Various studies have revealed that the skill gap across industries is growing by leaps and bounds. If we look at some statistics, the expected shortfall in 2022 will be 103 million in the infrastructure industry, 35 million in auto and auto components, 26.2 million in textile and clothing, 33 million in building and construction, 17.7 million in transport and logistics, 17.3 million in organised retail, 14 million in real estate services, 12.7 million in healthcare, 9.3 million in food processing, and 5.8 million in education and skill development services.

These are whopping numbers, but this also means that job opportunities are increasing on a rapid scale. However, who is going to fill these positions? Are we skilled enough to reduce this gap between available skills and industry demand. The answer is a highly disappointing ‘no’.

Much has been talked about how our education system is not able to produce the workforce required by the industry. The theoretical knowledge and studying to complete the course with sufficient marks is just not what the demand is actually about. The demand is for people with the technical know-how who have the passion to learn and are armed with excellent soft skills.

According to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a public-private partnership tasked with funding and directing private skilling programmes, approximately 12.8 million people will join the job market every year. But then, in 2012-13, the NSDC met just 16.5% of its skilling target, which brings us to the point that not only is the NSDC required to gear up to increase its efforts but also new avenues need to open up towards the direction of bridging the skill gap.

Industry-led education is the answer to this alarming situation. It has become vitally important to enhance the Indian talent pool to maximise the industry’s potential and enable the sector to further catalyse the country’s economic growth rate.

The fact that our educational system needs to change to bring in more industry exposure is well known. To encourage industry-led education, all educational institutions need to focus on conducting workshops and guest lectures by reputed industry experts to expose students to industry needs, support industry internships and projects, and make soft skills and value-based training a part of curriculum.

Today, job seekers and employers need to work together, be it through online platforms or through educational and training institutions.

Undoubtedly, fresh graduates need to go through training to fit the bill. A lot of companies have very effective training programmes; companies such as Goldman Sachs, Infosys, HCL, etc, are known for their training programmes. Training needs to include not only the technical know-how but also softer aspects of professionalism, be these interpersonal skills, communication skills or effective know-how of computer, mobile technology and social media platforms.

The boom in the online learning sector is another resource that is increasingly being channelised towards this direction. Graduates fresh out of college can now choose the plethora of courses available online which could give them that finishing touch before they land that big job.

Making pre-vocational courses available at the high school and at the college level is also of great significance in mitigating the skill gap. At the same time, students choosing these courses need to be incentivised which will motivate the students to go for such courses. The incentives could be in any form—credits, internal grades, vertical academic mobility, etc.

A CII report on Tamil Nadu had estimated that, this year, the incremental skilled manpower requirement of the state will be 130-150 lakh, mainly in the manufacturing, textile, automotive, retail, IT, electronics and banking and financial services sectors. There are over 38,500 industrial units in the state. Nearly 72 industrial training institutes run by the government across the state provide various mechanical, electrical and computer-aided courses to individuals. Experts highlight that though there is much demand for skilled labour in the state, there are not many who meet the requirements. As is clear that city/state has a particular selection of sector which is more prominent than others; for instance, automobile, IT and electronics in Chennai, or aerospace, aviation and IT in Bangalore. So it will be best to skill a near-shore requirement and make it a centre for excellence in that area.

Individual-level attitudinal and mindset-level change needs to happen to ensure a global-level transformation. As Socrates so rightly said, “The secret to change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” So, it’s time that the industry leaders stop complaining about the skill gap but contribute heavily by training, knowledge sharing and, above all, inspiring.

By VP Rajini Reddy

The author is director, Swarnabhoomi Academic Institutions