NEW DELHI (India CSR): TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, an apprenticeship program from TeamLease Services group, recently released a report for CHROs titled “Skills Strategies for a Strong, Sustainable and Balanced World of Work.” The report highlights the need for effective skill strategies in organizations to improve productivity, revenue, and bottom line growth.
India continues to face a skill crisis
According to the report, India will require 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026 and 50% of the current workforce will need to re-skill themselves in emerging technologies. Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Director of TeamLease Services, said that despite having 500 million people of working age, India continues to face a skill crisis with only 49% of the total youth in the country being employable. The report also states that 75% of companies face a skill gap and 40% of fundamental abilities among current workers are likely to change in the future.
Need of seven-step skills strategy
The report recommends a seven-step skills strategy for corporations, including developing a skills matrix, conducting skill audits, and targeting specific learning journeys. It also emphasizes the importance of intermingling upskilling with the company culture and having an effective outcome-focused learning approach with structured impact evaluation metrics.
2 million jobs in AI, Cybersecurity, and blockchain
According to Chakraborty, over 2 million jobs in AI, Cybersecurity, and blockchain are expected to remain unfilled by 2023, and 76% of the global workforce is not equipped with the necessary skills for the new digitally focused workplaces. Degree apprenticeship programs can serve as a tool for holistic skill development and employee retention plans, as well as creating a talent pool for the future.
Future-ready and future-proof workforce
The long-term goal of all skill development programs must be to create a future-ready and future-proof workforce. It will help in providing stability in the world of work and address talent inequity. HR leaders should assess their skilling strategies and come up with a long-term plan that creates sustained value for the organization.
The World Economic Forum states that investment in upskilling could potentially increase India’s economy by $570 billion and add 2.3 million jobs by 2030. The report from TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship highlights that comprehensive skill programs based on real-life practices will be the future of skilling.
