Additional 4.7 million skilled workers needed in telecom sector by FY22

In the next five years, the Indian telecom sector manpower is set to more than, creating additional requirement of 4.78 million skilled workers by 2021-22, Parliament was informed today. "As per the telecom Sector Skill Plan of the Department (DoT), the telecom sector manpower of four million in 2016-2017 would grow to 8.78 million by 2021-22 creating additional requirement of 4.78 million telecom skilled manpower," Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Further, as per analysis of Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), 20-25 per cent of people in a telecom set up are high-skill workers that is engineers, MBAs, CAs, HR experts who require no specific skill training and are given 2-4 weeks orientation course on the job by the employer. The balance 75-80 per cent manpower would require telecom skills training, the minister said, adding "keeping the optimistic figure of 80 per cent, the target telecom skilling required till 2021-22 will be to the tune of 3.86 million." The training centres of Telecom Department PSUs like Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and ITI are being acceredited to Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to impart large scale skill development training to youths in the telecom sector, he pointed out. Sinha also added that since skill gap analysis has been done well in advance, and adequate telecom skilling plan has been drawn, no supply gap is anticipated in the telecom sector.