India Inc. needs 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026 - TeamLease

Chandigarh, February 9, 2023: TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, India’s fastest growing apprenticeship program, from the TeamLease Services group, has today released a niche report for CHROs on ‘Skills Strategies for a Strong, Sustainable and Balanced World of Work.’ The report, which analyses the current market sentiment, highlights a varied range of effective skill strategies that can help organisations assess and augment their existing skill-development programmes to improve productivity, revenue and bottom line growth. According to the report, India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026 and 50% of the current workforce would need to re-skill themselves in areas of emerging technologies.
 

Sharing her views on the need for conducive skill strategies, Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Director, TeamLease Services, said, “Today India has about 500 million people of working age and despite that we continue to face a skill crisis. Industry data suggests that only 49% of total youth (age group of 22-25 years) in the country is employable. In fact, our own surveyed have indicated that 75% of companies face skill gap in the industry. Even among people, who can stay in their current jobs, 40% of fundamental abilities are likely to change and thus re-aligning the skill strategy will be crucial for companies.”

The report from TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship highlights a seven-step skills strategy for corporates, which can directly impact their workforce productivity, revenue and growth. From developing a skills matric, conducting skill audit to targeting specific learning journeys and intermingling upskilling within the company culture; a comprehensive skill development strategy will lead to a more sustainable future of work. The proposed recommendation also includes having an effective outcome focused learning approach with structured impact evaluation metrics.
 

“Labour and skill shortages are among the second most important external factors disrupting business strategy. In fact, over 2 million jobs in AI, Cyber Security, and blockchain are expected to remain unfilled in 2023. Additionally, the workplace is evolving so rapidly that 76% of the global workforce is not equipped with the requisite skills to function in the new digitally focused workplaces. As organizations across the globe adopt new pedagogies for skilling, it would serve them well to look upon skill development as an integral step to creating long-term value for the organization. Incidentally, degree apprenticeship programs can emerge as a tool for holistic skill development and long-term retention plans for employees which also facilitate the creation of a talent pool for the future. The long-term goal of all skill development programs must focus on the creation of a future-ready and future-proof workforce for that is the only way we can tackle the fluctuations in the world of work and infuse a sense of greater stability. The adoption of sustainable skill development thereby creating a healthy talent pipeline in any country is the only way to address the vagaries of talent Inequity.  In this regard, HR Leaders need to assess their Skilling Strategy and come up with a democratic, long term plan integral to creating sustained value for the organization. Our study is an attempt to create that pathway for every HR Leader in India, which is co-created and co-opted with HR Leaders who are torch bearers in this discussion”, added Chakraborty.
 

According to the World Economic Forum, investment in upskilling could potentially boost India's economy by $570bn by adding 2.3 million jobs by 2030. According to TeamLease’s CHRO focused report, comprehensive skill programs based on real-life practices will be the future of skilling. The report also highlights prominent brand case studies (Accenture and Henkel, Amazon, AT&T, Infosys, HSBC), outlining the impact of advanced integrated skilling methods.
 

Skills Strategies for a Strong, Sustainable and Balanced World of Work’ is a comprehensive report, designed to be a source of market information that helps CHROs step up and fundamentally reexamine their skill development strategy as well as to assist in establishing a complete plan for the organization's future skill-development programme. In this regard, a detailed analysis of skill strategies initiated by the global companies for their core employees are listed in the report along with a detailed action oriented skill strategy for CHROs. Additionally, it includes self-assessment questionnaire which is designed to help organizations assess their skill strategies.