Page 55 - EW JULY PDF

Vocational education & training: substantial rewards for upskilling early movers

shopfloors of Indian industry. excellent feature in Business Today (July 9), working pro-
“Across India Inc, especially in large companies con- fessionals are signing up in droves with online upskilling
fronted with the prospect of international competition, the edtech providers such as Upgrad, Emeritus, Great Learn-
new mantra is more with less. Although they pay high sala- ing, Hero Vired and Scalers. These edtech companies have
ries, they are downsizing and expect managers to be multi- themselves tied up with top-ranked B-schools to provide
skilled and ahead of the learning curve in adopting new business management plus new age skilling programmes
technologies. Therefore, savvy, on-the-ball professionals such as generative AI, machine learning, data analytics,
in IT and ITES companies are enrolling with edtech com- leadership, of a few weeks to three years duration. Quite
panies to become acquainted with new products and pro- obviously, the time has come for upwardly mobile, ambi-
cesses so they can change domains if necessary. Moreover tious professionals to differentiate themselves from plain
21st century young professionals are totally different from vanilla MBAs.
their predecessors who were content with steady progress The rewards of acquiring new competencies are substan-
up the corporate hierarchy. They appreciate the necessity tial. According to Mayank Kumar, co-founder of Upgrad,
of acquiring new skills to remain in the race. Most of them learners for upskilling programmes who sign up when they
are also anxious to acquire skills necessary to build assets have a salary of Rs.8 lakh per year, average increments of
and to upskill to follow their passions — going into farming, 50-55 percent on completion of upskilling courses. The
education. Their good example is worth following. My ad- website of Hero Vired proclaims average salary hikes of 71.6
vice to people of all ages is to never stop learning, to see the percent for finishers. Little wonder there is a mad rush for
big picture of your industry and anticipate changes in the upskilling programmes in the IT and related industries.
offing. Therefore, if there is an upskilling panic spreading Yet the swelling rush for upskilling courses is not con-
across the country, that’s a beneficial development,” says fined to the IT and new tech industries. With cellphones,
Hema Ravichandran, an alumna of IIM-Ahmedabad television, white goods, new age automobiles, electronic
and former global HRD head of the blue-chip Infosys Tech- devices — scarce commodities in the heyday of neta-babu
nologies, and currently a Bangalore-based HRD consultant. licence-permit-quota raj which, it’s useful to remember,
The benefits of upskilling in new age industries are im- ended only two decades ago — now ubiquitous, there’s ris-
mediate and rewarding for early movers. According to an ing awareness that these wondrous goods and gadgets need

JULY 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 55