HYDERABAD: With advancement in technologies opening up new opportunities for businesses, companies have to rethink various ways of investing in new skills and train their employees if they have to survive, says Rekha M Menon, chairman and senior managing director, Accenture in India. Speaking at a session on skilling at World Congress on Information Technology 2018, she said, “Skills shortage is the biggest worry for companies. What is frightening is, we researched about 1,200 CXOs across different industries and 50 per cent of them said their one big worry is skills shortage. But, the investments on additional training are just three per cent.
Without investments, they will not be able to take advantage of the efficiencies they get from artificial intelligence and for that, new skills are needed.” Menon also noted that AI can help companies save on costs. She added that Accenture has been experimenting with grid-like platform, where all employees will crowd-source unique skills based on their interests.
“At Accenture, we are hiring people with diverse skills. We hire data scientists and also anthropologists, design thinkers. Automation will only create new opportunities. Human skills are back in fashion,” noted Menon. She also pointed out that millions of engineering graduates passing out of college every year in India lack skills. To address this gap, she said, technology and public-private partnership models can be used.