Fresher hiring intent is highest in India, at 17 per cent, compared with the global sentiment, which hovers at six per cent. A ‘Career Outlook Report’ by TeamLease EdTech for the period July to December 2021 across 18 sectors and 14 cities, indicates that 17 per cent employers are keen to hire freshers in H2 2021.
From a sector perspective, emerging sectors that have withstood the impact of the pandemic and have had a stronger hiring sentiment are information technology (31 per cent), telecommunication (25 per cent) and tech startups (25 per cent). Other sectors that have been faring well are healthcare & pharma (23 per cent), logistics (23 per cent) and manufacturing (21 per cent). From a location perspective, the leading cities for freshers hiring are Bengaluru (43 per cent), Mumbai (31 per cent) and Delhi (27 per cent), Chennai (23 per cent) and Pune (21 per cent).
“During the February-to-April period, close to 15 per cent of the employers were keen on hiring freshers, the sentiment seems to be not only intact, but has cemented further in the current half year. While the hiring sentiment is improving, we need to be cognisant of the employability of the freshers as well,” said Shantanu Rooj, Founder & CEO, TeamLease Edtech.
He further added that employers are more inclined to hire candidates with specialized skills and thus it is crucial for freshers to be fairly equipped. “Here is where the role of HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) comes in. HEIs must structure their programs in accordance with industry requirements for job roles to ensure candidates are employable,” said Rooj.
The report findings show that some of the key roles across sectors for which fresher hiring has been high, are health care assistants, sales trainee/associates, full stack developers, telemarketing and digital marketing specialists.
Neeti Sharma, President and Co-Founder, TeamLease EdTech, however, pointed out that in India, employability is a higher concern than employment.
“While on one side HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) need to look at a blended learning ecosystem. They should explore a learning model wherein there is a convergence of offsite and onsite learning as well as industry training that arms the candidates with the right skill sets. On the other hand, employers also need to re-look at their hiring and training strategy to skill the freshers. Incidentally, more employers are now using Hire-Train-Deploy (HTD) to on-board and train freshers. This is enabling them to create a stronger workforce for the future. Greater acceptance of HTD and similar models will equip our youngsters to take advantage of the growing opportunities,” added Sharma.
From a skill set point of view, employers are more keen to hire candidates who have in-depth skills and knowledge of data analytics, sales/customer services, data engineering, python programming, project management, artificial intelligence, digital marketing among other skills. The report also highlights the courses that freshers can take to improve their employability. Some of the most in demand courses, according to the study, are programming, mobile app development, AI and data science, cyber-security, research and management.