Employee Skilling
Equipping infrastructure employees to handle project-related challenges
Beyond technical skills, resilience is the key to building India’s infrastructure. Explore workforce training strategies shaping the sector’s future.
India's infrastructure industry is changing dramatically. Gati Shakti is further accelerating government efforts to expedite project execution, with the National Infrastructure Pipeline estimating investment at $1.4 trillion. The goal has been to build more quickly, more efficiently, and more intelligently. But behind the steel and concrete lies a silent, often overlooked element of this transformation, the people who build them.
From long tunnels in the Himalayas to the metros situated in cities, infrastructure projects are executed in physically and emotionally demanding environments. In such scenarios, technical skills alone are not enough. The skill that is required more is resilience, the ability of the workforce to adapt, withstand stress, and deliver under tremendous pressure.
With over 7 crore workers, the construction industry in India is currently the nation's second-largest employer. With ongoing increases in infrastructure spending, this amount is anticipated to reach 10 crores by 2030. Only 19% of this workforce is suitably skilled, and an alarming 81% of them are still unskilled.
As infrastructure projects grow in size and complexity, there has never been a more pressing need to upskill and enhance the workforce's mental, physical, and emotional capabilities.
In the infrastructure industry, resilience is multi-layered. It’s the ability to operate equipment in difficult terrains. It’s the agility to shift roles as project demands change. It’s the emotional bandwidth to handle long separations from family, extended hours in high-risk zones, and uncertainties on-site, be it due to weather, equipment failure, or supply chain disruptions.
For project engineers and supervisors, it also means managing labour expectations, handling community interactions, and ensuring team morale through prolonged timelines. These human challenges require far more than technical training; they demand mental fortitude and adaptive thinking.
Acknowledging these realities, Indian infrastructure companies are gradually expanding their focus from purely technical skilling to holistic workforce development.
Numerous construction companies have set up specialised training facilities with courses covering digital literacy, safety, communication, and teamwork in addition to construction methods. More and more people are realising that employees must be ready for more than just their jobs; they also need to be ready for the environment and circumstances in which they operate.
In order to make training accessible even at distant project sites, companies are also increasingly utilising technology-based training models, such as virtual simulations and mobile learning applications. To improve decision-making, leadership, and conflict resolution on the job, some supervisory development programs have added soft skills modules.
Crucially, businesses are realising how important emotional health is to preserving safety and productivity. While still in their infancy, a few have started employee assistance programs, helplines, and mental health awareness events.
Complementing these private sector initiatives, government programs such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and National Skill Development Corporation NSDC are playing a pivotal role in scaling skill development nationwide. PMKVY has trained over 11 million people, with a significant focus on construction trades.
The government has also allocated ₹60,000 crore to modernise 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) over a five-year period, which will benefit over two million students. These efforts demonstrate a desire to meet industry demands while simultaneously formalising and elevating skilled trades' status in India.
But the rate of change must accelerate. It is anticipated that the proportion of skilled workers in the construction industry will increase by 2030.
To meet the demands of the next decade, India’s infrastructure companies must adopt a more people-centric approach to project execution. This includes:
• Integrating resilience modules into core training programs, covering stress management, communication, adaptability, and workplace safety.
• Investing in on-site counselling and support systems, especially for long-duration and high-stress projects.
• Leveraging digital platforms to deliver continuous learning, especially in local languages.
• Recognising and rewarding resilient behaviours, not just productivity metrics, embedding a culture of psychological safety and trust.
Human Capital: The true foundation
As India aspires to create world-class infrastructure, the sector must evolve to see labour not as a cost, but as a core asset. Training must go beyond the "how" of the job to the "how to thrive" in the job.
Ultimately, it is people who build nations. Their resilience is not just a soft skill it's a strategic asset. And by investing in it, we’re not just preparing for projects. We’re preparing for the future.
(This article has been authored by Kavita Shirvaikar, Managing Director, Patel Engineering Ltd.)
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