In a major push for skill development in the technology industry, ABB, in association with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has developed a standardised qualification criterion for two IoT-related job roles – IoT Network Communications and IoT Cyber Security.

This first-of-its-kind-industry collaboration, aimed at facilitation of the much-needed uniformity and formalisation by aiding the hiring and evaluation of these high-skilled jobs across the sector. The Qualification Packs (QPs) define the competency standards that will provide a framework for academic institutions to design their course curriculum to better conform to industry hiring standards. The qualification packs for the two job roles have been approved by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), and National Skills Qualifications Committee (NSQC).

These standardised assessments will lead to the creation of skilled and certified talent for IoT from which the industry can hire the right talent for new-age jobs, thereby reducing the cost of hiring and increasing the time for productivity.

The QPs will be promoted across the industry for the purpose of hiring, promotions and curating learning & development (L&D) programs, thereby laying the foundation for standardized employment practices for skilled jobs in the IT-ITeS industry.

NASSCOM estimates that nearly 40 per cent of the country’s workforce needs to be reskilled if they are to work in the artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), machine learning and blockchain spaces. To this effect, the government will popularise the initiative in academic institutions across the country, to help bridge the prominent skill gap that currently exists in the industry. The initiative will allow the Indian Government to streamline the entry of skilled personnel into the industry and ensure minimal retraining and attrition costs across companies.

Rajarshi Banerjee, Head of ABB Ability Customer Experience and Innovation - AMEA, ABB, said, “At ABB we take pride in being part of this industry-wide endeavour to navigate through the next era of digitalisation and industry 4.0. The rapid pace of technology disruption continues to render significant shifts in human resource requirements. The need of the hour for the industry is a specialized set of skills beyond the traditional course curriculum, as also demonstrated by the current Covid-19 situation where virtual/digital has become integral to operations in most companies. Our joint effort with NASSCOM has led to the creation of these qualification packs that will serve as a guiding light across the industry – recruiters, educational institutes and prospective recruits, as guide-rails both for the curriculum and recruitment. We have created a standardized format for the industry, which we believe will result in developing a quality pool to help companies across sectors, to hire from.”

“An increase in implementation of cybersecurity and other disruptive technologies like IoT, AI etc, has led to an incumbent need for standardizing specialized skill sets, to ensure that the future workforce is equipped with the knowledge and awareness of the applicability that the industry demands and needs,” said Apala Ray, Global Cybersecurity Manager, Industrial Automation Process Industries at ABB. “

“These Qualification Packs will serve as a compass for the future workforce as well as corporates to navigate new technologies in this space and thereby, capitalize on them. We are proud to have been a key enabler in this first-of-its-kind initiative in India,” Ray added.

Amit Aggarwal, CEO, IT-ITES Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM, said that, “As the world gets increasingly connected, IoT emerges as an even more prominent technology for our future. With the number of businesses adopting IoT technologies constantly growing, the industry is in need of a qualified workforce that can deliver intelligent solutions for changing consumer and business behaviour. We are certain that this initiative will benefit the sector as a whole and help us in our journey to further consolidate India as a talent hub for new-age technologies.” 

NASSCOM has been at the forefront of an industry-driven effort in India to develop ‘Future Skills Competency Standards’ that define the skills required to do jobs in technologies like IoT, AI, Big Data Analytics (BDA), Cloud Computing and several others. NASSCOM has developed these job competency standards together with the industry representatives that have helped create a common language across industry, academia and government on hiring, training and skilling. For an employer, it means the individual is ready to work from day 1, thus creating a win-win for the employee, the employer and the country. 

The qualification packs were designed by NASSCOM and ABB in association with other industry partners after detailed functional analysis of the level of knowledge, skills and aptitude required for each of the job roles. This initiative will also form the basis for the government and other tech companies to define job roles and qualification packs for other emerging, new age technologies.