The Hindu Business Line : `IT, BPO staff must polish their skills'

Advertisement

Hyderabad Feb. 9 For India to emerge successful and continue on its growth path in the IT and ITES space, it has to address its human resource needs, says Ms Sandhya Kesavaram, Vice-President, Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE), Hyderabad.

To focus on this, COWE recently organised a training session to enhance the employment opportunities for women in IT and ITES-related fields. Currently, only about 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of general graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries, respectively, she said.

According to a NASSCOM-McKinsey Report, the IT industry is now India's top exporter and provides direct employment to nearly 1.3 million people and indirectly to twice that number. The Indian ITES-BPO industry has clocked revenues of $6.3 billion during 2006-07. In 2010, IT and ITES-BPO exports are expected to reach $60 billion.

To meet these estimated revenue projections, the workforce needed is about 8,50,000 IT professionals and 1.4 million ITES-BPO personnel by 2010.

"While we have a good pool of technical leaders at the shop-floor level in IT, ITES and many manufacturing industries, there is likely to be a skill shortage unless we can augment the skill training facilities at a steady pace to leverage the competitive advantage of high skills and low wages found in India," said Dr Akila Jaikumar, Executive Committee member of COWE and Senior Vice-President, Bodhtree Consulting.

Dr Jaikumar said, "As the focus during academics is on the theoretical aspects, the importance of which cannot be diminished, ultimately it is important to string it all together to make the student `employee' ready. This finishing touch is often lacking in our educational institutions. Private industry will be the one able to bridge this gap."

More Stories on : Human Resources | Andhra Pradesh

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page