Skill development in the construction industry: Opportunities and challenges
Authored by Shruti Choudhari, Deputy Director, B.L. Kashyap & Sons Limited Highly informal and unorganised, the construction industry comes next only to agriculture in providing jobs in India. The sector has the potential to add tens of millions of jobs over the next few years. What is driving significant expansion is the vast urban growth and requirement for supporting infrastructure in India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies. The growth has been strong in the past several years, but more needs to be done to tap the full potential of the industry. According to a report of National Skill Development Corporation (NCDC), the force in the construction and real estate sector will reach about 76 million by 2022, but the majority of them are likely to have no training before they start working. According to KPMG, by 2025, the country's construction sector will be the third largest in the world, behind China and America. Skill development in the construction industry cannot be over-emphasised to increase productivity and employability and ensure there is no adverse impact on the quality of construction. It is doubtless a formidable task to train millions of workers to make them industry-ready. There is a need for more significant industry-academia interface, as construction activities need further professionalization in a rapidly changing environment. Some experts have said civil engineering, the backbone of the construction industry, is not seen as a viable career option by the tech-savvy younger generations, resulting in the profession to lose its sheen. An overhaul of "outdated" curricula is the need of the hour. The Construction Skill Development Council of India, a non-profit organisation, has been constituted under the mandate of NCDC to promote skill development in the construction industry. However, it certainly is an uphill task. With the increasing need for civil engineers in the country, a certain skill set is required to address the gap. The skill sets vary from communication and leadership to critical thinking and technical. These are the skills that need to be honed not only for the skilled labourers but also the unskilled ones. The industry body Construction of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) needs to conduct more training based on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) and Qualification Packs (QP) of NSDC aligned for industry-specific roles in its efforts to spread wings. Construction academies and other organisations also need to scale up their training efforts several notches. Diversification and development of skills also need urgent attention within the EPC industry, which has undergone a paradigm shift. There is a pressing need to rethink on established practices as digital technologies gradually enter the construction industry, which had depended heavily on manual labour and mechanical technology till only a few years ago. There is also a greater need for integration and collaboration across the industry's value chain. Reports said India's construction industry would see average growth of 6.2 per cent between 2018 and 2027. According to a report, by 2030, India is expected to be the third largest construction market globally, with its contribution to GDP increasing to 15 per cent. Size of India's construction industry is expected to be USD one trillion by 2025. Another report said 95 billion sq ft is the predicted demand in the real estate and construction industry by 2020. However, attracting talent and building the required skills are keys to achieving potential. New upskilling and training initiatives will help meet the growing needs of the construction industry. A significant boost is needed in tackling the current skill gap. These on-site training given to students need to be scaled up where they can showcase the range of skills and hone them accordingly. More needs to be done to showcase the range of skill roles available to attract bright talent into the industry. The overall standard of safety needs to be raised in India. The industry has to adopt new technologies and improve efficiencies to reach greater heights. Working with international partners would help in adopting technologies used elsewhere. Autonomous drones are now being used widely, providing high-level access. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, concrete three-dimensional (3D) printing, Building Information Model (which involves generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places), smart devices, machine learning and predictive analytics have already become technology buzzwords in the industry. Their usage is bound to increase in the future. Embedded sensors as a connected worksite create enormous opportunities for collecting and managing relevant data. Green technologies have come to the fore in a big way as the construction industry accounts for about 20 per cent of the global emissions. The adoption of green construction is on the rise and workers need to align with the latest trends. It is time that the construction sector considered all these challenges and converted them into opportunities for the overall growth of the industry in the long-term.
Tags : EXPERT ZONE