INVESTING IN IT & IT ENABLED WORKFORCE

IN INDIA FOR EMPLOYABILITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

SUBMITTED BY
Mrs. S. V. L. ANURADHA.

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

RESEARCH CENTRE
ADARSH COLLEGE OF ARTS AND COMMERCE, BADLAPUR
OCTOBER 2017
 Chapter 5
Observations, Conclusions & Suggestions
 Observations
Skill Development is essential to stimulate the process of economic development. In the
backdrop of the global scenario of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity i.e.
VUCA, considering India’s prospects on a global set up with the aim of capitalizing its
Demographic dividend, there is a need to assume ‘employability’, which becomes inevitable
feature of economic growth. Skill development gains significance for meeting the
challenges of changing technologies & creating a global workforce, besides using
opportunities thereof. It is only through skill development, upgrading & updating of skills
among youth, national productivity can be increased to have a sustainable development. It
is therefore necessary to understand the types of skill development & their role in promoting
economic growth.

India has undergone structural transformation during the planned periods of development
especially after 1990s with the dominance of the service sector. It is observed that service
sector is the fastest growing sector with lowest share of employment services despite having
the highest share of GDP i.e. its employment elasticity is low, which is a worrisome factor.

It is interesting to note that, among the service sector there are certain sub sectors like trade,
hotels & restaurants; transport, storage & communications and financial, insurance, real
estate & business services which are the growing in terms of employment and growth,
among which the IT & BPM sector is a lead sector & is skill driven. Therefore the
investment in the workforce through skills & training can not only enhance the
employability of the labour in this sector, but also bring the development of the IT & BPM
sector. It is observed that the vibrant business environment is constantly changing the
perception and expectations of the employers about the soft skills from the engineers &
graduates.

Most of the employers feel that workforce lacks these skills. The various studies
contemplated this feature in all the sectors in general and IT & BPM sector in particular. A
number of surveys conducted for enquiring into the aspect either highlighted the skill
gaps/mismatches or probed into the causes behind the same with the types of such skill gaps.
Studies also focused on the employers spending significant amount of the resources in not

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only improving the technical skills but also soft skills. This is because a pronounced skill
gaps can ultimately lead to job crisis.

It is an established fact that three fourth of the engineers and graduates are unemployable in
the IT & BPM sector in India due to lack of skills, implying that only one fourth of the
engineers and graduates are suitable for the job in this sector. The gravity of the situation is
that the skills demanded by the employers and their expectations from the engineers and
graduates are mismatching leading to skill gaps and skill shortages. There is also a dearth
of worthwhile researchers in this area, especially in Indian settings. Therefore, there is a
need for research to establish emphatically how best the skills can be learnt & evaluated
scientifically.

To enhance the skills & employability of the workforce, the role of skill imparting
institutions i.e. educational institutions becomes pertinent. It is necessary that the foundation
of skill development begins from schools where a humanistic approach of creative thinking
& reasoning is required, instead of a behavioristic approach of learning; leading to rote
learning. Ideally, along with the grooming of skills at a primary and secondary level, the
Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) have also an essential role to train the students in
enhancing their knowledge and skills. The learning as well as evaluation of skills has not
been adequately addressed in our education system.

Again reinforcing the engineering education, there is a constant demand for the
‘communication skills’, ‘problem-solving’, ‘desire to learn and adapt’ skills. Further, the
communication skills are given the highest priority by the employers to work in an
organization. For strategic strengthening of Higher education, the Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) institutions can play a pivotal role in training and skills
development which will improve the job profile and the earning potential of the labour force.
The Government of India is also deeply involved in the VET through various agencies,
DGET, NCVT, SCVTs, MHRD & MoLE with many schemes required by the industry.

Besides TVET, the employer training programmes have significant positive impact in terms
of employment. It is evidenced that on-the-job training provides such skills in response to
the market forces bringing higher returns than off-the-job training through improved
employees’ performance on job, enhancing the knowledge, skills and attitude of the workers
necessary for future contribution to organizational efficiency.

