Skills that can save your job

As technology is slowly innovating jobs out of existence, the fear of large-scale unemployment is gripping people and economies alike. Tesla founder Elon Musk like many other thinkers is supporting the theory of ‘universal basic fixed income’ where a country compensates humans for lack of jobs.

A heavily populated country like India will not be able to think in the same lines as that of its counterparts. Umeed Kothavala, CEO and co-founder of Extentia, believes that monetary compensation is a short-term remedy. “Canadian government, on the other hand, has a plan in place for re-skilling and upgrading their workforce which will help acquire new skills,” he said.

Unskilled to re-skilled

The government, which is upgrading a large section of its unskilled workforce, is yet to reach the standards set for employees by increasing automation. “In 2015, we spoke about skills gap and still haven’t moved at the pace we are supposed to. There is some activity happening in spurts and bursts from academia and ancillary methods alike,” says Shekhar Sanyal, director and country head of the The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Organisations, which are embracing automation, can play a key role in the re-skilling of their workforce to ensure that they move up the value chain, say experts. “Organisations need to invest continuously in an ecosystem which encourages lifelong learning and skill development to ensure none of their employees suffers the ill-effects of redundancy,” says Rituparna Chakraborty, president, Indian Staffing Federation.

Apart from upgrading technological skills, they should also brush creative thinking abilities in an innovation-based economy. “Employees should also be trained in having the right attitude and mindset about the technological advancements and make themselves marketable and irreplaceable in every possible way in the industry,” says Vikalp Jain, president, and co-founder, Acadgild. He also informs that automation puts around five lakh existing jobs at risk.

Knowledge-d coding

Digital code generators and automated testers are already affecting entry-level jobs in IT, but there are ways for employees to beat the machines. Automation approaches an organisation’s workflow in an integrated manner. Similarly, software developers should focus on acquiring domain knowledge and concentrate on business aspects for their product, and get a 360-degree view of their function. A developer who is working on a product in the healthcare industry should know its elements deeply to understand the needs and demands. That is a critical skillset change for everyone to go through and start playing an important role in the value chain. They should also learn about the business (marketing) aspects of the software rather than concentrating only on the code to create saleable products,” says Rammohan Natarajan, Sr VP-Business Transformation and Innovation at Hinduja Global Solutions.

Working with IT

Mid-level executives have known technology to be an enabler. Automation has changed the way job roles function, requiring technology to become a partner and an aide in their core function. “For example, a tester today evolves to become a developer who leverages automation systems to write test scripts in that scale. A traditional marketer evolves to becoming a digital marketer who is both creative as well as data-driven and allow automation to take care of areas like ad-variant optimisation, device optimisation-freeing him up to focus more on segmentation, messaging and return on investment (RoI),” says Arun Rajamani, country GM, Pluralsight India.

Creative schooling

Indian education system, which has been making its wards focus on rote learning, needs to evolve exponentially for them to switch to creative thinking. “Our education system is not adequately equipped. We teach them to memorise and pass an exam, a machine will be able to memorise much better than any human. Schooling system should focus on teaching children to solve problems and coming up with new ideas,” says Kothavala. Rajamani believes that new-age educational systems should encourage young minds to life-long learning to cope with technology disruptions.

College-level education should also bring in new graduates who are equipped with skills in IoT and other tech skills so that they enter the job market seamlessly, says Sanyal. “I see a large number of centre of excellence being set-up as we are on the cusp of a new challenge,” he says.

...& ANALYSIS

• Automation-led firms can re-skill their workforce to push them up the value chain
   
• Employees should be trained in making themselves marketable and irreplaceable
   
• College-level education should also bring in new graduates who are equipped with skills in IoT