If the current growth trajectory of IT-ITES is maintained, the demand for digital tech professionals in India will increase by thirty-five per cent. Nasscom pegs this number at two-point-three million by 2023. Digital skilling of fresh talent and existing employees is critical to meet this requirement.
National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) is the IT lobby in India. At the ongoing HR summit, Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh highlighted the problems that the industry could face if the skilling requirements are not met. She said,
“If we don’t fix the problem of talent pool immediately, there will be a point where companies are going to start hiring from each other. That’s going to have a big impact on wages and will redefine the competition landscape for companies.”
“Futureskills” for Digital skilling
“Futureskills” is a platform created by NASSCOM with a plan to upskill people in the IT industry. They predict over sixty per cent of IT jobs to change drastically in the next five years. Hence the mandate is to re-train the existing workforce and partner with universities to enable digital skilling of fresh graduates.
NASSCOM hopes to upskill four million by the year 2025. SRM university of Chennai is the first institute to partner with NASSCOM in this endeavour. They plan to transform one hundred universities to achieve the resources needed for Indian IT companies.
While many companies are working on re-skilling their employees, it is too large a task to be accomplished by organizations alone. A collaborative effort by NASSCOM, universities, government, and industry is required.
The digital skilling efforts will cover areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blockchain, IoT, Robotics, and so on.
An important takeaway for students of liberal Arts is that NASSCOM is moving from the focus it had on STEM to STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math).
