, Workshop Coordinator.

Also Read: Two Married Men Arrested for Allegedly Luring Minor Girls in Assam's Sootea