On a mission to create skill-ready workforce

NASSCOM to undertake ‘Train the trainers’ programme nationwide to meet the emerging opportunities in the job market. "Our aim is to raise it to $ 300 billion by creating skill-ready workforce," NASSCOM Vice-President and Executive Director of Sector Skills Council Sandhya Chintala told The Hindu.

Realising the importance of making industry-ready graduates job-ready, NASSCOM has stepped in to undertake ‘Train the trainers’ programme nationwide to meet the emerging opportunities in the job market.

Sector Skills Council of NASSCOM, set up under the aegis of the National Skill Development Corporation, says that direct employment of 3.2 million in IT/business process management will increase to 5.3 million by 2020. Accordingly, revenue will also go up from $ 120 billion to $ 225 billion by that year.

“Our aim is to raise it to $ 300 billion by creating skill-ready workforce,” NASSCOM Vice-President and Executive Director of Sector Skills Council Sandhya Chintala told The Hindu .

Structured approach

She said, to achieve the target, they were adopting a structured approach involving all stakeholders.

The skill gap has to be addressed through comprehensive effort at various levels.

NASSCOM has identified 516 unique job roles from entry to mid-management to leadership roles. It has identified four sub-sectors viz. IT, BPM, engineering and R&D, and software and product development.

The Sector Skill Council has evolved National Skills Qualification Framework in consultation with various Ministries and UGC, which, in future, will become the criterion for selection of candidates by various industries.

Ms. Chintala said there would be huge demand for skilled manpower in IT application and development, data scientists, cyber security, infrastructure management services, and testing and quality assurance.

In the BPM sector, openings would emerge in analytics, financial accounting, health services, and customer relations management, and in engineering, design, product life cycle management, R&D, and software testing.

She said that they would conduct ‘Train the trainer’ programme for college faculty involved in the project to give them a holistic view of the essential pedagogy highlighted in the initiative. Only trained faculty members would be able to teach students on the Global Business Foundation Skills.

NAC test

She said the colleges selected by them have to conduct NASSCOM Assessment of Competence (NAC) test to enhance student employability in various global organisations.