New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the National Skill Development Corporation has collaborated with the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) India, the India arm of the world’s largest HR organization to co-create pathways and build actionable frameworks for future-ready skilling and employability in a fast-changing world.
The pioneering initiative named HR Leadership Council Connect was launched, marking a significant step forward in addressing India’s evolving skill development needs.
This initiative brought together industry leaders and senior HR professionals to discuss strategies for reskilling and upskilling corporate and industrial workforce, in response to a fast-changing employment landscape triggered in part by technological advancements and the changing nature of work itself, post the pandemic.
Delivering a Special Address, Shri Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Managing Director, NSDC International (NSDCI) articulated his views on the landmark partnership and said, ‘’NSDC and SHRM both are purpose-driven organizations and this collaboration is aimed at skilling India better in line with the Honorable Prime Minister’s vision. In developing and nurturing future talent, HR has visibility over the entire talent pipeline. We want our employees to be proficient and it is important therefore to be able to help reskill and upskill them in response to skill gaps. It’s imperative that we not only unlock value for each employee but this unlocking should also happen at the company and the industry level and taken in the aggregate, this would serve the larger skilling requirements for the country as a whole.’’
He further added, “To transform India into a $5 trillion economy by 2025, we must accelerate the pace of skilling. With every fourth worker in the global workforce being Indian, equipping our youth with the right skills is essential. It’s not just about growth, it’s about ensuring every Indian benefits from this demographic advantage.”
In her keynote address, Ms. Achal Khanna, CEO of SHRM, India APAC and MENA emphasized the significance of skilling initiatives for India’s workforce. She remarked, ‘’It gives me immense pride to collaborate with NSDC as we work together to build the foundation for a more skilled and prosperous nation. The HR Leadership Council Connect is a transformative platform that bridges the gap between the corporate world and the skilling ecosystem. Through India’s first CHRO Council for HR Leaders exclusive ‘Future-ready Workforce Initiative’ we aim to create an efficient skilling eco-system that is adaptable and addresses the current and future needs of the workforce. We are proud to be a part of Kaushal Bharat and Viksit Bharat agenda’’.
The highlight of the event was the launch of the POSH module (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) as a key element of this partnership. As companies and HR professionals increasingly look at enhancing the DEI quotient in corporate workforces, prevention of sexual harassment becomes a critical dimension in corporate life that also needs skills and empathy to address and deal with. The launch of the POSH model is in keeping with this need of the Indian industry.
The deliberations at the conclave also included presentations from senior leadership on NSDC’s business verticals and interactive focus group discussions with 3 cohorts aimed at identifying sector-specific skill gaps and opportunities for collaboration. Participants from diverse sectors such as IT, Telecom, Energy, and Automobile shared best practices aimed at developing actionable insights for creating a future-ready workforce.
CHROs from some of India’s biggest companies debated at length about the changing industry landscape across the corporate spectrum and the skill gaps this has triggered. The CHROs agreed that newer technologies especially in areas such as robotics, IOT, electric battery technologies, semi-conductors etc has resulted in skills gap across levels which needs to be mitigated.
According to a study conducted by NSDC, there is a huge gap between the demand for skilling in India pegged at 103 million workers and the current supply at just 74 million, signifying a huge skill gap. This shortfall has emerged because of the changing profile of the Indian economy with several sectors including healthcare, semiconductor manufacturing, green jobs and sustainability, waste management and circular economy, food processing, drone technology and AI emerging as hot spots where skilled talent is critical but is in short supply.
NSDC, under the aegis of the MSDE has made significant strides in promoting skills development and entrepreneurship in India in a sustained manner but the onus is also on the corporate sector to do the heavy lifting on the skills front along with Government and other entities such as the NSDC.
It is here that CHROs are naturally the first port of call in industry as they can help bridge the skill gap in myriad ways. HR professionals manage the entire human resource pipeline end-to-end through their hiring practices, retention policies as also learning and development modules for reskilling and upskilling. Thus, it is important that NSDC collaborate with SHRM, the world’s largest HR organization to co-create learning pathways, develop leadership programs and improve employability for millions of Indian youths across the country.
The discussion today, the first in a series of such deliberations, helped bring out insights that would enable the building of frameworks to bridge skill gaps and enhance the competitiveness of our workforce by leveraging the expertise of the HR community.
