NEW DELHI: Industry sees vast opportunity for India as a supplier of knowledge workers and skilled professionals to bridge the manpower shortage of 39 million which is expected to rise further. It has suggested a three-point strategy envisaging involvement of the private sector in education and training of manpower and creating capacities and capabilities to effectively tap the advantage.

Knowledge workers

If the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution led the economic growth in the West and benefited the Middle East by making it fuel supplier, the same pattern is unfolding with the growth paradigm of western economies needing another kind of fuel — knowledge workers and skilled professionals, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.

In the next two decades, developed countries will face a shortfall of skilled professionals and they are looking at the developing countries to bridge the shortfall.

And it will provide opportunity for India, which will have a surplus manpower of 47 million by the year 2020, and other developing countries.

An important issue that needs immediate attention is employability of the graduating potential workforce.

Demand for skills sets

Given the pace of economic growth, especially in the services sector, the demand for skills sets is rising at a faster pace and the present education system is unable to support this demand thus leading to a huge gap in skills sets.

The IT and the BPO (business process outsourcing) sectors are now experiencing this and there can be future shortage in upcoming sectors like tourism, retail, financial and construction sectors.

In order to address the constraints, the CII Services Council, chaired by S. Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services, and represented by CEOs from several services verticals, has underlined the need for substantial involvement of the private sector in education and training as also in activities pertaining to training teachers, building and updating curricula, setting up recruitment centres and the like. Further, the focus ought to be on increasing employability.

Besides these, there is a need for increasing capacities and capabilities. "Capacities can only be increased through a larger number of education institutes and this is where the Government and the private sector need to work hand-in-hand for setting up new institutes.

Capabilities demand more trained teachers and facilities for education and training", the chamber said.

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