TSSC - Driving Skill Development for Telecoms

Focus on Skill Development | TelecomDrive.com

In our effort towards filling the widening demand-supply gap in telecom workforce, TSSC is working closely with leading industry players and government stakeholders to upskill youth in futuristic domains such as 5G, IoT and in demand skill such as Handset Servicing and Call Centre operations. With the help of its innovative TelcoJobs and TelcoLearn platforms – TSSC is driving unprecedented skill development for India’s telecom segment.

Arvind Bali, CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the organization’s recent activities and its future plans.

How do you see the changing job opportunities in the telecom sector with the 5G roll-out advancing and emergence of new-age technologies in India?

Every generation of mobile network has brought a technology shift and created new jobs. Now 5G provides new opportunities in India and globally. India is also a hub for global telecom networks, creating wider job opportunities. 5G technology is expected to boost the Indian economy by $500 billion between 2023 and 2040. By 2025, India will require 22 million skilled workers in 5G-focused industries such as cloud computing, robots, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

India is the only country expected to have a skilled labor surplus, with 1.3 million workers in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sector by 2030. The increasing convergence of telecom with the technology sector and especially the launch of 5G has resulted in a higher demand for skilled/upskilled/reskilled workforce in the industry.

Currently, the top job positions in telecom include Machine Learning Engineer, Deep Learning Engineer, and Data Scientist. Across the sector, our recent study states that Network Operation and Maintenance has the highly Employed Talent of about 2,498,450 professionals and 6,99,560 Open Job postings.

In today's competitive talent market, attracting and retaining skilled professionals for the burgeoning 5G industry is a significant challenge. What strategies can industry implement to bridge the talent gap?

As per our recent study, India currently faces a telecom demand-supply workforce gap of 2.41 million, including both white and blue-collared jobs, across a spectrum of roles, which is expected to increase to 3.8 times by 2030. Only 40% of India's graduates in computer science, IT, and math are employable in the technology sector due to the mismatch between academic requirements and industry demands. One other reason is that Indian universities lack in terms of Industry-Academia Tie-Ups required market-ready training and internships for graduates.

India has a good chance to close the growing Demand-Supply gap by 2030 with the proper reskilling and hiring strategies that target adjacent talent in Tier-II & III cities and university supply. Industry-Academic tie-ups and re-skilling programs in Tier II and III cities would help incoming talent gain an industry perspective during their academic years which would prove to be beneficial in the long run. This would also help boost the talent inflow from emerging hubs thereby reducing the talent and skill crunch. This can provide relevant skills to students in emerging technologies.

Also, conducting a skill-gap analysis might help in recognizing where the existing talent is lacking. This would help in setting up appropriate training plans for the incoming fresh talent to reduce the skill gap and provide reskilling opportunities to the existing talent. Adjacent tech and non-tech talent areas can be leveraged and up-skilled with the emerging trends thus reducing the talent supply crunch by considerable amounts.

What are some of the recently launched initiatives from TSSC that are helping the industry to train and acquire talent?

In our effort towards filling the widening demand-supply gap in telecom workforce, we at TSSC have carried out various skill development projects including our participation in government schemes like PMKVY 4.0 and the Skill India mission. We also successfully partnered with leading brands like Ericsson, Nokia, Vodafone Idea, Rotary District 3011, GAIL, ONGC and SBI Card. Collaborations with Ericsson and Nokia included establishment of Centres of Excellence in Delhi and Gujarat to upskill youth in futuristic domains such as 5G, IoT and in demand skill such as Handset Servicing and Call Centre operations.

Centres of Excellence and blended learning projects were also established for Vodafone Idea Foundation and SBI Card Projects. Our collaboration with SBI Card focuses on women empowerment by training 700+ girls in digital skills. As of now, our TelcoJobs platform, has registered over 2.5 Lakh jobseekers and 2300+ employers. Our, TelcoLearn platform, which is an online digital course platform offering diverse courses to enhance the skills and knowledge of telecom professionals, has over 40+ digital courses and enrolled over 25,000+ students.

TSSC has also launched initiatives with the aim to empower the youth in Tier 2, 3 cities and rural areas with core telecom and tech skills. One of our recent initiatives, “Telecom Grameen Udyami” is aimed at creating a workforce with multiple telecom core, and necessary skills and push focus towards the rural youth to empower them with the spirit of entrepreneurship. This will help in creating a pool of skilled workforce for the industry to expand throughout the nation. “Telecom Skilling on Wheels” is another initiative which aims at sensitization in remote locations in India. It will improve inclusive employability through capsule courses/short term training and soft skills, leveraging mobile modular skill labs with integrated skill development infrastructure.

What are the top occupation categories in the Indian telecom sector at present?

The overall employed talent in the Indian telecom industry stands at 11.59 million, with 2.95 million corporate talent and 8.24 million Blue Collar talent (including talent directly employed in Telecom of 2.22 million and talent employed in Telecom adjacent industries of 6.02 million).

New telecom jobs are coming up across 15 streams and the top 4 occupations that have the highest corporate talent are Network Operation & Maintenance, Project Engineering, Operation & Maintenance - Passive Infrastructure, and Network Fault Management. The top 4 occupations that have the highest blue-collar talent are Network Operation & Maintenance, Sales, and Distribution - Service Segment, Project Engineering, Operation & Maintenance - Passive Infrastructure.

Do you think the existing workforce is ready to take on the dynamic and ever changing technological advancements with the convergence of new-age technologies in the telecom sector?

Over the past ten years, the thriving telecom industry has suffered because of an unsteady regulatory environment. Recently, the telecom sector has seen an increase in recruiting intentions. Data from Naukri.com shows that the telecom industry experienced a 48 percent rise in hiring activity from January of the previous year.

There are several government programs in the skill ecosystem that have been created to improve candidates' employability within six months. The correct skills programs across the industry might reduce the expected demand in this sector. The existing workforce needs to be retrained or upgraded, and multiskilled candidates need to be produced to meet the fluctuating need for labour. Additionally, it is possible to pinpoint freshly qualified workers and workers in particular clusters based on local or regional demand.

Companies like Nokia, MediaTek and many others in this sector believe that the Indian workforce is well-positioned to close the skills gap and make significant contributions to the global telecom environment, even though the constant inflow of new technologies necessitates consistent reskilling and upskilling. Major firms in the industry have already partnered with schools and training facilities to increase employability and provide continued on-the-job training opportunities.

This interview is published inside the January 2024 edition of Disruptive Telecoms