Ms. Maud Le Bars, South Asia Area Manager, Omnes Education

Bridging Talent Gaps: Indo-French Initiatives in Skill Development

 

With the largest population on Earth, one may question the notion of “talent gap” for India. Employers have a huge talent pool to look for. And yet, according to EY’s Future of Pay Report 2023, prominent trends  in India include the expansion of the talent pool, shortages of skilled professionals, heightened competition for top talent, and the imperative of continuous upskilling.

When looking for freshers, campus placement allows to find talents though 51% of young graduates are considered not employable according to the Economic Survey 2023 2024. Once looking for less junior profiles, it becomes difficult to navigate this ocean of profiles for HR managers. Attrition and war on skilled talents is starting.

More generally, it is interesting to note that nowadays, a skill has an expectancy of 2 years only of relevance only according to recent surveys by OCDE, versus 30 years in the 1990s. So the world belongs now to those who know how to learn, are agile, versatile and adaptable.

The Indo French companies will have to adapt to those trends and looking at a different pool of candidates: the alumni of the French schools (over 100 000 Indian alumni in 2018, source Higher Education Committee). Since then, the number of Indian students choosing to study at least a semester in France has only increased! From around 10000 Indian students/year in 2024, the French government is aiming to reach 30000/year by 2030.

Indeed, France offers a worldwide recognized environment of excellence in academics but also in employability building. It is host to 20 to 25% of the best Masters in Management and Master in Finance in the world since 2015 according to the Financial Time Ranking. It is the 2nd country in the world for the number of Field Medalists (Mathematics) and is among the top 5 countries in the Shanghai University rankings.

Practical learning is prevalent and explains in part the success of the programmes and Institutes in those rankings. In Jan24, over 1 million work study contracts were signed by students in France. For Omnes Education, for instance,  the 2nd largest Education Group in France, 18000 out of our 40000 students were on an alternance contract and all students are offered to do 1 internship/year of studies anyway.

Therefore, for IFCCI member companies , those students trained in such environment are not only highly employable, they also have shown the agility skills needed to adapt to a new environment and would be able to navigate through the cultural acculturation that is required to succeed in an Indo French environment.

To access such a great and relevant pool of talents, we encourage the members to reach out to the HR & Recruitment Services of IFCCI. Along with the Higher Education Committee, this department have started a few initiatives to create those bridges: the monthly CV newsletter, Career Booster series, soon Job Fairs.  In 2025, it’s time to build bridges instead of walls!

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