India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026: Report

India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026, and 50 per cent of the current workforce will need to re-skill themselves in emerging technologies, according to a report released by TeamLease, a people supply chain company.

Organisations earlier used to do training and development activities as a part of the routine growth and development activities. Organisations did not rely on these activities to deal with competitive challenges or to improve ROI, but today, the scenario has changed, and regular skilling and upskilling are a necessity to keep businesses up and running.

The future of work will be built on continuous technological progress and digital transformation. A recent study by NASSCOM predicts that the demand and supply gap will increase 3.5x by 2026, and only 35 per cent of the STEM graduates of 2020 to 2021 are actually employable; the remaining 65 per cent would require upskilling to get a job. The Talent Crunch is a crisis that costs nations and companies trillions of dollars. 

Reasons for employee upskilling:

20 per cent - Fear of job loss

23.8 per cent - Better opportunities or salary upgrade

8.7 per cent - Shift to new industry

19.3 per cent - Shift to a new role

15.9 per cent - Improve technical skills

12.3 per cent - improve soft skills

Sharing her views on the need for conducive skill strategies, Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Director of TeamLease Services, said, “Today India has about 500 million people of working age, and despite that, we continue to face a skill crisis."

She further added, "Industry data suggests that only 49 per cent of the total youth in the country is employable. Moreover, even among people who can stay in their current jobs, 40 per cent of fundamental abilities are likely to change; hence re-aligning the skill strategy will be crucial for companies.”

As per the World Economic Forum, investment in upskilling could potentially boost India's economy by 570 billion dollars by adding 2.3 million jobs by 2030.