I found a great article written by Kiran Karnik, NASSCOM Chairman in siliconindia.com. ''Skill Shortage' The Looming Challenge for India' this is the title of this article and here, Mr. Karnik has discussed in detail about the problem of skill shortage in India. These days, a lot of media attention is focused on the potential of generating huge revenue by Indian companies through getting offshored works but hardly anyone seems to be talking about the matter of 'skill shortage'. That is why, I like to thank Mr. Karnik for discussing about this challenge. It is a long article and I strongly encourage you to read it if you are directly or indirectly related to the IT industry of India.
Mr. Karnik has first discussed about the potential of the Indian IT industry in terms of generating revenue, contributing to GDP growth in Indian economy and creating thousands of new jobs. Then he talks about the major challenge that the industry is facing now:
" Industry leaders have debated and deliberated about possible stumbling blocks in this growth path, and the factors that dominate are ‘skills’ and ‘quality’ of the workforce, which needs to be improved significantly. As of today, only 25 percent of technical graduates and 10-15 percent of general college graduates are suitable for immediate employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries respectively, as per industry estimates. The skill-sets required by industry are just not there in a majority of the young graduates. This is causing serious concerns of a skills shortage of paucity amidst abundance."
So, according Mr. Karnik a gap exists between what the educational institutions are teaching and what the industry wants. He has suggested a set of recommendations in this article and he has called for ' a radical change in the policies and mindset with regard to education.'
Often, we get the perception that India has a population of over 1 billion and India has a never ending supply of engineer and tech professionals. That is surely a wrong perception and Indian government, IT industry leaders and the academicians should address the issue of skill shortage on a priority basis. If not then foreign companies would surely be forced to look for other destinations to do their works as the market of offshoring will grow a lot in the next few years.
I will write a series of post in the next few days in this blog about the major challenges faced by the Indian IT industry.
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