“The success of a nation achieving its future growth objectives depends hugely on talent and human resources development. As a nation or a business grows, it requires upgrading of talent from time to time. Although there is an enormous consumption market in India, there is huge gap between what India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA).
The IESA-E&Y Task Force Report of 2009 estimated that around 1.61 crore people will be directly employed in the semiconductor and electronics industry by 2014. The number was expected to go up to 2.78 crore by 2020, in comparison to the current figure of 44 lakh. The report on Manpower for electronics industry elaborated that manpower is most concentrated in the manufacturing segment followed by after sales and sales support. The least number of people are employed for R&D, which clearly states that the focus has to change.
Even in the semiconductor industry, there is high competition because of the low entry barrier.
Looking at the education scene, almost 0.22 million engineering students passed out in 2006 in India. By 2015, the semiconductor and allied industry may need 35 lakh new people. The scene could improve only if the companies collaborate with universities to bring about industry specific training programmes, improving the quality of talent.
While there are a number of engineering colleges, they face shortage of faculty and the level of education is a grim concern. “The number of graduates coming out of technical colleges increased to over 7,00,000 in 2011 from 5,50,000 in FY 2010. However, 75 per cent of technical graduates and more than 85 per cent of general graduates are unemployable by India’s high-growth global industries, including information technology,” E E T India reported.
The report also highlighted that semiconductor design, embedded software and services industry estimates that the workforce in the semiconductor design industry in India was around 1,35,000 in 2009 and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent to reach 230,000 by 2012.
A Nasscom’s Perspective 2020 study had mentioned that while the industry is already facing a shortage of employable talent, they are hiring people who lack skills, but can be trained. On an average, a company invests around 16 weeks to train one employee in areas such as technical skills, soft skills, company orientation and process-specific domain skills. This has given rise to the cost of training and recruitment in these companies.