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The Government of India from time to time made planned efforts developing human skills,
especially in the Twelfth Plan (2012-17) it gave highest priority to skill development
through NSDC & SSCs. Although NSDM is a significant step to remedy for shortages of
well-trained skilled labourers there is no other alternative but to focus on scaling up of skill
training.

The NSDC is working close to Universities, Community Colleges under UGC/AICTE for
alignment of education & training to the workforce. PMKUY, SDMS & SIMO are some of
the schemes working for ‘Skill India’. There is a dire need to create effective convergence
between various level of education & government skill development programmes.

Skill formation strategies are long term. The collaborative efforts of public and private
partners & community colleges have resulted into skill imparting institutions in India.
Rigorous efforts are being made by industries like BITS PILANI, HP, Tech Mahendra, SAP,
Yahoo, TCS, B-ABLE towards imparting skills and training to the workforce in India.

The private sector in the form of edupreneurs like Bharati Group, Hero Group, Maruti, ITC
& Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services Ltd. are providing training to potential
employees to make them job ready. Besides, UK India Skill Forum (UKISF) & UK India
Business Connect (UKBIC) & Indo-German Joint Working Group are some of the countries
working in collaboration with India in various skills development initiatives.

Thus, realizing the importance of skills in human development, this research work is
undertaken to grasp the problems of skill gaps & skill shortages in India, with special
emphasis in IT & BPM industry and to find out the probable solutions to bridge these gaps.
The research has also delved into the role of the academia in imparting the skills to the
learners & to examine the synchronization between the employers’ requirements and skills
imparted by the academic institutions.

 Conclusions:
The following are the findings of the research:
 The investigation into the problem at HEI’s level brought out the fact that the
perceptional differences existed between the academia and the employers for ‘desire
to learn & adapt’ and ‘commitment & hard work’ skills indicating perception gaps
for the Personal skills. The similar results were also found between the employers
and the employees. Among the Core skills the perceptional differences between the

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 academia & employers was for ‘ability to work independently’, ‘leadership skills’
& ‘communication skills’. Similar results for the Core skills were found for the
employers & the employees indicating perception gaps. In the Job Specific skills the
academia & employers valued ‘practical knowledge’ as the most important skill in
which significant perception gaps were observed. Among all the three set of skills
intra perception gaps between the academia and the employers was for ‘ability to
work independently’, whereas the intra perception gaps between the employers and
the employees was for ‘desire to learn & adapt’. This clearly indicates a demarcation
between the perception of the academia and the employers and also the employees
& employers, resulting in perception gaps leading to skill gaps.
 The findings of the research clearly brought out the fact that the perceptional
differences resulted into the skill gaps. On scrutiny of data gathered from the
academia’ survey revealed that though the academia was positive with the learners
honesty, sincerity, reliability and punctuality skills, yet the learners lacked the
‘desire to learn and adapt’ & ‘commitment and hard work’ skills showing the skill
gaps. The employers’ evaluation also brought out the similar results for the Personal
skills. Among the Core skills highest skill gaps were observed by the academia for
‘problem-solving’, critical thinking’ & ‘communication skills’. In case of the
employers, their dissatisfaction was for ‘problem solving’ & ‘ability to work
independently’ skills. Among the Job Specific skills the academia and the
employers found the learners to be poor in ‘practical knowledge’. Highest intra skill
gaps were observed for ‘desire to learn and adapt’, ‘problem solving’ & ‘practical
knowledge’ showing their poor learning abilities by the academia. While the
employers intra skills set comparison reflected highest skills gaps for ‘problem
solving & ‘ability to work independently’ skills.
 Besides, the evaluation of results of employers expectations from the employees
showed that the employees ‘commitment and hard work’ & ‘desire to learn and
adapt’ skills were not up to the expectations of the employers indicating expectation
gaps in the Personal skills category. For the Core skills highest expectation gaps
were observed for ‘ability to work independently’ & ‘problem solving’ skills and for
Job Specific skills highest expectation gaps were noted for ‘theoretical knowledge’.
The intra expectation gaps were highest for ‘ability to work independently’ &
‘problem solving’ skills.

