India Is Facing Acute Shortage of Skilled Workforce

India has the largest working population in the world. More than 62% of the country’s population is aged between 15 and 59. Whilst, 54% is below 25 years. Wikipedia estimates that India’s average population will be below the age of 29 in 2020. However, finding a skilled person for a job is a struggle for the recruiters. This is due to the shortage of skilled workforce across the country.

Amit Aggarwal is the CEO of Nasscom’s IT-ITeS (IT-enabled services) Sector Skills Council. He expressed his concerns about the skilled workforce shortage in the IT industry. Aggarwal stated that India will struggle to find skilled techies for 230,000 jobs in the Big Data and Artificial Intelligence domain in the future. By 2021, this shortage is likely to rise to 780,000 vacant job posts.

As per reports, more than 70 million individuals, aged between 15 and 59, will enter the Indian market by 2023. In the same timeframe, the nation’s total workforce will be around 404.15 million. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18, this figure will include 59 million people between 15 and 30.

In this situation, individuals learning new-age skills will have an advantage over their peers. Companies engaging their existing workforce in re-skilling programmes will put themselves ahead in battling the skill shortage in the Indian market.

Factors fuelling skill shortage in the Indian job market

Disparity between classroom knowledge and practical application: Quality education should establish a link between knowledge imparted inside the classroom and its practical application. This is among the most overlooked things in the Indian education system. Majority of the students are unable to understand and process the topics taught in class and end up rote learning for exams. Thus, failing to apply the knowledge practically. These students also lack the ability to analyse a problem and come up with relevant solutions. They end up conforming to a rigid corporate framework.

Most of the mainstream education institutions across the country focus on the theoretical part of imparting knowledge. Very few focus on empowering their students with the required expertise that they can apply in real-life circumstances. Also, there’s a case of academic education not meeting global standards. For instance, a three-year graduation certificate from an India institution is equivalent to a one-year diploma certificate in the US.

Shortage of relevant skills: Graduates right out of college do not possess on-the-job skills, which makes the recruiters apprehensive in hiring them. The experienced professionals struggle to switch jobs because they are unable to keep themselves updated about the latest technology and trends, particularly in the IT industry. This poses a huge problem for recruiters. Companies end up incurring huge losses in terms of training costs. Also, there’s no guarantee that post-training, employees won’t quit looking for better opportunities and higher salaries.

Lower female participation: India has a labour force of 395.2 million, out of which only 91.6 million are women. In the technical space, absence of residential provision for female trainees at training centres is the foremost reason for lower women participation. The second reason is the lack of necessary social support via local workshops. The third reason is the scarcity of relevant coaching and mentoring in these skills programmes.

How to tackle this skills shortage?

There are multiple skill development models put in place by the Indian government to tackle the country’s skill shortage. Government-funded programmes, partially or fully, to subsidise apprenticeships/training, industry-relevant on-the-job training and market-led apprenticeships.

The Indian government has launched several campaigns and programmes, from Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to Skill India. Other efforts to tackle the rising skills gap across the nation gap can include:

• Raising the national standards of education
• Offering accreditation to more educational institutions for national/global recognition
• Partnering with developed nations to raise the country’s skill standards and provide
  online certification courses
• Offering industry-specific online courses for reskilling of the existing workforce
• Promoting the adoption of new technologies like blockchain

These efforts also help in creating job opportunities and promote international mobility of the Indian youth.

Certif-ID can prove to be helpful for India’s skill shortage. It connects recruiters with skilled candidates globally. It is a dedicated skills platform built on blockchain technology and integrates educational institutes, students, working professionals and recruiters on one single platform.

The platform enables educational institutions to create and issue encrypted, globally recognised digital certificates to the graduates on successful course completion.

Graduates backed by a blockchain-powered digital certificate can connect with potential recruiters. They can exchange information and explore employment opportunities globally.

Digital certificates created and sent using the Certif-ID platform assist graduates and working professionals in proving their skills and level of education.

India needs to tackle its shortage of skilled workforce to keep its industries afloat. The country further requires consistent and effective efforts to upskill graduates and reskill the existing workforce. This will help meet the demand to fill vacant job positions, in the present as well as in future, across various industries. Please share your thoughts about tackling India’s skill shortage, you can drop a line here.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the author from Certif-ID. The matter and intent of this article has not been edited by skillreporter.com. SkillReporter shall not be responsible for any damage if caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.)