New-Age Skills

Today, India is poised at a stage where its status as a breakthrough economy depends on its focus and attention on building its strong and young human capital. According to the India Skills Report 2020, India will have a surplus of 47 million skilled workforces, whereas the world will have a deficit of 56 million, with USA, China, Japan, and Russia projected to have deficits of 17 million, 10 million, 9 million, and 6 million respectively. Globally, India will have the highest youth workforce by the same period as compared to Japan, USA, Russia, and UK having a large percentage of their population beyond 60 years of age. Hence the current capacity of industrial training institutes and technical institutes may not be enough to match the demands of the projected growth of employment particularly in the healthcare, manufacturing, and service sectors. This calls for immediate intervention in the domain of skill development keeping in mind the demographic dividend India has in the 21st Century. A developing country like India which has a large youth population will soon see the economy soar, the provided country should invest heavily in young people’s health, education, and skill development. The latest UN report notes that “Young people are the innovators, creators, builders, and leaders of the future. But they can transform the future only if they have proper skills, good health, right decision making and real choices in life.” India has, thus, an extraordinarily high number and proportion of people in the working age group but they need to be trained in order to be productive. The Government of India has set itself the ambitious target of skilling 500 million people by 2020 so that India can reap the so-called demographic dividend. Further, the global workforce is expected to be dominated by Indians in the coming decades. A major issue in skill development is, however, the mismatch between the supply and demand of skills in the country. Skills need to be integrated into the education curriculum. Further, to address the issue of skills mismatch, there is a need to build on the education-industry interface and there needs to be continuous updating of the programs. It is in this context, Gen Next Skills Academy (GSA) is one such noble attempt initiated by a Public Trust like Foundation for Education for All with a mission to identify needy young people and nurture their talents to improve their employability starting from dropouts to successful completion of the course at school, polytechnic, college, and university level. The Academy has begun its sincere efforts in imparting suitable skill training to young people in areas like telecom, aerospace, automobile, electronics, health care, media, information technology, software development, security, digital marketing, etc., aiming to cover thousands of young people over the period of time. The Academy is a center of excellence located in the heart of Bengaluru city and offers a wide range of skill development training courses supplemented with formal education that makes a person employable which is its primary goal. The academy strongly believes that “Skilling is building a better India. If we have to move India forward development then skill development should be our mission” very well said by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India- Shri Narendra Modi.

This became the guiding force for setting up skill development academies in different parts of the country with the primary objective of “providing employment-oriented skill development training to young and unemployed graduates so as to empower them to improve their standard of living in association with industry and company.” Gen Next Skills Academy (GSA) is a unique center for industry-academia interface to meet the changing needs of the corporate and industrial houses in the country. The skill development programs are designed to enhance their abilities indecision-making, negotiation skills, management, and leadership qualities. The Academy prepares the young population for the future and makes them invaluable assets. It believes that “In order to succeed, their desire for success should be greater than their fear of failure.” Choosing a career path is not a decision to be made lightly and especially at a moment of such immense uncertainty within the job market. Hence, GSA looks at some professions that are likely to be in great demand in the coming years and launched such type of future-ready new-age skill courses and programs in different parts of the country as stated below:

  • Cloud Computing

    • The new war for talent is being fought in the cloud. Demand for the cloud has shot through the roof since the beginning of the pandemic, as businesses try to build resiliency. India has 6 lakhs cloud practitioners. Businesses have seen consistent development in the demand for proficient and industryrecognized cloud computing courses as several organisations move to the cloud during the pandemic. Cloud professionals assume an extremely significant role in helping organisations blend cloud services into their traditional infrastructure.

  • Cyber Security

    • With the pandemic forcing us to shelter in place in our homes, companies have had to quickly pivot, integrating a host of new and previously unfamiliar digital technologies to ensure smooth functioning. It should, perhaps, come as little surprise then that 2020 has witnessed a staggering number of cyber- attacks in India (and worldwide) as malevolent actors look to take advantage of vulnerabilities in enterprises' security architecture. The demand for individuals with specific skill sets that enable them to build resilient and robust security systems that protect sensitive company data is going to be high in the coming months and years.

  • Data Analysts

    • The demand for data analysts was already high prior to the pandemic and is likely to grow further. The last two years since 2020 have deepened our reliance on the internet whether it is in purchasing groceries, conducting online meetings, generating engagement via social media, or any other digital activity. An analytics engineer works on transforming, testing, deploying, and documenting data. It is one of the most important skills that companies look for in their recruits.

  • Digital Marketing

    • Even with the Indian government announcing its vaccination roll out in January 2021, it is unlikely that companies will immediately revert to conventional modes of work. A large fraction of the workforce is likely to remain remote, and companies will continue to seek digital avenues for engagement over on-ground promotions and events. As such, candidates who are well-versed in digital technologies and social media trends will be in high demand in 2023.

  • Quality Content Creating

    • With the pandemic only lubricating the transition to the digital realm, quality content creators are likely to be in high demand not just next year, but in the many years ahead. The ability to artfully craft content that communicates a brand's message or the unique utility of a product or service is something that will always be highly sought after.

  • Risk Management

    • Risk management plays a crucial role to address ambiguities during a pandemic. The art of judging a risk even before it arises, and analysing and predicting its consequences has been gaining importance in the past year. It is one of the most critical skills required in the post-Covid-19 world, evaluating and anticipating consequences and equipping for the impact.

  • Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

    • Artificial Intelligence centers on the production of smart machines that mirror human intelligence. Machine Learning is the process of utilising software engineering principles, and analytical and data science knowledge, and blending both to make it accessible for use by the product or customers. Students with skills to feed data into models defined by data scientists and build models using algorithms that can be used to make business decisions will draw more attention in the globalization era.


    The National Education Policy 2020 recently introduced in this country provides a sea of opportunities for the students of higher education with the inclusion of multiple exit options where students should have the option to exit at different stages and rejoin at any time with a compulsory one or two semester’s internships for hands-on experience in the industry. Another enduring feature of the new education system is the introduction of vocational courses or skill-oriented education from class 6 onwards. This should enhance the children's practical and creative skills with which they can learn some sort of life skills that will be further useful for them to eke out a living in the future. According to NITI Aayog, by 2030, India will have the largest number of young working people in the globe, a population size, which will be a boon only if these young people are skilled enough to join the workforce, and to do so, we need a huge number of skilled teachers for which the academy will play a unique role in grooming many talented and skilled professionals in this part of the country. Nothing short of a revolution is thus required in skilling and the vocational education space in India, which has assumed critical propositions and might well determine the future growth of this country. To sum up, days are not far away that India will emerge as the single largest provider of global talent, with one in four graduates in the world being a product of the Indian higher education system provided that they should be trained in such a manner they are globally employable efficient workforce with desired new-age skills to make them ready for “jobs of tomorrow.” India identified skills as one of the most important drivers of a successful economy and a just society that offers opportunities for all citizens, regardless of their background. India’s thriving economy continues to evolve and grow, but these constant changes are proving difficult for many organizations. Training and development can help an organization stay innovative and thrive in today’s dynamic and globalized economy with close association with new-age skills development academies like GSA in the country that would help organizations to prepare their leadership teams to adapt to a constantly changing business landscape.