New-age internet companies are going big on soft-skill training

BENGALURU: Apprentice or soft-skill training programme providers are seeing a significant influx from newage internet companies including ecommerce, food-tech and fintech, in a shift from sectors like manufacturing and automobiles.Clientele from these businesses are growing significantly for soft-skill trainers. Though these sectors are still nascent, demand has been rising. Over the past six months, these firms have witnessed an overall growth close to 30% and 75-80% monthly while a majority of this hiring is in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.These trainings cater to blue-collared, grey-collared and white-collared workforce.“In the ecommerce segment, our trainees mostly handle and supervise warehouse management, customer service, despatch management and website management,” said Shantanu Rooj, founder and CEO of Mumbai-based SchoolGuru Eduserve.Rooj adds that in companies like Swiggy, Zomato and Big Basket, roles also include that of customer service, delivery coordinator and executives, warehousing, packaging management, quality control and sales.These companies have also tied up with fintech companies including Bharat Pay and Google Pay where the personnel are largely trained for field roles.“Under our apprentice programme NETAP, we blend different learning forms, which give flexibility, customisation and leads to overall development of the candidate. We blend onthe-job learnings, which give handson experience, with theoretical learning which is offered either through online mechanism or with onsite mechanism or with an oncampus learning wherein the trainees come to our campus for learning,” said Sumit Kumar, vice president–NETAP, TeamLease Services, an HR services firm.He added that these businesses have been growing significantly over the last few months.“The people enrolled are either fresh school passouts, dropouts or those pursuing higher education. About 50% of the population is undergraduates who undergo such training,” Kumar added.“In a world where we are talking about technology and automation, the biggest differentiator for humans is going to be our soft skills. The skills which help us communicate, comprehend, collaborate, create and connect. There is a clear need to invest in soft skills for one and all and hence from that perspective it is a need which is unlikely to run short of demand,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder of TeamLease Services.Experts tracking the space say such companies shell out ?10,000-15,000 monthly on a trainee. After the training, they earn an average of between ?8,000 and ?18,000 depending on the role and location.The gig economy, in a nutshell, means where a company typically offers short-term contracts or freelance work to its drivers and delivery personnel, among others. Most of these roles that mushroom from internet consumer companies are categorised under the gig economy, mostly led by the likes of Ola, Uber, Swiggy and Zomato.Overall, the gig economy accounts for more than 1.4 million jobs in India, which mostly includes delivery staff, drivers, beauticians and maintenance workers, according to BetterPlace, a platform for blue-collar workers.New-age internet companies have been ramping up training for their workforces seeing the rise of complaints from customers. Besides this training, these companies have also been rendering training to their partners on fronts including technology, behavioural skills, personality development, guidelines for safe riding, skill development through customised simulation and case studies.“Even larger companies provide additional skillsets training while hiring freshers. This is inevitable for any company irrespective of size or sector. Soft-skill training becomes priority especially for executives who deal with clients or customers as that directly impacts the company business,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive, Greyhound Research.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36q0M0u