Nasscom planning career paths for IT-ITeS sector in India

In order to ensure that India emerges as the skills factory of the world, Nasscom, through its IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council India (SSC), has called for sector consultants to assist in defining and development of occupational standards (OS) that include skills for entry-level jobs and job roles identified in various service verticals.

Nasscom has invited request for proposal (RFP) for development of occupational standards (OS) & Career Paths for IT-IT enabled services sector from consultations.

The SSC has been set up by Nasscom, in partnership with National Skill Development Council (NSDC), to fulfill the growing need for skilled manpower, across sectors and to narrow the existing gap between demand and supply of skills.

According to Nasscom, OS are performance standards individuals must achieve while carrying out functions at the workplace. The latest initiative comes against the backdrop that India will have to pitch for its highly priced and specialised talent, than bank on the traditional cost arbitrage.

This is further driven by the fact that the ageing western economies require people with advanced technology skills and domain expertise.

The aim is to address skill gaps, generic and domain (industry-academia); collate and
standardise existing programmes to bridge skill gaps, across the pipeline.
This will be done in partnership with the Indian industry and the education sector, to improve standards, education and employment and facilitate the design of a National Qualification Framework (NQF) for India.

In the near term, IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council (SSC) will focus primarily on supplementary skill development and strive to facilitate seamless tracks within the education system. The purpose is to identify ways and means for development of scalable quality capacity that is sustainable.

The Indian IT & ITeS industry, by 2020, is expected to create direct employment of 10 million and indirect employment of about 40 million.