Daughter of a construction labourer, Pushpanjali, 20, could not finish high school because of financial constraints. For her, a white-collar job seemed a distant dream a few years ago. But after receiving basic computer and soft skills training from an IT essentials course, she works today as a call centre executive at Greater Hyderabad Municipal Council. The job has changed Pushpanjali's life.

Globalisation and market forces are creating opportunities across countries on a scale never seen before. Unfortunately, there is also a widening skills gap. India is poised to reap the benefits of the 'demographic dividend', but this begets the question, how can a country with a billion people be facing such a severe talent crunch?

The reasons are obvious. First, only 17 per cent of the relevant age group in India goes for higher education. Second, every year India produces more than 2.5 million university graduates, of whom 20 per cent are engineers. Nasscom estimates that only 25 per cent of these technical graduates and 15 per cent of other graduates are considered employable by IT and ITES companies. India's IT sector, according to Nasscom, will face a shortfall of half a million professionals ?by 2010.

The current state of affairs presents a compelling case for private-public partnership through industry-academia alliances to enhance talent development among the youth at the grassroots level. Nasscom's IT Workforce Development programme was specifically designed to keep the issues and concerns of the industry as well as the challenges of the academia in mind. Many IT companies are now partnering with engineering colleges and universities to build the much-needed engagement between industry and academia, even creating universally accepted benchmarks like certifications and policy-level curriculum changes. Educational institutions can update syllabi of professional academic courses to make them more industry relevant, with regular updates from professionals who have a deeper understanding of current business developments and technical standards.

Apart from reskilling and retooling engineers and graduates, catering to the large segment of India's youth who haven't had the opportunity to go to college is important. Equipping them with technology skills as well as the relevant hard and soft skills will help open a whole new world to them.

The World Development Report 2007 states that for many countries, building a workforce with higher order skills is an important part of improving the climate for investment, acquiring competitive edge and generally maintaining an engine of growth. The Cisco Networking Academy initiative partners with over 190 educational institutions in India, delivering information and communication technology skills to the Indian youth. The free ITE course offered by Dr Reddy Foundation is another example. If leading companies from across industries can step forward to advance talent development, we could make the youth competitive and help in supporting long-term local sustainable development.

Companies can not only help the unprivileged, but also bridge the 'gender divide' by giving women equal opportunity. Many companies, like Cisco, Intel and IBM, have helped bridge the urban-rural digital divide by taking technical education to tier II cities. With greater IT exposure to large segments of India's population in tier II and tier III cities, these areas are becoming the new focus of attention. Especially for IT companies, which are looking at them not just as markets but as regional hubs and sources of well-educated and qualified manpower. The government plays a critical role and needs to support the growth of these cities by providing social, educational and physical infrastructure. It also needs to allocate land for meaningful projects that would help enhance the pace of these developments and collaborate more with industry partnerships.

Courtesy: http://week.manoramaonline.com, October 05, 2008