May 26, 2018
The Indian insurance sector today faces the challenge of limited expertise and skilled workforce. Skilled workforce is required for risk based underwriting, creating innovative products that will appeal to people. Niche high-end skills in complex and highly-specialised areas such as risk management, credit evaluation and financial engineering are also required.
The lack of suitable candidates needed to handle such functions is the biggest challenge employers are facing today. A recent survey estimated that there is a need of at least 2.1 million insurance educated employees by 2025.
There is also a lack of awareness among students and young professionals about national and internationally recognised certifications and training for skill development. A recent market research reveals that awareness level of internationally recognised certifications and training is medium among young professionals, though there are many firms offering such courses.
The insurance industry is struggling hard to meet skill requirements. This is because the current education system does not consider the component of skilling in its curriculum, which in turn fails to churn out a skilled workforce necessary for the industry. Most Indian educational institutions continue to follow the traditional approach to teaching that is based on content delivery rather than on knowledge delivery. All these have created a huge gap in what the industry needs and the output of educational institutions.
More than 700 million Indians are estimated to be in the working age group (15-59) by 2022, of which more than 500 million will require some form of vocational or skill training. Statistics also show that 47% of graduates in India are not employable due to lack of English language knowledge and cognitive skills. For skilling to take wings, integration of skill development and education is essential.