The workforce of tomorrow needs training today – Here’s why

Technological advancement has paved the way for a future where the most imperative skill is the ability to have multiple skills. As competition grows, industries grow and so do their requirements. To keep up with matching demands, companies are fast employing machines to mass produce products that would otherwise be manually assembled, and the white goods manufacturing industry is no different. The labour force working in this industry in fact needs to reskill and upskill a lot faster as the demand for white goods soars. India is currently a hub of manufacturing for several goods and to keep up with this growing demand, there is a need to upscale.

Despite machines, a majority of the industries in India continue to depend on the labour force for the smallest and biggest tasks. If the labour force cannot keep up, India would fall behind in the global race and might lose its international standing too. The only way to avoid this is to reskill the labour force to be able to produce more, constantly innovate and find solutions to tough situations along the way.

According to industry estimates, the white goods market will cross a whopping $ 21 billion by 2025. In India the white goods industry had already reached $13.66 billion in 2021. Given these numbers it is easy to estimate that the market will continue to grow and that the growth potential of freight goods and their penetration in the Indian market is massive. If we innovate and find ways to reduce costs there is no stopping India from gaining monopoly over the global manufacturing industry.

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While trying to achieve our goals and become a manufacturing superpower, it is imperative to diversify investments in a manner that benefits the sector the most. In addition to investing in technology and constantly upgrading it, investing funds to better train your labour force is also equally important. Skilling, upskilling and reskilling are paramount to the success of the manufacturing industry, especially with technological changes that have the potential to completely wipe the need for labourers.

It is important to note that upskilling is not just limited to the labour force, but also applies to the higher rungs of management, as those jobs too could very easily be rendered unnecessary. Keeping this in mind, upskilling and reskilling for those is clerical tasks or in management positions, constantly learning new tech, methods etc.

For most manufacturing companies, upskilling would involve understanding the gaps in their current process and then teaching the existing workforce to pick up the slack. The reason you choose to upskill and not just add another task to the employees to-do list is so that you don’t overwork them.The idea is to make the employee and your process more efficient.

When a company is upskilling, they should also aim to instill in the employee a sense of discipline and career mapping, beneficial to the company and the employee in the long run.

Skilling and reskilling can largely be divided into two broad categories. The first is the acquisition of skills, which is the employee actually performing the task at hand. The second is to create the right intent to work, which is where having set procedures and systems come into play. 

Creating the right intent to work paves way for a happier employee, who is then not only more inclined to work for the company but is also more productive and actually able to deliver better and timely results. Often ignored and not thought of as important, a change in attitude is a huge part of upskilling that companies should increasingly focus on for better long term results.

The global market is huge and the potential it holds is immense as well. However, before tapping into this potential a lot needs to be done domestically to better India’s freight good manufacturing changes internationally. If we are able to manage our resources, the most important being manpower and use the workforce to deliver quality and quantity, we could capitalize on the winnings enjoyed by frontrunners in the global market.

It is important to note here that upskilling also means better investments and this is a challenge to be tackled locally. The benefits of upskilling are immense, both to the employee and the employer. Add reskilling to the mix, wherein you teach an employee,whose job has become obsolete, a new skill to retain him/her, and you have a company that is winning on all fronts.

Research estimates that by 2025, close to 85 million jobs might cease to exist. This would create a huge shift in the employee market. However, this will be balanced by the 97 million new roles created. These jobs largely related to technology would require the workforce to be adept at dealing with the tech and using it to take the company forward. Skilling, reskilling and upskilling is not something that can be achieved overnight. Processes must be put in place and trainings need to start today, for the workforce to be ready for a change that is inevitable but quite manageable.

(By Sukrit Bharati, MD, Virtuoso Optoelectronics Limited (VOEPL). Views are personal)