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  The findings clearly bring out the fact that the perception gaps, skill gaps & the
expectation gaps have resulted into the employability gaps. The employees have
assessed themselves to be poor in their possession of skills resulting in the
employability gaps. The employees’ assessment for Personal skills showed
underrating themselves low in terms of possession for ‘desire to learn and adapt’ &
‘commitment and hard work’ skills indicating employability gaps. For the Core
skills also they claimed their self-possession to be poor in ‘communication skills’,
followed by ‘team work’ and skills for ‘ability to work independently’. In fact, for
all the Core skills the employees evaluated themselves low in terms of possession
indicating employability gaps. As far as Job Specific skills were concerned the
employees were dissatisfied with the possession of ‘practical knowledge’. The
highest intra employability gaps were in the ‘communication skills’ of the
employees.
 The survey of group of teachers pointed out that perception gaps ranked the first
among all the gaps for the academia followed by the skills gaps, employability gaps
and expectations gaps. It was also observed further that among all the three skills
under study highest gaps were found for Job Specific skills, followed by Personal
skills and Core skills.
 A deeper probe into the skill expectations from the employers, skill gaps ranked the
highest followed by the expectation gaps in fulfilling their requirements. Though,
the perception gaps and the employability gaps also figured in the survey, these gaps
ranked low among the various gaps under study. It was also contemplated that for
all the three skills viz. Personal skills, Core skills & Job Specific skills, the skill gaps
were found.
The overall research findings of the employers and employees skill preference along
with the academia highlighted the fact that the employers and academia expect the
engineers and graduates to be more prepared in various employability skills.

 Suggestions
Keeping in mind the findings of the project undertaken, the question is, who to bear
the responsibility of candidature’s skill development. In this context, the following
suggestions can be made:
 The research found that the ‘desire to learn and adapt’, ‘communication skills’,
‘problem solving’, ‘practical knowledge’ & ‘ability to work independently’ skills

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 were poor among the learners. Therefore, the learning abilities of the students can
be developed right from childhood from the schools. The ‘communication skills’ of
the learners can be developed by way of reading the books & writing letters,
conversing with others by sharing the thoughts, ideas, opinions will help in their
body language by responding to others. The use of technology is a boon in the form
of video games, offer the students to develop their ‘creative thinking’ & ‘problem
solving’ skills. The ability to perform the role of leaders, interact effectively with
others will help to develop the leadership qualities of the learners. Academics
beyond class rooms through participation in group discussions, elocution
competition, role play activities can help developing the skills of learners at an early
age so that by the time the students go to the college these skills get strongly
developed to generate the ideas & effectively deliver with a confidence.
 Another important finding is that all the stake holders (employers and academia)
agreed that the engineers and graduates lacked the ‘desire to learn’, ‘communicate
effectively’, ‘work independently’ and also were deficient in ‘practical knowledge’.
The employees too agreed that they lacked these skills leading to the Perception gaps
and Skill gaps. So, shouldering the responsibility of developing the skills of
engineers and graduates is the matter of concern.
While industries or the employers expect the higher educational institutions to play
an effective role in building the skill competences of the engineers and graduates,
industries expect educational institutions to play a significant role in the
development of skills for employability. Therefore, a well-designed systematic step
by step, approach for developing strategies is needed to be undertaken in the
following manner for skill enhancement of the learners:
o Development of communication skills, learning abilities and practical
exposure to solve the problems can be incorporated in the teaching system
by way of live projects, brain storming sessions, group discussions etc.
o The curricula should not only be based on the technical knowledge which is
fundamental to the formation of a professional engineers and graduates but
for the soft skills identified by the employers while recruiting the engineers
and graduates.
o For instilling the critical thinking and problem solving skills, examination
system should be aimed at problem solving and not information seeking.

