THE NEW-AGE SKILL GAP

THE ECONOMY IS CREATING MILLIONS OF JOBS IN NEXT-GEN SECTORS LIKE SOLAR POWER, ELECTRIC VEHICLES, SEMI-CONDUCTOR AND DEFENCE, BUT COMPANIES NEED TO UPSKILL THEIR EMPLOYEES FIRST

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR AND NEVIN JOHN

C. JAYAKUMAR, CHRO of engineering and construction behemoth Larsen and Toubro (L&T), faced a strange dilemma last year — his recruitment team, a regular on campuses of all leading engineering colleges, managed to give offer letters to only 1,500 students. The requirement of the 200,000-strong workforce company (which has forayed into new-age businesses such as hydrocarbon, green hydrogen, EV batteries, defence, and other heavy engineering projects) was much higher, but it struggled to get talent that suited its needs. That’s when Jayakumar decided to advertise for freshers. “We received over 75,000 applications, which went through a detailed process of assessments on our L&T-Edutech platform, followed by interviews. We hired 1,500 engineers through this process. The engineers also went through a one-year induction training programme,” explains Jayakumar. For defence equipment and manufacturing jobs, the company had to hire mechanical engineers; for electric batteries, it recruited electrical engineers.

As India prepares for an economic transformation through self-reliance in manufacturing, energy transition from fossil fuels, and attempts to lead in new emerging tech areas such as green hydrogen, EVs and 5G, the talent deficit is wider than ever before. Semiconductor, 5G equipment manufacturing, climate technology and carbon capture, EV batteries, medical equipment manufacturing and defence manufacturing have all laid bare the talent gap and an enormous challenge before some of India’s largest business houses such as Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Mahindra and Vedanta is to find ways to bridge that gap.