A future-ready India created by combining technology, education and skilling

India is considered to be a knowledge-based economy and has been making concerted efforts to enhance its educational landscape. These efforts are further complimented by the surge in the young workforce seeking and demanding opportunities that offer them flexibility.

The need for an accessible and equal learning ecosystem

Education is an important pillar of the country's development, investment in learning, human capital, and skilling is needed and cannot be ruled out. A highly skilled workforce will indeed accelerate India's economic growth and ensure productive outcomes. Even the businesses are undergoing digital advancements. This is often accompanied by the rise in automation and the demand for new skills that will make the working population future-ready.

Building a robust learning ecosystem so that the youth can be offered relevant education is essential. In many regions accessing quality education is still a challenge for many students & this creates a huge skill gap between the urban & the rural learner community. The education is limited to the traditional academics available and that does not fulfill the coming age criteria of jobs which is totally based on advanced skills combined with quality education. The school lays the foundation for a lifetime of learning. It is evident that students learn a wide range of important life skills in school - such as communication, teamwork and sharing - that help them become responsible members of society. While schools have always imparted basic & moral skill along with education, there is a need of infusing more technical & futuristic skills which has proven vital in today's era.

It is not just the new-age tech skills that need to be imparted but even the soft skills learning including innovative conceptualization, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership, and managerial training that must be offered.

In this digital-driven era, the work scenario is undergoing various changes and in such a case, continuous learning and skilling is indeed a tool for inducing transformations. It is important for surviving amidst the cutthroat competition and to enjoy an edge over the diverse talent pool in the market. New-age technologies are playing a vital role in enabling learning so that they have access to learning that is affordable, flexible, and can be personalized as well as customized.Edtech companies are coming up with new-age technologies which are making quality education along with higher education, certification & degrees available online.

Also, the government has shown its inclination towards bolstering the education system by increasing the budget allocation for education under Samagra Shiksha (school education sector) from Rs. 31,050 crore in 2021-22 to Rs. 37,383 crore in 2022-23.

Educational institutions are keen to close this gap between the skills needed and the talent possessing the traits, and this is why a continuous learning approach is needed that helps train students for not only relevant skills but also shapes them holistically for futuristic job roles transforming them into industry-ready professionals. Providing learners with the right blend of learning, training, and practical exposure is important in this journey.

The skilling challenge to keep up with the evolving business world

As the industry and technologies continue to evolve, the need for the country's youth to gather new skills is becoming imperative. In its recent research, the World Economic Forum projects that approximately97 million new roles will emerge by 2025 due to newly developing dynamics between technology and the workforce. The study further points out that by 2022, 42% of core skills needed for the existing jobs are expected to change. Hence, up skilling and reskilling is the only way forward to keep up with the pace of ever-evolving business world. Now companies are focusing on acquiring future-ready, highly skilled professionals who are ready to match up to the level of change technology is bringing into the business.

Addressing the talent-skill gap and ensuring skill development is important for businesses now edtech companies, Government & business organizations are focusing on up skilling and rescaling opportunities. Over the period, innovations have changed the face of the educational landscape and brought about a transition in the way we learn at school, university, and professional levels. Accordingly, now there are different courses available online as well as offline.

Summing up!

As we are inching towards the fourth phase of the industrial revolution, disruption will indeed be there and digitisation will foray into all aspects of life. Tech advancements will pick up the pace even in the educational segment. Amidst this scenario, garnering benefits relies on how best we can harness the power of tech in education and skilling. Hence, it becomes imperative that our efforts are aligned towards combining government, and education as well as skilling to convert the dream of building a continuous learning ecosystem and offering an environment that is nurturing and positive for the youth so that they are future-ready and capable of driving the country's growth. The ed-tech platforms are well aware and in fact, a witness to this trend and hence are making consistent and persistent efforts to ensure the provision of high-end tech-driven learning experiences and an innovative curriculum as well digital learning in the truest sense. They are playing a major role in this transformation and seamlessly catering to the skilling challenge of the country!

(The author is CEO, Globus Infocom Pvt Ltd)