L&D is still out of sync with how people learn

The skill and employment ecosystem is rapidly changing in India, as it is the world over with rapid disruption of business models. The jobs and skills that exist today did not exist a decade ago and in this context, the skills gap of today is real. But as much as the academia, industry, and the government are trying catch-up the pace at which the new-age industries are generating demand for new skills, it will be a while before we can bridge that gap. An agile and integrated skilling system that helps the current and future potential workforce to constantly adapt to the ever-changing needs of the business world and also stay relevant for new opportunities is the need of the hour.    

It is stipulated that more than 12 million youth between 15 and 29 years of age are expected to enter India’s workforce every year for the next two decades. The government’s recent skill gap analysis further concludes that by 2022, approximately 109 million more skilled workers would be needed in 24 key sectors of the economy. But the skilling landscape is not yet in sync with the evolution and transformation of jobs and workplaces. The availability of in-demand talent and required skills continue to remain low, and one of the key reasons is the state of education system that is lagging behind in equipping today’s students with practical knowledge and its applicability at the workplaces. Organizations have realized the need for a robust and continuous training, learning and development engagement for their employees to address skills and competency gaps.  However, organizational intentions are usually inclined towards improving their own business goals and do not essentially contribute to mitigating the larger skills gap challenge in the overall employability land scape. But the good news is that, as per India Skills Report 2018, in the last five years, the overall employability has gone up from 34 percent to more than 45 percent which has resulted in more employable resources to the economy. The report also concedes efforts made by various stakeholders including the government-led skilling initiatives, the recent UGC and AICTE-led initiatives along with individual institute-led initiatives to improve employability across demographics have been somewhat successful. 

But the question is: Are such programs sufficient to address the scale at which the mismatch between skill development, employability and job creation is? There is no denying that there is a need for more data-based clarity to enable bridging of the talent demand and supply in the country. Skills gap is the real cause of high unemployable population and as the world moves towards Industry 4.0, we altogether require differently skilled manpower rather than the popular and traditionally skilled mass workforce of today. Relevant skills and employability go hand-in-hand. 

The way learning is produced, delivered, and consumed is being disrupted. Learning agility is fast becoming one of the key differentiating competencies and attributes for a professional to stay relevant. With trends in technology changing faster than we can spell technology, the concept of ‘unlearning the old’ while learning the new is fast becoming the norm. And if we truly notice the learning ecosystem, it is gradually and potentially evolving towards a new reality which calls for the need to constantly learn from the environment, experiences, and e-sources. In the future, learning-driven instructionally designed content will not be “created” by organizations but will be “curated” by the learners themselves based on what they want to learn. Bersin by Deloitte recently reported that over 35 million workers have enrolled in MOOCs such as Coursera and edX in the past year. This, in turn, has given rise to innovative cross-organizational collaboration in learning of a variety of forms.

I strongly believe that at this juncture, there is a need for creating a foundation of readiness in future professionals and employment seekers, for constant change, right from junior school. Academic institutions must play a major role in the transition, and so must the Campus to Corporate programs in developing the employability quotient. With the advent of social media and apps for everything in life, and attention spans getting shorter by the day and being driven by overload of information, the consumption of learning is going to be dictated by the wants of the evolving generation. Learning when I want, how I want, where I want and how much I want is going to be the order in the near future. The learning function has to understand that with time, there will be no gap between how people learn and how they work and play. Change, Speed, Innovation, Customization, Flexibility, and Agility are going to be the key traits in a learning environment that consumers of learning will demand in the future.

The L&D function in its current form will cease to exist. Learning leaders will need to relook into strategic business levers that drive the learning agility of employees and the organization as a whole. 

(The views and opinions expressed in the article are author’s own and do not reflect the views of his employer)