With the skill-gap mismatch evident in India, the India Skill Report 2018 envisages providing an insight into the future requirements of the market
Dr Manasvi M. Kamat
The skill-gap mismatch in India has resulted in higher supply and low demand for manpower over the past few years. The needs and expectations of the employers is found to be well-addressed in the recently released India Skill Report 2018 and envisages providing an insight into the future requirements of the market.
From a different perspective the above report is a reflection of requirement of skilled manpower for industries in future and expectation of industries from the academia. The interesting thing to look for is the ‘geography’ of job availability in terms of the employability assessment across different education domains, the ranking of employment-friendly cities, and to help evaluate the pool State-wise availability of different skills needed for future jobs. An important utility of findings in the report the author sees, is that it tells where the future jobs are and where they aren’t. It would thus be rewarding for the future workforce to focus on the needs and aspirations of their potential employers and choose to study and work in the direction and manner expected by the industry.
The results show that employability is on the rise this year over last year across engineering and polytechnic courses. Biotechnology and Electronics engineering reported 21 percent and 18 percent rise in employability over last year respectively and this is highest among all the branches. Specifically among the other domains of engineering, the employability has seemingly increased for Computer Science, IT, Communications and Mechanical while it is relatively slender for courses like Automobile, Chemical and Civil engineering.
The employability of MCA, polytechnic, BPharm has increased considerably along with the traditional programs like the BA and BSc, compared to the past. More significantly, the student’s employability on completion of Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) is on rise and has increased by 13 percent.
This rise in employability is a good sign for IT companies and students with MCA based opportunities will get employable resources easily. It is also found that the employers are now giving increasing importance to internship in last semester of engineering/MCA and this will play a vital role in employability in future as it perceivedly enhances the subject knowledge. The study of core skills such as English language, numerical ability, and economic analysis will also play a critical role in employment and students/institutions need to pay attention towards it.
This year pharmaceutical student’s employability has increased by 6% as compared to last year. The Indian pharmaceutical market size is expected to grow US$ 100 billion by 2025, driven by increasing consumer spending, rapid urbanization, and raising healthcare insurance among others. Keeping this surge in the pharmaceutical sector in mind, and higher employability of BPharm students, pharma companies are going to be benefited from both perspectives.
Sadly, the employability is found to be decreased for MBA, ITI and B.Com programs as per the above report. Employability of MBA students witnessed a drop of 3 percent over last year and is a cause to worry for the increasing number of students trying to enrol for this degree. Drop in quality of student intake over years due to negligence in student selection process and lack of industry internship programs or low attendance in industry internship programs are reasons of this drop among many others.
This calls for stringent approach by regulatory bodies to improve overall employability situation across nation. The employability of ITI students’ is a challenge even though it is practical training driven. Low employability of ITI is due to less focus on industry alliance and core employability skills. The National Council for Vocational Training has introduced employability skills as part of the curriculum to train students and make them ready for industry but it seems ineffective.
Based on the report one can figure out which cities to look out for in enhancing the chance of employment. The cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Indore and Lucknow now have highest employability followed by Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Pune and Tiruchirapalli. Three cities of Maharashtra and 2 from Tamil Nadu now figure in the list and surprisingly the traditionally know cities for providing employment like Gurgaon, Jaipur, Calcutta, Vishakhapatnam, and Hyderabad find no mention in the list. From the overall employability analysis of cities listed; it is clear that employable talent pool remains in tier-II or tier-III cities as out of top 5 cities in the list, 3 are tier-II cities.
Among all states, Maharashtra is also found to be the most preferred location to work among all salary ranges. When the skills are further divided based on geography we have a more interesting picture. In terms of ‘work-adaptability’, Karnataka, Delhi and Punjab rank the highest. If one is looking for candidates with ‘learning ability’, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala offers such a pool. Students from Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra are found to be high on ‘inter-personal skills’ while when assessed in terms of ‘emotional intelligence’ Kerala, Gujarat and Karnataka scored well.
The overall hiring trend suggests that graduation courses, engineering and professional courses like pharma and masters in computers account for the highest of total hiring requirements. The insurance, manufacturing and healthcare sectors have high demand of graduates while technical students and post graduates are demanded by IT, core sectors, engineering and auto industry.
The findings of the report bring one fact to light that future jobs are not just everywhere. One has to select the right domain for getting educated, acquire the right skills and choose right place to work.