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 o To mitigate the employability gaps motivating the engineers and graduates
is required through personal counseling. Further, the academia should keenly
prepare the students for interviews, creating an awareness about the skills,
changing the mindset of the learners instilling the skills among them,
capacity building etc. are life skills which need to be developed.
o Considering a teacher’s role in molding students’ sustainability in the labour
market, the assessment of staff appraisal from the point of view of enhancing
students' skills is needed.
o Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) need to be conducted
for students, so that instead of making them 'job seekers' they themselves
become 'job creators' which has better scope and widened base.
 One of the findings of the research was the existence of perception gaps between
University and industry for the skills of the learners resulting in skill gaps &
employability gaps. Therefore, one of the effective mechanism to bridge these gaps
for increasing employability of the work force is the industry-university links by
way of :
o Industrial visits can abreast the learners to know the market demand for
skills. Visits to various Engineering and Non-engineering companies should
be made compulsory which can 'sub-consciously' develop the engineering
skills demanded and the work system of the companies. It can also broaden
the students understanding and help them to upgrade their skills as felt by
them.
o Strong connection with the local industries and business community through
their participatory approach in the academic institutions can help the
academic institutions to understand the types of skills demanded by the
employers.
o The industries in coordination with academic bodies can set occupational
standards, design curricula, provide practical training and access students’
performance.
o The involvement of the Government at the centre and the State in the form
of incentives and tax rebates to the industries will help to develop the skills
of the engineers and graduates to make them employable.
o One of the effective methods to bring the industry and academia with the
learners is through the internship programme. This programme helps the
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 students to apply their theory knowledge learnt in the classrooms to the
practical world. Such internship programmes improve their interpersonal
skills, makes them more confident and enables them to smoothly sail from
the academic world to the world of professional life. For industries,
internship programmes provide an opportunity to assess the capability of the
potential employees. Internship programmes can be developed by way of full
semester internship programme, along with the career counselors as it was
found in the research that the employees self-claimed possession and the
learners’ skills were low as per the employers and the academia leading to
high perception gaps. This is a serious issue because it has a cascading effect
on the skill gaps and the employability gaps. Therefore, the role of career
counselors are must in academic institutions.
 The employability gaps are quite evident among the engineers and graduates.
Though, micro measures suggested above can bridge the various gaps, at a macro
level active labour market policies are required as a part of broader portfolio
targeting the learners by addressing specific skill needs of the industries. This can
have a positive impact on the industry as well as the learners/employees. Building of
Human capital through skills and training is the immediate requirement of the
country. For this, labour market policies should focus on ‘Skills First’ approach rather
than ‘Work First’ approach.
 Although, the employers, academia & government as agencies are divergent in
imbibing the skills, they need to follow a convergent view. Thus, a comprehensive
long term strategy is needed involving the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in
catalyzing and evolving the skill ecosystem. The Public and the private sector can
work hand in hand in developing the skills of the workforce.

Thus, this research brought out the fact that there is a delink between the industry and the
academia which lament the poor Human Resource Management (HRM). The research
also emphasize on the corrective machinery to mitigate the gaps found in terms of skill
development of the learners & employability, demanding investment. This may not
require huge amounts of investments as such, but existing structures of educational
institutions need to be amended/modified to suit & meet the requirements of the markets.

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Limitations of the Study
This research focused on employability skills of engineers and graduates employed in IT
and BPM Industry after liberalization, however it does not look into the skill requirements
of other industries. Yet, the findings can be relevant to other sectors as there is a penetration
of Information and Communications Technology in all the sectors of the economy.

Employability skills form only one significant aspect of the graduate employability.
Geographical origin, market conditions, job mobility, job experience, labour market
policies, the level of education, vocational education and industrial training also influence
employability. This research, therefore, forms an initial, yet important aspect in
understanding of what makes the workforce employable. Future studies in understanding a
multidimensional nature of graduate employability would significantly strengthen the
efforts for improving employability of the workforce.

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