The learning industry in India can broadly be divided into three segments. The first segment is that of frontline staff skill building and includes training of technical and non-technical staff or fresh talent from campus waiting to transition to the corporate world. The second segment is that of building supervisory capability and is focused around building management skills of the middle layer in organizations. The third segment of leadership development focuses on developing technical as well as global leaders. Technical leadership, which has been historically been ignored among corporations, will account for significant demand in the coming months. It will include building technical leadership, innovation, and change management.

The global learning industry is increasingly maturing and services are getting more and more organized. While globalized Indian companies have shown to be more mature, most indigenous Indian companies seem to be lagging behind. As the human resource function in Indian companies continue to tread the path of maturity, the L&D industry will continue to mature in parallel. Global economic conditions, however, will continue to be a threat in the coming months as there has been a slowdown in learning budgets among Indian corporations.

Leadership and supervisory capability development will be two key areas of opportunities for the L&D industry in India. As Indian companies continue to build leadership capabilities, there is a huge market demand for technical talent and leadership development among Indian corporations. Besides that, supervisory skills development in manufacturing companies is expected to be a source of demand.

Some key trends will likely rule the learning and development market in India in the coming months. The emergence of the partnership model will likely be a significant trend. Service organizations and learning departments will look to work in a more collaborative and long-term manner to make service relationships more value-adding. It is expected that the client-vendor relationship model will fade away in the coming times. Besides that, organizations will also be looking to enter into multi-year partnerships and there will be added pressure on service providers to meet up to the raised expectations of multi-year arrangements. Lastly, e-learning will transition into blended learning and eventually to social learning.

As told to People Matters