Gender gap in employability and Indian digital revolution

India Skills Report 2021 by Wheebox, in partnership with Taggd, CII, AICTE, AIU and UNDP, is a report on the talent demand and supply in post-COVID India. According to it, Delhi-NCR, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have the highest pool of employable talent in the country.

The study revealed that 45.9 per cent of the youth were considered highly employable resources. The study also found out that Mumbai is the city with the most highly employable resources with 70 per cent of the test takers scoring above 60 per cent. This is followed by Hyderabad.

The India Skills Report, a combination of an assessment of final year candidates across India, who appeared for the Wheebox National Employability Test (WNET) and 150+ corporates across 15 industries who participated in the India Hiring Intent survey, also found out that candidates from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka had the most of the resource pool with most of the employable talent while Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune were the cities with most employable talent.

The latest WNET was the eighth consecutive year that Wheebox assessed the employability landscape nationwide, making it the largest test to record and analyse the talent demand and supply of India.

India will be hiring most in the banking & financial sector along with IT and ITeS led businesses, closely followed by Health Sector, Automotive, Retail Segment, Logistics and Core Sector including Energy. While digital connectivity and internet based business will remain the most important base for hiring and expansion, the job markets will be led by states like Delhi-NCR, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Additionally, companies across India a hiring intent of 19 per cent, as compared to 10 per cent, a clear reflection of the positive changes in the job landscape this year.

Given the strategic changes that occurred during the pandemic year, the report on talent demand and supply in post-COVID India has attempted to bring forth in-depth analysis of overall youth employability derived from various factors like field of study, demographics, gender participation, preferences, salary expectations and access to resources.

Nirmal Singh, Founder and CEO, Wheebox said, "Finally gender gap in employability is improving with Indian digital revolution. One great structural change that we found is that women participation is higher than the previous 5 years. Women consist of 36 per cent of the workforce, while men comprise 64 per cent of all workers. The highest percentage of women in any sector was recorded in the Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) making up to 46 per cent of the employable talent in this industry. The trend is one of the most positive one for the future, especially with the Work from Home possibilities," Singh pointed out.

The Wheebox National Employability Test (WNET) survey sheds light on the employability of the youth of India. Some of the key dimensions assessed during the survey were Business Communication, Critical Thinking and Numerical Reasoning. The report is a serious attempt to bring forth the current situation, so that policies can be based on this, and bring in maximum impact."

Incidentally, the report also pointed out the courses most in demand in 2021, will be B. Tech and MBA with an employability score of 47 per cent with B. Com, BA and B. Pharma candidates considered among the next set of highly employable resources. The report revealed that the viability to harness talent and collaborative solutions rose with advent of cloud computing and data sciences. Internet services are reinventing contemporary work culture, thus reshaping every aspect of operations from FMCG manufacturers to supply chain logistics to remote asset management.

To keep up with the changing demand in nature of work, there was a transformation in required skill-sets as well. According to the data collected for the study, the youth employability stood at 45.9 per cent consisting of highly employable resources. This is significantly lower than the previous year. The emergence of a skill gap is the reason that youth employability reduced to 45.9 per cent from last year's 46.2 per cent. Interestingly, Singh added, "The skill gap that emerged with the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to computer courses, language classes, and online skill assessments. Establishing the direct correlation of technology with employability in India is vital to realising the pathway forward. In fact, the employability landscape of India is evolving with technology that makes workplaces more collaborative and operations more efficient. The Covid-19 pandemic revealed how central technology is to everyday lifestyle."

Leverage the highly employable women resources

The employability of women stands at 46.8 per cent as compared to 45.91 per cent of men. Considering the population of qualified and employable human resources in India being women, Indian employers are expected to make reforms in existing infrastructure to accommodate this vast talent pool. By doing so, India can set a trend for every emerging economy to reverse the gender roles and create sustainable opportunities for the future of globalization and world commerce.

The study emphasised that a holistic approach to the employability landscape states will be a mix of technological familiarity and in-depth subject knowledge. While access to technology has made India one of the largest smartphone markets in the world, the requisites for technical education will increase exponentially much higher than ever before.

The Wheebox National Employability Test survey analysis for 2021 found that software and hardware knowledge is becoming a growing demand in industries ranging from travel & tourism to energy & manufacturing. This has fuelled a decline in employability among students for the second year in a row, after a jump in employability witnessed between 2016-2018. Notably, the highest employable percentage was found in the age group between 18-21 at 40 per cent, indicating the structural changes at the core of the employability landscape of India. From the years 2019-2021, the employability rating has dropped by 2 points, standing at 45.9 per cent today.