BENGALURU: Anup B had spent five years in the IT sector in the city before he made his first jump to another company that offered him a promotion and bigger pay cheque, around three years ago.
Since then a lot has changed in the industry and in Anup’s life.
The present siege on IT employees due to increasing automation and change in technology has led to mass layoffs and many like Anup have been forced to go back full-time to the classroom. After being put on the bench or not allotted any projects for a long time, he saw the writing on the wall and decided to quit. “A few weeks after I quit, the inevitable happened. Many of my colleagues were given the pink slips,” he says.
Anup had got a new car and had shifted to a bigger house after his jump. After resigning, he sold his car and moved to a hostel that was provided by the institution in which he is presently studying.
“I enrolled for a 11-month course in data analytics and paid Rs 7 lakh for the course. Going to a classroom after a gap of many years and spending so much is a hard decision but it’s something that just had to be done,” he says.
Already many worried IT professionals have been opting for part-time online courses, but others like Anup have used this as an opportunity to unlearn and acquire new skills, the conventional way.
Another case is that of Rakesh M K, who worked in Dubai and has been in the IT sector for seven years. He has enrolled in a full-time classroom IT certification course at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh in Bengaluru.
“There was an option for an online version of the course but I chose the classroom course. I had a lot of commitments and it was a difficult decision to enroll for a full-time course but I am literally forced to this otherwise after a few years my skills would be obsolete,” he says. With the present job scenario not being so great, Rakesh says that it was better he used this time to upgrade himself.
Rajesh Natarajan, spokesperson for the Forum for IT Employee,s says, “We are gradually seeing a lot of people enrolling for one classroom course or another. Many others opt for weekend classroom courses of a longer duration in order to compensate for a full-time course,” he says.
Vineet Vakil, general secretary of the recently formed Karnataka State IT/ ITes Trade Union, says the result of people opting for such courses is a boom in the training and re-skilling, institutes.
“While there were training institutes that offered specific technical short-term courses, the recent upheaval in the IT sector is a sort of a windfall for such institutes. In fact, a lot of them seem to be popping up now. Mid-senior professionals, as well as freshers, have enrolled for various courses,” he says.
Classroom learning has picked up among IT professionals presently primarily because of the present scenario of layoffs says, says Rituparna Chakraborty, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder, Teamlease Services, an HR services company.
“A working professional going for a full-time course is a sort of an aberration in our times. No one had the time to enroll for such courses and people usually opt for online courses out of their want to learn more. IT professionals no longer have a choice now as they need to reskill or perish. It is a sort of an investment in themselves for better jobs,” says Rituparna who is also the president of the Indian Staffing Federation. The courses that are presently in vogue are data sciences, artificial intelligence, machine learning, she adds. “What may be in vogue now will be redundant in a few years so the key is to continuously keep learning irrespective of the situation,” says Rituparna.
FITE ties up with institutes to give techies free training
While many IT professionals who can afford to are taking the initiative to get re-skilled, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), an organisation of IT employees in Karnataka and across the country is trying to do their bit to help by tying up with institutes to train people for free in the city. The recent spate of layoffs has sent the industry reeling. With IT companies being increasingly forced to adopt automation and new technologies, the message for from IT employees is to upgrade or become redundant.
The organisation is on the verge of tying up with two training organisations in the city. “One of these is an online learning platform that will provide the basic training in skills in areas such as data sciences and other subjects. They will also provide the training material for the same. Free training will be given only in basic modules in a subject,” says Rajesh Natarajan, spokesperson, FITE. The other organisation that FITE is tying up with is a training institute in HSR Layout whose premises will be used to conduct training sessions, adds Rajesh.
While FITE is still in talks with these organisations, they are also looking out for more such tie ups. “A number of other local training agencies have also approached us and we will watch and see with who we tie up next. Talk on the issue of collobarating with these other agencies is still at a preliminary stage,” says Rajesh. During the monthly meetings of the organisation, many have pointed out to the need for such training sessions.
“There are quite a few members who cannot afford to spend on training due to various commitments. The free training will hopefully help such people better. However, it is open one and all,” he says.
FITE is an organisation that has been in existence since 2014 with members in the city and thousands across the country. It also provides legal assistance to IT employees and helps them file petitions and handle the quagmire of legal and bureaucratic hurdles.
Asked if they also provide assistance to the families of IT professionals who have been laid off, Rajesh says, “As of now we ourselves are in a precarious position so we are only limiting ourselves to helping people get back to the workforce,” says Rajesh.
The group has also met the labour commissioner as well as the ITBT Minister, Priyank Kharge on various issues related to IT. “A major demand that we have brought forward is to get rid of the exceptions of the ‘standing orders’ (Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946) for Karnataka. A standing order is an agreement between employers and employees about certain conditions of employment. A lack of this is the reason IT companies can do anything they want,” says Rajesh.