Importance Of Technically Skilled Force In Business Growth

Mao Zedong said the country with the best-skilled workforce will be the most successful. Decades later the foundations laid by him to improve education and create a skilled workforce is reaping a rich harvest in China. That a technically skilled workforce is essential for the success of a company is plain, countries that invest the most in educating their workforce have the most successful companies. Conversely, countries that don’t invest in their workforce have companies that are uncompetitive.

Rapid advances in technology over the past few decades have created new industries and changed dramatically how people live. The role played by technology will continue to lead to a behavioural change in society and companies that have the most skilled workforce will gain the most in the decades ahead. Few companies can be successful internationally or domestically without a skilled workforce. A company in the manufacturing space needs a skilled workforce to produce goods and companies in financial services space need engineers who understand the ins and outs of manufacturing processes. The IT industry also needs a skilled workforce to write code and design software All leading companies have one thing in common, those working in them are among the better skilled in the country.

Advantages of a Skilled Workforce 

To see how a skilled workforce leads to business growth one need not look to foreign shores. India’s skilled workforce is behind the success of some of its biggest companies. At the turn of the century, the Y2K scare led foreign multinationals to hire IT talent from wherever they could, India included. However, when foreign companies realized that Indian IT workers were as able as that anywhere, outsourcing of IT services to India began to gather momentum. There has been no looking back for Indian companies since. Later many of the largest Indian IT companies failed to adopt a new and more robust business model that took advantage of digital technologies, machine learning and AI and are suffering the consequence ever since. So it would be fair to say that their lack of vision and lack of a workforce skilled in the newest technologies have led them to face new challenges today. If Indian IT majors expect to be globally competitive once again they will have to adopt new technologies, something they cannot do without a skilled workforce. 

India’s Manufacturing Success

India’s stellar rise hasn’t been restricted to the IT industry; manufacturers in India have blossomed and will play an important role in the years ahead, and perhaps may even overshadow the domestic IT industry. Smart and nimble manufacturers in India are producing robots used in large warehouses and personal protective equipment that rival the best in the world. Since independence, the aspiration of Indian leaders has been to create a strong country by unleashing the potential of Indians. The first PM of India believed that science was the key to the countries success and he established the IITs to create talented engineers who could fulfil his aspirations for the country. The impact of IITs may not have been truly felt until India was better integrated with the global economy, yet IITs today are hallowed institutes of learning and produce first-rate engineers. The products of IITs are in demand globally and a key to the success of many Indian manufacturers and IT companies. 

While the IITs produce world-class engineers, a number of small technical institutes including the ITIs, produce skilled labour needed by industry. Skilled labour plays an essential role in the country’s development. Some countries including Germany have an apprenticeship model which may prove to be ideal for Indian education and industry. Under such an apprenticeship model, students acquire technical skills which allow them to become experts in certain trades. A large number of well trained skilled workers may perfectly complement the well-trained engineers produced by the IITs.