The task of shaping skills & employability

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: Companies are constantly looking for candidates with specific skills to help them meet their business requirements. Hence, it is crucial for jobseekers to align their skills with business needs. Recruitment has always been in sync with demand, but there are companies who want to cash-in on the talent pool, keeping ready resources that will be needed in the future. This is a calculated risk, when demand improves and competition stiffens, they are in a better position and do not have to scramble to gather the required human capital. Jobseekers, in turn, have to map their current skills and assess the gap. They need to be open to retrain/re-skill to enhance their “employability”.

An outcome of fast-changing technologies, processes and business scenarios has resulted in jobseekers moving across industries—in case they find lack of opportunities in their current industry and location—thus making them look at companies where their current skills can be deployed. Contemporary research shows how organisations drive business success through a differentiated ‘total rewards’ experience. This helps produce better business results and also create an engaged and committed workforce. ‘Re-skilling and up-skilling’, that is fine-tuning your current skills to meet industry demands could be a vital game changer. Deployment opportunities across states, countries and diverse work cultures further enhance the scope of learning and gaining experience. It is not only the companies that are competing with each other for talent, but also the jobseekers, who are competing with one another in the region and across the global talent pool.

Back home, the upcoming Budget promises regaining consumers, investors and companies confidence that would, in the long run, open up large scale employment opportunities across industries. Employability is an important facet along with education. Currently, there is a huge gap between education and demand from the industry, and that needs to be bridged. It has been observed that there is a glaring 40% gap between skills imparted by various educational institutes and skills required for a suitable job, therefore raising a huge concern on the disconnect between the supply and demand scenario across industry sectors. Thus, it goes without saying that there is an immediate need to build more education institutions specific to the industry requirements.

Some of the sectors to look out for are: