Adieu 2023! Telecom Sector Skill Council

In 2023, the ongoing momentum in digitally transforming businesses persisted post-pandemic, with a growing number of enterprises adopting cloud services, automation, and data analytics. The telecommunications sector remains integral, furnishing essential infrastructure for secure and high-speed connectivity, thereby empowering businesses to provide streamlined experiences.

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. The telecom sector is the third-largest industry in India that accounts for roughly 6.5 percent of all FDI inflow and also by 2027, India is anticipated to account for 11 percent of all 5G subscriptions worldwide. India has a good chance to close the growing demand-supply gap in telecom sector by 2030 with the proper reskilling and hiring strategies that target adjacent talent in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and university supply.

5G and convergence spark a talent hunt – Telecom workforce in high demand
As per our recent study, India currently faces a 2.41 million telecom demand-supply workforce gap, which is expected to increase to 3.8 times by 2030. Only 40 percent 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.

Toward its efforts to help fill the widening gap in demand-supply, this year, TSSC carried out several skill development projects including Skill India mission’s government schemes, including the flagship scheme PMKVY 4.0. The government announced the fourth iteration of Pradhan Mantri Kaushalya Vikas Yojana, aimed at skilling the youth for international opportunities and set up 30 Skill India International Centers across the country. Through recruit-train-deploy model, the scheme focused majorly on futuristic skills, such as 5G deployment. TSSC executed several special projects in multiple states across India to train youth in 5G skills.

We successfully partnered with leading brands like Ericsson, Nokia, Vodafone Idea, Rotary District 3011, GAIL, ONGC, and SBI Card. Ericsson and Nokia included establishment of Centers of Excellence in Delhi Skill & Entrepreneurship University, Delhi, and Kaushalya Skill University, Gujarat. These CoEs were established to upskill youth in futuristic domains, such as 5G, IoT, and in demand skills, such as handset servicing and call center operations. Centers of Excellence and blended learning projects were also established for Vodafone Idea Foundation and SBI Card Projects. Out collaboration with SBI Card focuses on women empowerment by training 700+ girls in digital skills. As of now, our TelcoJobs platform, connecting job seekers and employers, facilitating seamless recruitment in the telecom sector, has registered over 2.5 lakh jobseekers and 2300+ employers. Secondly, TelcoLearn, 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. In the next fiscal year, we plan to train and place over 1.5 lac candidates in telecom and related emerging technologies.

Empowering rural India – TSSC’s initiatives bridge the telecom skill gap
As we witness this increasing demand in telecom workforce, TSSC aims to empower the youth in Tier-II and Tier-III cities and rural areas with digital and core telecom and tech skills. One of our recent initiatives Telecom Grameen Udyami is aimed to create workforce with multiple telecom core and necessary skills and push focus toward the rural youth to empower them with the spirit of entrepreneurship, and create 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 with telecom skills and improve inclusive employability through capsule courses/short-term training and soft skills, leveraging mobile modular skill labs with integrated skill development infrastructure.