3 Step Approach to Create a Skilled IT Workforce

By Kunal Nagarkatti, COO, Clover Infotech

Every year, International Literacy Day brings along some interesting global insights. As per reports, there are 190 million unemployed people on the planet. It leaves huge potential for employment. The first step to this would be literacy.

Digital Literacy

Today, digital literacy is equally important. It is important to have as many skilled technical resources as possible. India holds great potential to build capabilities in new age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain and Analytics. However, more than 90% of the 1.5 million engineers that come into the job market every year are unemployable as per reports. This indicates that a lot of efforts must go towards skilling and training of this incoming talent.

I think we, as an industry, need to Invest, Guide and Create. As a sector which exports well over US$100 billion worth of IT software and services, we should leverage our demographic dividend to create an exhaustive pool of skilled and talented human capital.

Our Three-step approach

The first step should be to invest in helping the students to learn the concepts theoretically. The second step should be to help them learn on the job under the able tutelage of experts from the company, who might be working on critical projects. The third step is to groom these trained professionals into leaders so that they can be empowered to build great teams and excel in the delivery of solutions and services.

At Clover Infotech, we have been pre-dominantly serving customers in India across banking, insurance and financial services. To deliver within the stringent margins and timelines, it becomes essential to have well-equipped engineers who are adept at multiple technologies. We have created “Clover Academy” to develop such adept engineers. It has been an integral part of our business for the last fifteen years.

Re-Skilling and Capacity Building

Our expert professionals from our Center of Excellence (CoE) team identify areas in sync with market trends and industry demands. Based on these insights, Clover Academy initiates batches and trains fresh graduates on key technologies as well as communication skills. We hand-hold them post completion of the training by enabling them to work on live projects under the watchful guidance of our experienced team members. The exposure that they gain across technology, domain, and communication skills is unique and enriching. Many of our students from Clover Academy have become project leaders and managers and are managing service delivery excellence as well as profitability for us.

Our Center of Excellence (CoE) has been constantly interacting with customers, our technology partners and niche technology companies focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Data Analytics etc. The CoE is now driving and guiding “Clover Academy” to prepare courses and create the entire training roadmap. This enables Clover Academy to create professionals with the requisite technology skills. The batches that we initiate at Clover Academy would benefit from a curriculum which closely mirrors industry trends and technology disruptions. Hence, Clover Academy is able to churn out highly skilled engineers who can meet new requirements from our clientele in areas such as chatbots, data analytics, digital transformation services etc.