Telecom Training: Year of Initiatives

If not a watershed, the year 2000-01 was nevertheless, a significant one for

the Indian telecom training and education sector. The realization that the

Indian telecom industry desperately needs trained professionals was complemented

by a number of industry initiatives at establishing training institutes. And

these initiatives were unlike the product-specific training courses that have

largely dominated the telecom education landscape in the country. The year also

saw the British Council assessing the opportunity for British organizations to

provide training and education services to the rapidly developing telecom sector

in India.

The telecom training market in India would generally fall in two broad

categories–one catering to the in-house training requirements of the telecom

companies and the other, catering to the needs of the different segments of the

industry. A third category could be the training needs of telecom professionals

working in different vertical industry segments.

As the market is not mature and organized enough, it is really difficult to

assess its size in terms of value. The Department of Telecom is reportedly

spending around Rs 100 crore through its Advanced Level Telecommunications

Center and various regional training centers on training and skill upgradation

of its employees. Approximately, the same amount is being spent by the private

sector on training its employees, including new recruits. This spending is

largely accounted for, both by the vendor-specific training on products as well

as training in new and emerging technologies. A very small fraction of this is

also being spent on non-technology training areas like marketing and customer

care.

No doubt such industry initiatives as the Bharti School of Telecommunications

Technology (in collaboration with IIT, Delhi) and the Usha Martin Academy of

Communication Technology (with IIT, Chennai) cannot be termed as an

industry-wide trend. However, they do point towards a growing awareness in the

industry, of the need to provide training to employees as well as potential

recruits.

It is projected that at a 20-25 percent growth in the telecom industry, the

market for telecom training and education would be in the region of Rs 350-400

crore in the near future. A study by Arthur Anderson (commissioned by the

British Council) estimated that in the near future, the market would be around

55 million pounds. This assessment takes into account the continued pressure on

admission to premier institutions as also the growing realization among

corporates of the need to train their employees, in order to take on

competition.

The study pointed out that there is continued pressure on admission to

premier institutions. To be easily absorbed in the industry, graduates from

other institutions would need to undergo training in order to gain knowledge and

build specific skill sets. Thus, it is the quality of manpower that will

primarily cause the manpower demand—supply gap in the telecom industry–hence

the need for training.