Most IT firms do not help even quarter of its employees to reskill

HYDERABAD: With the layoffs scare building among techies in the city, companies are now sponsoring their employees to up-skill themselves through enrolment to technological courses like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).A report released by IIIT-H recently brought to fore that 15 per cent of those enrolled for the course will be reimbursed by their companies. The move may be thought as a cautionary measure by the company to keep its human resources to stay relevant in the dynamic market scenario. The course fee costs a whopping `2 lakh per person.

“We are sad that most of the employees who enrolled for the course did so as a defence mechanism against the layoff scare that has gripped the market than considering it an opportunity,” said Ramesh Loganathan, professor Co-Innovation, IIIT-H.The data analysed by IIIT-H and Talent Sprint mentioned that those being reimbursed were part of various sectors and were not concentrated in ITES companies alone, where layoffs scare is high due to automation.

“Though many explicitly did not mention to us that they were getting reimbursed for enrolling to the course, at least 15 per cent of the 400 enrolled techies admitted to getting aid from their employers,” added Loganathan. However, the cost-cutting approaches adopted by several tech MNC’s in the global market continues to haunt external training approaches. The costs allocated for such training is low considering that internal certification courses are offered more, observe industry insiders. 

“We have certain budget allocated for training our employees. But we use it only when there is a direct advantage after the employee comes on the job,” said an HR manager of a service-based MNC. 
Speaking to Express, Sundeep Kumar Makthala, the founder of TITA, said that the companies neither communicate about external training nor higher education programme. “Even if they do, many employees themselves do not apply for the course,” Makthala pointed out.

‘ITES staff interested in upgrading AI, ML skills’ 
A report on ‘demand for expertise in disruptive technologies among tech professionals’ summarised by IIIT-H and Talent Sprint states that the ongoing technological transition embracing disruptive technologies like AI and ML has seen a series of trends affecting several industry verticals. Meanwhile, the report highlights that 73 per cent of employees of mostly ITES and other sectors including fintech and telecom services are interested in updating a knowledge base in AI and ML.