India Skills Report suggests that by 2025, more than 250 million of India’s youth would have entered the workforce, while only 5% of that human resource pool would have employability, obtained through formal training. This is despite the fact that new centers of higher education, particularly private colleges, keep mushrooming across India. As many as 5,000,000 Indian students graduate every year, of which many are unaware of the basics of their field. What would they do if they are unable to meet the industry’s standards? Around 15 million youth enter the workforce every year. Of this, over 75 percent are not job ready. A Nasscom report says there is a need to re-train up to 1.5 million, or nearly half of the IT sector’s workforce, due to the coming of latest technologies. On the other hand, India would require 700 million skilled workers by the year 2022 to be able to meet the growing demands of a fast-paced economy. A glaring imbalance is visible and a cause for concern. The government has also started its initiative of Skill India Mission to solve the problem. Similary, on the private sector front, Deskera Education is one such initiative aimed at bridging this gap.
Deskera Education Training: Bridging the skill gap
With the country moving towards a Digital India and with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), India needs financial professionals with deep expertise as industries transit from one taxation system to another. The best place to start this is at the college level, which is the first step towards the professional world. Consequently, Deskera’s initiative is to train Class 12 and above students in financial technology such as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), accounting, and fintech. The program is aimed at helping students attain expertise for employment in the IT as well as financial industries.
“The new era of higher education demands increased competency and familiarity with cutting-edge technology. We are trying hard to bridge the skill gap that exists in India and increase employability of students. We are really excited about this initiative. We are partnering with several educational institutions throughout India to achieve our goal of increasing the skill set of today’s youth,” said Anuj Agarwal, Head of Training and Education, Deskera.
Skills gap: An entrepreneurial challenge for the industry
The present case is an entrepreneurial conundrum for the industry because it is the industry which requires skilled manpower. A shortage would only lead to reduced productivity. And this challenge needs to be taken head on. They would have to churn out human resources fit to be employed in their enterprises. Looking at the alarming situation, a number of corporates are taking steps to ameliorate the situation at the grassroots level by either setting up academies such as HCL Learning or partnering with existing colleges through programs such as Deskera Education.
Creating the building blocks for India’s tomorrow by skilling the youth
Besides technical training, Deskera is also planning to incorporate subjects such as maths, logic, reasoning, etc. in its educational modules.
“These areas are the building blocks of not only a good engineer but also critical thinkers who can make good citizens through their logical and nuanced approach to problem-solving. Today, many youth lack the toolset for logical and critical thinking. A software job, like any other profession, is also about creativity and innovation, which requires critical thinking,” added Anuj.
Deskera officials will impart core software skills and improve basic concepts through real-time case studies in technologies, such as, Java, SQL, Testing, etc. through a mix of virtual and physical classroom setups. During the two-year MoU, the Deskera Education program would encourage cross-functional learning by facilitating multi-disciplinary projects. Deskera trainers would connect with students through weekly e-mailers, videos, articles and online forums.
“Our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Deskera will help our students a lot as the company’s technical expertise and its team of professionals would be the most appropriate to impart quality training to our talented students,” said Dr. Rakesh Jain, principal of Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering (RSCOE), Pune, one of the institutions participating in the initiative.
Fusion of Business Analytics to make informed decisions
Besides core technical education, there would be elements of business analytics as well since Deskera sees analytics become increasingly significant for smarter decision-making across industries.
“Data analytics has an important role to play in teaching students how data harnessing, software as well as statistical models come together to provide an edge to the way businesses are run today. The critical element here is to form that pool of human resources,” added Anuj.
