IBM Study Finds Higher Education to Play a Pivotal Role in Bridging India’s Skill Gap

BW People Online

New Delhi

American multinational technology company  announced a study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, to evaluate India’s growing skills challenge and proposed recommendations to bridge the gap. Addressing the looming talent shortage will be instrumental to prepare India for the competitive global economy. A majority of Indian executives surveyed in the study said that the quality and quantity of skills in the Indian workforce are at least comparable to those of other countries, and many reported them to be superior. However, only 40 percent indicated new employees recruited in local labor markets have the requisite job skills.  61% of India’s higher education leaders said that the education system is unable to respond to society’s changing needs. The IBM study, ‘Upskilling India’ derives insights from a survey of academics, corporate-recruiters, and emerging education leaders in India. In addition, the study also analysed results of recent surveys of start-up entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. “Skill is emerging as the new currency across businesses globally and in India. Today’s rapidly evolving economic environment makes up-skilling an imperative across job profiles and sectors. India is caught by both a skill gap and a higher education sector struggling to keep up. That is why, it is critical to take proactive measures to transform the higher education system to create a new model that better aligns with industry imperatives,” said DP Singh, Vice President and Head - HR, IBM India/ South Asia. India’s working population is expected to expand from 750 million to almost one billion. Without adequate education and training, such population growth poses increased risk of the emergence of a growing class of the under or unemployed who are unable to achieve the Indian middleclass dream. In an effort to align India’s educational activities with industry imperatives and demands, the study recommends a transformation of higher education system.