TeamLease considers human resources with vocational skills are much sought after in sectors like lifesciences, manufacturing, testing laboratories and marketing departments. This workforce carry home a better salary compensation package compared to the professionally educated candidates. There is a huge demand for skilled workforce because they are better employable.

Currently vocational trained candidates constitutes only 2 per cent of the total Indian workforce. There is less demand for engineers and MBAs because steep reduction in jobs. Salary trends are clearly favouring an increasing number of Blue Collar job profiles vis-à-vis White Collar jobs. The labour market is revaluing skills and rearranging the compensation hierarchy with little regard to the traditional White versus Blue Collar divide.

Companies are increasingly working towards compliance and formal training as certain job areas are found much wanting. Clearly vocational trained personnel have a higher ROI (return on investment). This is a stark reality in Indian workforce space. The number of jobs opening are increasing for vocationally skilled candidates. Going forward employers across the industrial landscape including lifesciences covering pharma, biotech, healthcare and medical technology will only scout for specific skills, Rituparna Chakraborty, senior vice president, TeamLease Services told Pharmabiz in a telecon.

Therefore it is advisable for the Gen Y to arm themselves with specialized skills that could give them an edge in the competitive employment world. In fact, this development is the best that could have happened for Indian workforce, she added.

With technology moulding Gen Y, vocational skilling only requires fluency in English language with high level of digital-computing literacy. Along with academic qualifications vocational skilling is a win-win situation for faster employability.

There is a huge difference in not just earnings but capability and adaptability to a manufacturing, laboratory or marketing scenario. A visible trend among TeamLease clients who represent large organisations is the demand for skilled workforce. It allows companies to spend less time and resources for on-the job training.

In its assessment on what pays better: professional education versus vocational skilling, TeamLease is of the view and is gearing up to prove the point that spending resources on engineering and MBAs are wasteful expenditure. Its high time parents should now look at lucrative career options for their kids with specific skill tutoring, said Chakraborty.

“Typically an MBA ends up in a job not pertaining to his qualification because only the top best institutes are seen to be preferred choice for employers. The remaining mediocre quality institutions generating management students are left to grope for any job opening. Our study on professional education versus vocational skilling data is a testimony to this and we are aggressively looking to create an awareness among parents and their kids across metros and towns that vocational skilling offers a fruitful, profitable and rewarding career,” she said.

For instance in labs, there is huge shortfall of medical technicians and this job profile salary is on par with MBA – HR at the highest experience level. Similarly a field service executive and the diet assistant which are vocationally trained profiles earn almost as much as an engineer – civil. The healthcare sector sharply discriminates between MBA specializations at the 5 – 8 year experience level, said the TeamLease SVP.