Bridging the industry-academia gap

IN FOCUS

The India Labour Report 2009 in its finding said by 2026, 1.4 billion youth will enter the labour force. The reality, however, is different. At present, about 53% of employed youth suffer from some degree of skill deprivation which makes them unemployable.

The gap between the demand and supply of skilled workers has been steadily increasing in India over the past couple of years. In a recent 2010 FICCI-Cover survey on the employment quotient of undergraduates in India, it was found that India Inc is facing a severe shortage of skilled manpower as the under-graduates in the general stream of arts, commerce and science, churned out by the country’s educational institutions, are not up to the mark.

Globalisation will continue to transform India’s economy and will provide exciting career opportunities to young professionals who possess market-driven skills. While making rapid inroads, India still faces huge gaps in skills in all sectors of the economy, leading to low employability. In the current scenario, students too are looking for not just a degree, but a significant way through which they can either get a job or enhance their career.

The need of the industry is knowledge and skills acquired with an eligibility to include skills-ready employees from day one. There is a need felt for the integration of job and learning, thus creating a need for customised programmes for the industry.

The spectre of a severe shortage of trained-skilled-knowledge workers is haunting India Inc. While demographics weigh in the country's favour, quality of workforce does not. In this scenario, will industry-academia partner-ships bridge the demand-supply gap?

India is a growing economy and has the attention of world players for investment and expansions. This brings about a need for ready-for-the-job people. On the other hand, there is a large set of employees who need to be skilled, re-skilled and up-skilled to meet the needs of the changing dynamics. This is only possible through the active role of industry in sharing the know-how and academia in developing programmes and solutions to fill the void.

Corporate houses also feel the need for a stronger element of vocational training. We are moving towards a services economy structure. Success of countries like Japan and Germany can be attributed to the presence of a strong vocational training set-up. While analysts are pessimistic about overcoming the serious manpower shortage which the industry is facing, there are many who believe that collaborating with academia is the answer.

Many leading corporates undertake training programmes that cover a range of domains to take care of an organisation's total training requirements. Best practice companies link their corporate learning solutions to the long-term business strategy and marketplace challenges, and establish corporate education programme as a continuous learning system to maintain strategic momentum. Although a large number of corporates have initiated the collaborative process with academic institutions, it is predominantly to deal with the shortage within the company itself.
The need for industry-academia tie-ups is becoming more pertinent. Industry pursues competitive excellence, academia brings in thought leadership and the two together can foster best practices and environment that will make us ready for the business challenges of tomorrow. The two must come seamlessly together.

According to a report by IDFC- SSKI, corporate training in India is estimated to be a $ 50 million market that will expand by 25% in the coming year as more companies prefer to outsource employee training to specialists in a bid to ensure quality and reduce costs.

Academic curriculum does not necessarily prepare individuals adequately for workplace requirements such as behavioural, communication and performance manage-ment. Industry and academia tie-ups give them the necessary exposure to hone their skills. In the given scenario, how can companies and educational institutes interact to make individuals more industry-ready? There is a need to think innovatively about how corporate and industry can interact more. The ever increasing demand for skilled professionals and domain specialisation has led to innovation within the academic space.

An ideal illustration of one such industry-academia tie-up  is that between ICICI Bank and Manipal Education to set up the ICICI Manipal Academy to train the probationary officers of ICICI Bank.

Today, businesses are looking for innovative solutions from the academia to help meet their business needs of higher productivity and lower costs, yet increased efficiencies. In the area of talent, India has to strengthen its technical and management resources as these are crucial to knowledge-based industries. A market-driven approach to higher education has to be fostered in order to encourage manpower development from the grassroot level itself. The idea is to involve the private sector in higher education.

(The writer is VP and Head, Corporate Education, Manipal Education.)