Employment avenues in top 5 skills

The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2016 in its report on the 'Future of Jobs' highlighted that the global jobs trends are revolving around technological changes and on the patterns of production, consumption and employment in the developed world.

The economic opportunities of the technological advancements,' in India has created a lot speculation about how India will 'transform nimble demand-led education system integrated with skill' employees can increase their employment and advance their careers through embracing skills-based certifications.

Skills development is widely considered to be one of the most critical aspects for job creation in India. With more than 65% of the population are demographic dividend and to support such a large workforce and provide employment to the deficit of skilled workers facing India, this workforce must be skilled effectively through vocational training and learning advanced skilled courses.

However, supporting employment for the next generation of workers, India will require a collaborative effort from Government, industry and academia.

Now with the growing industry needs for skilled manpower, the focus on vocational training is gaining traction, the corporate, government and vocational training providers are working together with a three-prong strategy to bridge the skill gap between supply and demand across industries.

The focus of the vocational training is to make youth for industry ready, market ready and employment ready. Vocational education is basically non-academic in nature and offers practical training and skills needed to pursue a desired occupation. Vocational skills provide students with courses directly aligned to land a job.

Vocational education offers skilled based courses through which one gains skills and experience. Skill training follows a structured training program and leads to certificates, diplomas or degrees, recognized by state/central government, industry sector and is therefore very relevant in today economy.

However, the certification has found importance in almost every industry, enabling people to validate their knowledge and skills.

A certification empower candidates to test their knowledge, broaden skills and pursue new career goals, it could be anything from demonstrating an individual's knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and EXCEL) to a high-level certification in the fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

With advent of new cutting edge technologies, every workplace, the employees and professionals are re-skilling, up-skilling their careers to make themselves cope up with the changing roles of new projects, especially in view of new job roles emerging in many industries.

According to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) Report, the workforce needed in India the booming Building, Construction and Real Estate sector is 76.5 million people; in Transportation, Logistics, Warehousing and Packaging sector its 28.4 million people; the wellness industry needs will be 14.27 million skilled people; Retail will require 56 million skilled people and the Make In India initiative will create 100 million jobs opportunities in manufacturing.

India will require nearly 120 million more workers by 2022 and equipping them with required skills would be crucial in reaping economic benefits. All these numbers indicate a huge demand for skilled manpower in India.

As per report, the Construction, Retail, Automobile, Fashion Designing, Electrical/ Electronic are the top 5 skills that are in high demand.

Construction

The construction sector is grappling with shortage of skill workforce CREDAI aims to train 13,000 workers/youth in financial year 2019-20, vocational training is provided for unskilled workers. A skilled workforce will be prepared to take on the building challenge across the country in next four to five years.

Retail trade

Retail trade offers introduction to retail industry; Retail Store Operations, Introduction to Retail Selling, Basics of Customer Service, Merchandising and much more.

Fashion designing

It offers students learn to use tools and equipment. Basic Tailoring, Stitching, Sketching, Illustration, Embroidery and Decoration, Fashion Technology skills are offered to them. They learn about the fabric, colour scheme which is fundamentals of fashion designing, textile design etc.

The fashion industry is consistently growing sector and expected to double in next 10 years. Worlds fashion is a female-dominated industry – women make up 68 percent of the workforce.

There are a variety of different areas to work in the fashion industry which includes being self-employed/ freelancing, working for a retail outlet, working for a media/film/television or theatre company and apprenticeships with both designers and tailors. Similarly, a student with add on skill set of Fashion Designing can join a retail outlet as a Fashion Consultant.

Electrical/Electronic courses

It comprises Basic Electronic, Safety in Electrical lab, Cells and batteries, Home Appliance Repair and Troubleshooting, Industrial Electricals, Power Transmission and Distribution, Project etc. Electronic course offers Invertor and UPS, Digital Electronics, Microprocessor Control System, Satellite and Data Communication, CCTV, Medical Electronics, Project etc.

Automobile course

It offers Hydraulics System, Safety Systems, Car Air-Conditioning, Accident and Vehicle Inspection, immobilizer system, Assignments, Field Visit etc. Most importantly, under all the trades all students are trained with soft skills to directly face and interact with the customer, which is a key aspect in these industries.

Other courses

Other courses like Paramedical, Business Process Outsourcing and Retail are also high in demand for female workers because of the specific skill sets.

Certifications

All the above mentioned skills are taught as short-term or long term courses, after going through computer-based testing (CBT) a certificate is given. Today, many industries are increasingly impacted by digital transformation, certified young professionals can help their employers to navigate the many changes they're facing around how technology is changing their business.