As digitalization expands its horizons and upskilling becomes indispensable for professionals across the IT spectrum, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) on Thursday showcased the roadmap for their pilot reskilling initiative – FutureSkills. Conducted on the sidelines of the HR Summit, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and Amit Aggarwal, CEO, IT-ITES Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM discussed the industry response and ultimate objective for the platform.
The demand for emerging technologies like Big Data Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Internet of Things and Robotics is increasing with the brimming need for a robust talent pipeline. NASSCOM’s FutureSkills platform (powered by Edcast) aims to position India as the talent hub for emerging technologies, as the pioneer in global digital capabilities. An industry utility for skills development in 9 emerging technologies, 66+ job roles and 155+ skills, the platform is a complement to the government’s Digital India initiative. The programme is pivoted on 9 emerging technologies: Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of things, Social & media, Virtual Reality, 3D printing and Cloud Computing.
Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOMsaid, “Capacity building and skill development have emerged as core components to bridge the digital disruption. As technology permeates through various industries, we are confident that the symbiosis of skills and innovation will be well absorbed across industries. With reskilling, productivity enhancement, and automation emerging as the future drivers of the industry, NASSCOM’s FutureSkills platform is surfing a new wave of growth through the automation tide.”
Most companies today are generating and using huge amount of data. Hence, Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence will have propensity to impact many sectors in the near future. The first few sectors to be impacted will be healthcare, retail, telecom and manufacturing, who will leverage insights from Big Data Analytics to drive their businesses. The total demand for AI and Big Data Analytics roles in 2018 will be 511,000 and will increase to 786,000 by 2021. Additionally, job creation for more traditional Big Data Analytics roles will grow at 7% compared to Data Scientist roles, which will be 65% over the next 3 years according to aZinnov Report. Keeping this in mind, the priority focus of the FutureSkills initiative will be re-skilling the workforce in AI and Big Data Analytics.
10 NASSCOM member companies will be the pioneers who have enrolled in the first phase of the initiative, the second phase will open its doors to universities and colleges. Some of the ‘Pioneers’ include, Wipro and Tech Mahindra (IT Services), Cyient (Engineering Services), Genpact & WNS (BPM), CGI (Global Capability Center), Purpletalk (Products), Dev-IT and Kellton (SMEs). Personifying co-creation and collective collaboration of the industry, these companies will work along with NASSCOM to curate the courseware and leverage the content to re-skill their employees. Industry experts will also contribute relevant information to keep updating the current learning content. Currently we have a user base of 200,000+ from member firms who have committed to re-skill their employees, from the 30,000+ content pieces available on the platform.
Across the entire spectrum of the industry, skill profiles are undergoing rapid changes witnessing a rising demand for enhanced digital capabilities. The FutureSkills programme which was launched earlier this February, ultimately aims to reskill 1 million professionals along with skilling 1 million potential employees and students in the industry over a period of 5 years.
