There was a combined demand of over 1.5 lakh in roles in 5G, Cloud Computing, AI & Big Data Analytics, IoT, Mobile App-Development and Robotic Process Automation with demand supply gap of almost 28% in last one year, revealed a new report by Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC).
The talent demand supply gap will continue to widen with the advent of 5G and allied technologies rollout, said the report titled ‘Overview: Indian Telecom Market 2022-23’ which was released today in New Delhi. The study charts out the areas of traction where the telecom industry would witness growth in the coming financial year.
In view of India’s 5G rollout in the near future, TSSC has firmed up its plans to boost skill infra and workforce along with its partners and stakeholders. The industry-led apex body – jointly set up by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) – plans to train 1 lakh people in the next three years and open 10 new Centres of Excellence across the country.
The report launch witnessed the presence of Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; K Rajaraman, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications; and Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The various dignitaries from ministries, industry, and academia deliberated the steps to be taken to achieve workforce skilling and optimization for the next phase of India’s economic growth where telecom is an important pivot.
DoT Secretary K Rajaraman said, “India, with a vast gamut of telecom and network related services, has an immense opportunity for skilling and growth. A levelled progression in the skilling requirement will ensure progression and a deeper look at the technological changes along with skilling will ensure upgradation, make the workforce more relevant for future. This would require a tremendous amount of follow ups within the IT systems with high reliability which will enable affordable upskilling/reskilling.”
“We hope to address policy issues like low penetration of broadband, RoW issues, and the industry needs to proliferate at CAGR of 30-40%, in order to create phenomenal jobs. TSSC should put in place a set of occupational categories such as rural broadband technician which can support the development of BharatNet within the country, especially rural areas,” added Rajaraman.
MSDE Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal said, “In next decades, technological changes will be there but the human nature will remain the same. Telecom is embedded in every sector such as entertainment, construction, agriculture, etc., right from production to the distribution. It is important to train the workforce to use these new technologies in a much more effective fashion. When we talk about jobs in telecom sector, we should not talk about only the jobs here but how they need some kind of upskilling.”
ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo moderated a panel consisting of industry stalwarts like Dr N. S. Kalsi (Chairman, NCVET), Ved Mani Tiwari (COO, NSDC), P. Balaji (CRO, VI), T. R. Dua (DG, DIPA) and Arvind Bali (CEO, TSSC). They discussed the rollout of 5G services and allied technology, and their use cases with regard to skilling of workforce in India.
Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Group, said, “We have achieved great success over the years in skilling the youth of India. We now plan to accelerate skilling initiatives to international regions and map the international workforce demand. We will achieve the Hon’ble Prime Ministers’ vision to make India the skill capital of the world.”
Arvind Bali, CEO, TSSC, said, “We are focused on providing the workforce demand for the growth of 5G ecosystem in India. The ecosystem is seeing a big influx of manufacturing units with approval for PLI in telecom equipment, electronics, and handset manufacturing. With OEMs setting shop in India, they will need a plethora of job roles to set up their supply chain. We aim to aid the ecosystem with a world-class skilled workforce for 5G and its allied technologies.”
TSSC plans to expand its existing infrastructure with 10 new Centres of Excellence across India and build the much-needed capacity to train a quality workforce on futuristic technologies such as 5G, IoT, AI, ML, M2M etc. The organisation plans to expand to telecom manufacturing and service clusters where the need for a skilled workforce is paramount.