Dr. Kumkum Garg
Dean Faculty of Informatics & Automation, Bhartiya Skill Development University, Jaipur
Abstract:
In today’s age of globalization and technological volatility, skill building is an important instrument to increase the efficacy and quality of labor for improved productivity and economic growth. Skill development has been recognized as a vital force for steering India’s future economic growth and has been seen as an instrument to empower the individual and improve their social acceptance.
In a globalized economy, a large pool of skilled workers is indispensable for attracting industrial investment including foreign direct investment. Developing skilled workers enhances the efficiency and flexibility of the labor market; reduces skills bottlenecks, enables absorption of skilled workers more easily into the economy, and improves their job mobility (The World Bank, 2008). The 12th Five Year Plan document (Government of India, Planning Commission, 2013) clearly states that there is an urgent need to mainstream skill formation in the formal education system, and at the same time for innovative approaches for the skill creation outside the formal education system.
While a lot has been said about the potential economic advantage of the Indian demographic dividend, and about the challenges faced in the country to reskill/upskill its youth, it has been recognized that the major sector which needs to fall in line is the Industry. Unless the industry takes up the challenge of being an equal partner in this effort, none of the issues and challenges will be met.
In this Address, the challenges faced by the computing Industry will be discussed. In the industry in general, these are related to lack of employers, scalability, Mismatch between youth aspirations and jobs, ensuring minimum wages, Labor laws, etc. For the computing industry, the main skills required are in Networking &IoT, Cloud Computing, Mobile App Development, Device Management, Security and Business Intelligence & Analytics.
