Students must graduate with more than degrees and certificates: they need practical skills, experience and the confidence to solve real problems, Shivakumar Kinni said during a session on ‘Building Green Skills through Partnerships and Youth Leadership’ at the 5th Yuva Sustainability Conference, held online on 12 August 2026 to mark International Youth Day 2026. The conference, themed ‘Mainstreaming Sustainability in the Education Ecosystem’, was organised by Voices of Bharat: Yuva for Sustainability, an initiative of Sustainability Karma.
Kinni, Head of Engineering Services at Blueleaf Energy, brought a practitioner’s perspective from the renewable-energy sector. Digitalisation, automation, renewable energy, electric mobility, smart manufacturing and other green technologies are opening new opportunities, he said, while climate change, resource constraints and environmental pressures are creating new responsibilities. Education must therefore move beyond explaining sustainability and prepare students to work, innovate and lead within it.
He grouped the capabilities students need into five areas. First are technical green skills in renewable energy, energy efficiency and technologies relevant to each discipline. Second are digital skills, including artificial intelligence, automation and data analytics, which can help address sustainability challenges. Third are problem-solving and systems thinking, so students understand the links among energy, resources, technology, people and the environment.
The fourth area is collaboration and communication. Sustainability problems cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries: engineers must work with data scientists, technologists with business professionals, industry with academia, and both with communities. The fifth is entrepreneurship and leadership – the ability to develop an idea into a practical product or service that creates environmental, social and economic value.
Classroom theory alone cannot build those abilities, Kinni argued. Students studying energy efficiency, for example, should be given a real building or facility and asked where energy is consumed, where losses occur and how data or technology could improve performance. Working on a live problem develops technical understanding alongside teamwork, communication, analysis, decision-making and problem-solving.
Industry exposure should also begin well before graduation. Kinni proposed a progression in which first-year students visit workplaces and learn how businesses operate; second-year students join industry events and explore real challenges; third-year students build prototypes and undertake internships; and final-year students engage in larger projects, research and innovation. Graduates would then leave college with evidence of what they can do, not merely a list of subjects they have studied.
Internships, in his view, should be platforms for green-skill development rather than exercises in attendance, report writing and certificate collection. Each student could identify a problem involving energy, water, process efficiency or digitalisation, work with industry and faculty mentors to diagnose its root cause, test a response and measure the result. Even when the work does not produce a breakthrough, it teaches the full journey from observation to solution.
Kinni also urged institutions to judge industry-academia partnerships by outcomes rather than memoranda of understanding. Universities contribute knowledge, students, faculty and laboratories; companies bring live problems, data, technology, mentors and workplace experience; governments and development partners provide policy, resources and platforms; and students add curiosity, creativity and a willingness to experiment. Alignment among these actors can turn partnerships into solutions and solutions into lasting impact.
The green and digital economies are increasingly inseparable, he noted. AI, sensors, analytics and automation can improve energy and resource efficiency. But students must also ask who needs a solution, what it will cost, whether it can scale and what jobs or value it can create. The goal is not only to find green jobs but to create them.
Young people should be treated as present-day partners, not only as leaders of tomorrow. Kinni condensed the pathway into five actions: learn, engage, solve, lead and create impact. Education becomes preparation for leadership when students gain green and digital skills, work with mentors on real problems, own solutions and measure environmental, social and economic change. Students should leave college carrying skills, experience and confidence alongside their degrees, Kinni concluded. A sustainable future will be built one skilled student, one meaningful partnership and one real-world solution at a time.