Indian STEM sector fighting talent shortage: Indeed Data

This National Science Day, data from the job site Indeed, indicates that the average level of a shortage of skilled talent in India has risen from 6 percent in January, 2014 to 12 percent in January, 2018 in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector. Home to a record number of engineering colleges, India produces over 1 million engineering graduates annually. However, despite there being ample talent, there remain job roles that are vacant due to a lack of requisite skills for the said role.

According to industry experts and academicians, one of the chief contributors to the talent mismatch is the disparity between college curriculums and industry expectations. While the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has sanctioned the setting up of over 10,000 institutes across India  by the end of this financial year, the issue of skills gap still needs addressing for adequate employability.

Home to some of the finest science and engineering institutes in the world, India also has a large and increasingly educated population, taking the number of potential job seekers in the country to one of the highest in the world. India produced the most number of graduates of any country worldwide with 78 million fresh graduates in 2016 alone, of which 2.6 million were STEM graduates. This puts India in a position to outstrip the US in terms of STEM graduates produced annually, given that it currently leads by a margin of over 2.5 million.[1] In addition, initiatives such as Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship should help serve as a great opportunity to create the right talent pool.

Indeed’s data also indicates that job seekers in the age group of 21-25-year-olds show 12 percent more interest in STEM jobs than in any other sector. The leading sectors hiring STEM talent include Information Technology, Banking and Financial Services. The top job roles these companies offer include Software Engineer, Web Developer, Business Analyst, Software Architect and SAP Consultant.

Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India said, “Today, India produces a significant share of the world’s graduates, and this share will only continue to grow in size as we work towards building and strengthening our knowledge economy. This will not only help meet the rising demand for skilled talent, but also ensure parity between skilling programmes and industry’s requirements. The shift towards higher education will not only give a boost to the STEM sector, but also help expand India’s contribution to the global talent pool.”