This paper aims to understand the role of higher education institutions (especially engineering institutions) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the employability skill sets that are expected from an engineering graduate. The paper overlays the employability skills from the viewpoint of representatives of 98 private engineering institutions as well as 20 human resource managers of IT companies. The paper identifies the employability skill gaps and comments on the current positions of these engineering institutions and also suggests the important measures that these institutions must take to contribute toward attaining the SDGs. This paper enables the administration of higher education institutions, companies, researchers and policy makers to better understand the role of institutions in achieving SDGs through inculcating these skills in their students and how it will have an impact on the integral growth of the nation. This paper provides a discrete and innate perspective of an institution's contribution towards achieving SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]