Driving India's skills revolution

Lives and livelihoods are being transformed by new and emerging technologies, but significant investment is needed to reskill India's workforce in priority areas.  

India needs to address skills gaps so its workforce can adopt new technologies and ways of working.

Developing the skills of India’s large and youthful population is a major responsibility of employers and government – improving the employability of the workforce can transform lives and livelihoods. India has a population of 1.45BN, making it the world’s most populous country. And with an average age of about 29 years, India’s headcount is expected to grow for another 25 years, while many countries face declining populations. Human capital should therefore be one of India’s most valuable assets, but it requires adequate investment in the skills of the existing workforce and the new generation of workers.

New technologies are changing the way we build, travel, work and live, and generating greater demand for goods and services. India’s workforce will require major reskilling to adopt new and emerging technologies, according to the World Economic Forum, which estimated that 44% of workers’ core skills would need to change in the five years to 2027. The skills challenge affects all sectors of the economy. At Mott MacDonald, for example, we know that the planning, design and construction of large capital-intensive infrastructure programmes require more than 50 types of technical and soft skills for successful delivery.  

However, there are reasons to be optimistic that India’s workforce can respond to the demands of technology-driven growth. Just look at how much has changed over the past decade. We adopted technology to reduce the resource intensity of our economy. We all got reskilled to use digital tools and adopt new ways of living – we now rarely visit our banks, grocery stores, travel agents, and when we’re selecting energy-efficient appliances we no longer carry cash. With the evolution of new technologies, change will continue, and we will adapt.  

Targeting skills gaps

Significant reform of India’s education system, with a major focus on skill development, will be needed. The education policy of 2023 and Youth Internship Programme set out in the 2024 budget, which aims to reskill 10M young people through work experience at top Indian companies in the next five years, are important steps to improve the employability of the population.  

Our skills development experts already work with education institutions to provide quality training opportunities so that skills gaps in the construction workforce and other priority sectors are filled. 

For policymakers, reskilling the informal sector, which employs more than 90% of the workforce nationally in India, will be a major challenge. Further, there needs to be action to reduce regional disparities in employment opportunities, address varying capabilities in the workforce across states in India and promote higher participation by women of working age in the economy. Employers have a significant role to play in addressing these issues.  

Global expertise, local knowledge 

At Mott Macdonald, we create opportunities for employees to gain skills delivering large infrastructure programmes as part of an inclusive team comprising local, national and international experts. Local team members are trained on global delivery platforms and have access to international best practices as part of multicultural global teams. This approach helps to develop a pool of local talent capable of working on global projects and sharing their learning with larger local teams working across regions within India. 

To ensure that local people benefit fully from programmes, we promote the use of local suppliers and, wherever possible, women entrepreneurs are prioritised. This can support a wide range of local service providers, including the supply and maintenance of vehicles, office furniture, office consumables, long-term accommodation, IT and communication infrastructure. 

Building skills capabilities

While delivering large infrastructure programmes, we engage with many direct stakeholders, including clients, government bodies, lenders, contractors, survey agencies, testing laboratories, academic institutions and local private consultancy firms. By having an inclusive team of local, national and international experts, we address cultural and language barriers while supporting the adoption of emerging technologies and best practices.  

Building the capacity of stakeholders also improves the operation of assets and, in most cases, stakeholders use the knowledge they gain on other programmes implemented in the region. 

Career opportunities for women

Achieving gender balance has always been a challenge in the infrastructure industry, but government steps to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics education among women have helped to get trained women engineers in our teams. Our approach to flexible working hours, working from home, inclusive workspaces, inclusive recruitment and promotion panels and inclusive corporate communication has also helped us recruit women. For example, we have a dedicated Returners’ Programme to encourage applications from candidates with gaps in their CVs. I am hopeful to see more women joining our planning and design teams on large infrastructure programmes in the future. 

Working in partnership 

India is expected to grow from the fifth largest economy in the world to the third largest by 2030. Greater collaboration between India’s government, private sector employers and communities will be needed to address skills gaps and adapt to new ways of living and working.