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How To Conquer India’s Skill Gap

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Know What Skills Students Are Learning And Employers Are Hiring For

Internshala Trainings, the e-learning arm of Internshala, has brought out a report highlighting the gap between skills learned by students and skills demanded by employers during 2020-2021. 

More Students Are Learning Technical Skills 

As per the report, amid a pandemic when online training was the only source of skilling up for students, 65% of the total enrolments were made for technical training. Only 35% of the total students enrolled in non-technical training during 2020-2021. 

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Most of the students enrolling for online training opted for technical training.

The top 5 technical pieces of training that students enrolled for included programming with Python and web development with 28% and 25% enrolments respectively. Following these, AutoCAD and machine learning training registered 16% enrolments each and 15% of the total enrolments were done for ethical hacking. Enrolments in Python training also saw a surge of 43X since 2016 highlighting that Python will continue to dominate online technical skill learners’ preferences in the future. 

Well, this trend was a bit different among employers hiring for remote or in-office internships. 

More Employers Are Hiring For Non-Technical Profiles 

According to the report, 81% of all the internships were posted for non-technical profiles by the employers on Internshala. Only 19% of internship opportunities were for technical roles. 

Within the top 5 profiles that employers hired for the most, 29% of internships were for business development profile, 22% for content writing, and 18% for graphic designing. Social media marketing and digital marketing were the other two popular non-technical internship profiles with 16% and 14% job postings respectively during 2020-2021. 

Among the top 5 recruiters that posted the highest number of internships during this period, 64% were specialists that provide online education. 19% of all the internships were posted by hiring- placement solution and career guidance provider, and 18% of internships were posted by an organization that connects influencers or creators with brands. With the highest share, the ed-tech industry is growing at a rapid speed and will continue to generate enormous career opportunities for Indian students. 

Why Is Hiring For Technical Profiles Low? 

A major reason for this could be the fact that some technical roles such as mechanical, civil, and other forms of engineering, architecture, manufacturing or production, construction management, and government internships cannot be done from home. Due to the pandemic, most of the technical in-office internships were kept on hold by the organizations to ensure safety, avoid commuting or relocation, and maintain social distancing.

Employers majorly focussed on generating work-from-home opportunities so that the students can polish their skill set and gain work experience from the safety of their homes. This is also backed by the fact that out of the total internships posted in 2020-2021, 64% were work-from-home internships. 

Addressing the skill gap,  Sarvesh Agrawal, the founder, and CEO of Internshala Trainings said, “‘COVID-19 has brought a shift in the workspaces with more virtual opportunities. This seems to have resulted in employers actively hiring for roles in design, management, sales, marketing, and content writing. At the same time, students are utilizing this time to learn technical skills.

As soon as the situation normalizes, we are expecting more in-office internship postings that will help bridge this gap. The students qualified in technical skills would also get more relevant opportunities when offices would reopen. For the time being, we would encourage the students to learn those skills that are currently in-demand among employers, can be applied in work-from-home situations, and can help students find employment opportunities in the present scenario.” he added. 

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All images used in this article are for representational purposes only.
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