India's qualified worker population running out
Despite marketing itself as a prime destination for outsourced services because of its abundant workforce, India has a looming worker shortage. A deficit of as much as a quarter million skilled workers in 4 years has been predicted.
The problem doesn’t lie with the availability of the workers, but in their skills – or lack of it. Of the 3 million graduates India churns out annually, only a fraction of these are ready to be employed in back office functions like telemarketing, customer service call handling, payroll accounting, and credit card processing.
A large number of applicants to these positions lack the communication skills, knowledge of international practices, and advanced computing skills needed for a smooth transition into international-level business transactions.
Kiran Karnik, president of National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) rues, "Companies are able to select only eight or nine people out of 100 who apply and that's pretty low selection ratio." He bewails the fact that, "In my estimate, only a third of the pool has the right skills to be absorbed into the industry right away."
In order to address this threat to India’s hold as king of outsourced services, Nasscom has launched plans to collaborate with Indian universities to hone students skills in the skills needed for the industry.
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