News: Future of Talent in Automotive Industry

Recruitment

Future of Talent in Automotive Industry

As automation looks forward to disrupting the automotive industry new talent and skills will be required and automobile analytics engineer and 3D printing technician will be some of the new potential job roles.
Future of Talent in Automotive Industry

The emergence of new generation technologies has led to a demand for a new set of skills from the auto workforce. According to estimates by experts, including Nasscom, the sector which currently has 70,000 engineers is likely to employ about 1, 10,000 engineers by 2020.

Amidst the fear of losing jobs and the insecurity of existing skills becoming redundant, this estimate can be good news for the talent market. 

With the set in of automation in the automotive industry, the demand for engineers will keep on increasing. There will be more demand for hires for cutting-edge automated technology such as artificial intelligence, robotics, cognitive solutions and machine learning, as per ‘Future of jobs in India: A 2022 perspective’, a report by Ficci-Nasscom and EY.

This report also mentioned that the employment in the automotive sector is likely to reach 14.3 million in 2022 and new skill sets would be required for 60-65 percent of the jobs.

While repetitive jobs roles such as painting and welding are said to be threatened, job roles in robotics programming and maintenance will see an increase in demand.  

This is what Ms. Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation had to say about the future of talent in this sector:

"The increasing appetite for innovative technologies in the automotive industry has increased the demand for skilled workforce. The industry is required to create a collaborative learning environment and develop re-training programs across levels in the organization to be future ready for the new roles like automobile analytics engineer, 3D printing technician, machine learning based vehicle cybersecurity expert and sustainability integration expert."

According to Gajendra Chandel, Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Motors, with the automotive industry shifting gears rapidly, revolutionizing the way people and goods move, it seems natural to move towards automation, more so in recent times.

He is optimistic about the future of talent in the industry and believes that continuous training and development is the key. In fact, he shared with People Matters that Tata Motors has been hiring 700 – 800 fresh graduates every year not just to replenish but to meet growing needs and will continue to do this in the future.

“While the automation provides several benefits for manufacturers, it’s perceived to have a negative impact on employment. With automation, comes the increased need for trained manpower with advanced skills to design, implement, monitor and manage “automation”. Further, certain complex manufacturing jobs cannot be automated and will continue to need human skills especially in “low volume” environments. Owing to this, we at Tata Motors have constantly worked on training and reskilling our workforce to keep their skills updated and current to the rapidly changing technological landscape, in line with the organization’s mandate of becoming future ready,” said Gajendra Chandel, Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Motors. 

Further, Robust R&D centers are also critical to this industry and they also facilitate employment.  As per Nasscom estimates there are 5, 15,000 people employed in R&D and engineering across all sectors and 15% out of these are in the automotive industry. 

"Auto R&D and engineering are one of the top three domains witnessing highest growth within R&D and engineering domain in India," said Ashok Pamidi, senior director at Nasscom. 

The Indian auto industry is crucial for the economy as it accounts for 7.1 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has even attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 17.40 billion during the period April 2000 to June 2017, according to data released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). And the onset of automation in the automotive industry can lead to further growth. Therefore it is not a threat but an opportunity. And through skilling and upskilling, the workforce can remain relevant and useful to the industry.

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Topics: Recruitment, Skilling

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