Walmart-owned Flipkart is looking to drive a deeper understanding of various aspects related to customer experience and product delivery with its delivery workforce through a partnership with National Skill Development Corporation’s Logistics Sector Skill Council (LSC). Flipkart and LSC will train delivery executives on preparing for delivery, knowing about transportation rules and regulations of cities, understanding the entire supply-chain process and the required soft skills through behaviour-focused sessions to improve customer interactions.
The training is being carried through eight-hour training modules conducted by Flipkart and LSC for 20,000 of its delivery staff who will be provided with ‘Certification of Prior Learning’ certification as per National Skill Qualification Framework following the completion of training, PTI reported Flipkart as saying in a company statement. So far over 4,000 delivery executives have received training started in May this year.
While skilled manpower shortage is among the key challenges but it is particularly so in the logistics sector since it is viewed as a support industry. The low skilled manpower is due to “inadequate training and proper leadership and support even as there are limited institutes for soft skills, and operational and technical training, according to a Deloitte-Assocham report in January 2018. Moreover, as per the World Bank, only 2.3 per cent of India’s total workforce (503.8 million in 2015) has formal skills training. Importantly, the government’s skill gap analysis said that additional around 109 million skilled workers will be needed in the 24 keys sectors of the economy by 2022.
Flipkart and LSC’s modules “would help our strong supply chain workforce build capabilities across domains of product delivery and customer experience,” said Amitesh Jha, senior VP, Ekart even as LSC hoped of other big players having huge delivery workforce to “similarly create opportunities for their growth and success,” said its CEO T S Ramanujam, for creating “an organised sector from India’s logistics workforce.”
The certificate will be issued by the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship and is recognised across seven countries including Germany, Denmark, Australia and Saudi Arabia, besides India, according to Flipkart that claimed more than 1 million daily shipments.