Quantity’s not the issue here, it’s quality that causing concern. Assuming business as usual, the IT/ ITES sector will need half a billion knowledge workers by 2010, 60% of them for BPO, according to Nasscom estimates.
According to data released by Union human resource development ministry, at the end of March 2005, there were 343 institutes of higher education in India and 16,000 colleges with a total enrolment of 9.3 million, producing 441,000 technical graduates, nearly 2.3 million other graduates and over 300,000 post-graduates each year. “The numbers are fine, it’s quality that’s a problem,” says Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom.
Take a specialised area such as VLSI (very-large-scale-integration) technology in the semi-conductor industry, which has been seeing much growth in the past few years. According to the Indian Semiconductor Association-Frost & Sullivan report, there is a gap between the demand and supply of trained engineering workforce.
“Thousands of engineers graduate from over 1,300 technical institutions in India, but the numbers of those with VLSI design skills is very small. Less than 1000 students graduating with bachelor’s degrees annually specialize in semiconductors/VLSI and less than 500 master’s degree students come out annually with the necessary skills,” says Poornima Shenoy, president, Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA).
This means that less than 1% of graduating engineers in India have the skills the design industry needs, according to ISA estimates, and this is a cause of huge concern for the industry, which finds more and more jobs in the sector being outsourced to India.
Even if there are engineering colleges that have microelectronic courses, they “do not stimulate product innovation and most of the time are not synchronous with the requirements of the industry”, Shenoy points out.
Even as the industry grapples with such problems, the number of IT-ITES professionals employed in India has grown from 830,000 in 2003-04 to well over one million in 2004-05 and is expected to reach 1,287,000 by the end of the current fiscal and half a billion by 2010.
Meanwhile, all this talk of reservations in premier educational institutions has the industry alarmed. “What we need is to have educational institutions freed from the control of UGC and AICTE in special educational zones. We need radical reforms if we are to compete globally,” Karnik says.
Though India had a head-start, it seems bent on shooting itself in the foot, and being overtaken by countries like China. “China has been making huge investments in education and allowing a lot of freedom to its institutions,” Karnik says.
China’s already way ahead of India and will double and treble its workforce in a very short time, Karnik warns. Nasscom, meanwhile, is also exploring the possibility of 2-3 month courses in a finishing school for IT professionals. “That will make 25-30% more people employable,” he says.
Meanwhile, there’s already BPO certification available for entry-level employees. Nasscom has also started an IT Workforce Development Initiative to engage academia on a sustained programme through faculty development programmes, mentorship of colleges, curriculum updates and regular industry-academia interface.
MoUs have also been signed with the UGC and AICTE, to develop relevant manpower resources. ISA too is working closely with colleges and universities through academic partnerships to create awareness about the opportunities and growth prospects in the semiconductor space.
According to data released by Union human resource development ministry, at the end of March 2005, there were 343 institutes of higher education in India and 16,000 colleges with a total enrolment of 9.3 million, producing 441,000 technical graduates, nearly 2.3 million other graduates and over 300,000 post-graduates each year. “The numbers are fine, it’s quality that’s a problem,” says Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom.
Take a specialised area such as VLSI (very-large-scale-integration) technology in the semi-conductor industry, which has been seeing much growth in the past few years. According to the Indian Semiconductor Association-Frost & Sullivan report, there is a gap between the demand and supply of trained engineering workforce.
“Thousands of engineers graduate from over 1,300 technical institutions in India, but the numbers of those with VLSI design skills is very small. Less than 1000 students graduating with bachelor’s degrees annually specialize in semiconductors/VLSI and less than 500 master’s degree students come out annually with the necessary skills,” says Poornima Shenoy, president, Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA).
This means that less than 1% of graduating engineers in India have the skills the design industry needs, according to ISA estimates, and this is a cause of huge concern for the industry, which finds more and more jobs in the sector being outsourced to India.
Even if there are engineering colleges that have microelectronic courses, they “do not stimulate product innovation and most of the time are not synchronous with the requirements of the industry”, Shenoy points out.
Even as the industry grapples with such problems, the number of IT-ITES professionals employed in India has grown from 830,000 in 2003-04 to well over one million in 2004-05 and is expected to reach 1,287,000 by the end of the current fiscal and half a billion by 2010.
Meanwhile, all this talk of reservations in premier educational institutions has the industry alarmed. “What we need is to have educational institutions freed from the control of UGC and AICTE in special educational zones. We need radical reforms if we are to compete globally,” Karnik says.
Though India had a head-start, it seems bent on shooting itself in the foot, and being overtaken by countries like China. “China has been making huge investments in education and allowing a lot of freedom to its institutions,” Karnik says.
China’s already way ahead of India and will double and treble its workforce in a very short time, Karnik warns. Nasscom, meanwhile, is also exploring the possibility of 2-3 month courses in a finishing school for IT professionals. “That will make 25-30% more people employable,” he says.
Meanwhile, there’s already BPO certification available for entry-level employees. Nasscom has also started an IT Workforce Development Initiative to engage academia on a sustained programme through faculty development programmes, mentorship of colleges, curriculum updates and regular industry-academia interface.
MoUs have also been signed with the UGC and AICTE, to develop relevant manpower resources. ISA too is working closely with colleges and universities through academic partnerships to create awareness about the opportunities and growth prospects in the semiconductor space.
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