Economy's racing but talent is still hard to come by

It’s been 10 weeks now and Marut Sikka is still on the lookout. The Delhi-based food expert is looking for a chef for his client since June. “They are just not available,” he says. With the changing lifestyle and rising disposable income, the food and restaurant business in India is growing rapidly. The organised restaurant business, pegged at Rs 21,000 crore has been growing at 25-30%in the recent past. Big restaurants in Delhi alone, Mr Sikka estimates, would need up to 35,000 chefs.
But where will they come from? India does not have a single training institute for chefs. Most chefs who are good were trained on the job, and most have been picked up by international outlets. “Indian food and chefs are in demand,” he says. It’s the most serious issue for the industry, adds Mr Sikka.
This isn’t just about chefs. Add masseurs, hair stylists, event managers, interior decorators, florists and many more services professionals to the list. Garment exporters are looking for merchandisers. The auto industry is looking for design engineers. Infrastructure companies are looking for urban and town planners. A rapidly growing economy is creating plenty of jobs — but mostly in the services sector. But there aren’t enough trained professionals to take those jobs. “Employment and educational infrastructure — both haven’t kept pace with the economy,” says B Santhanam, CEO of Saint Gobain and chairman of CII HR committee. The scramble for talent is making headlines when 45m Indians are unemployed and many more underemployed as agricultural labour.
Clearly, an agrarian economy has leapfrogged to turn into a services-led economic engine — today, services sector provides over 60% to India’s GDP while agriculture and industry provides around 19 and 10% respectively. But the employment patterns are just the reverse. Over 56%of India’s workforce today is employed — often underemployed — by the agricultural sector. “It’s no rocket science — going forward industry and services will create jobs in future. To make that work, agrarian workers will have to migrate,” he says. Through training and skill development China has successfully managed to migrate 9m workers from agriculture to industry.
If India does not wake up its a time bomb ticking. The Teamlease Labour report estimates that if things continue the way they are, India will have anywhere between 8.4 crore and 21 crore (see table) unemployed workers in the country, depending on the rate of employment growth. Of course, literacy levels will matter. Given the trend growth in the 1990s, India’s working age population will have 233m uneducated and 157m primary school pass people. Hopefully the Left-backed government will go on a literacy overdrive to tackle that. But this isn’t just about literacy levels.

India's educational infrastructure has to be completely hauled up. Today professional orientation is very low — Of the total college enrolments, 84% in ‘04-05 is in arts and commerce or sciences. Only 16%of students were enrolled in professionals courses. Even in the small base of 16%, there is an issue of employability — barely 20% can be directly hired by the industry. “Training infrastructure set up by corporates will play a critical role,” says Vineet Kaul, director, HR Philips Electronics. Capacity building at colleges will be important. But they will also need to impart softer skills, introduce new courses and attune syllabus closer to the industry needs.
Not just at the high end, India Inc will need many more at the low-end in jobs like plumbing, brick laying, electrician, tailoring. "ITIs today offers training in only 40-45 trades, overlooking many other skills that the industry may need today," says Shailendra Sharma, former advisor, employment and training, Planning Commission. ITIs will have to evolve — already in five-six states, private sector is chipping in streamlining operations and training programs.
But migrating over 200m agrarian workers to other sectors of the economy will hold the key. “Private sector is willing to partner training in most areas but here the government's role will be critical,” says Mr Santhanam. CII is already piloting a project for the Tamil Nadu government where Rs 550 crore is being invested in grassroot training. At a national level, it expects Rs 5,000 crore annually will suffice to train 50 lakh agrarian workers. “It may sound big — but this investment will have a multiplier effect for the nation and the economy,” he said.

Source: The Economic Times