Divakara K. Udupa, E-mail: [email protected]
IT sector is grabbing headlines as new jobs are being created at a faster rate than any other sector and IT employees command comparatively a higher salary then their counterparts in other sectors. It has been growing annually at the rate of around 50 percent. There has been tremendous growth internally as well as in the IT services export segment. We will discuss the education, skill levels, and opportunities in different segments in IT sector.
There are about 500 million desktops and laptops all over the world with a sale of 140 million units last year. In the US, 64 percent of homes have PCs. To guess the opportunities in the PC areas such as sales, repairs, and services including education, compare these numbers with our less than 3 percent PC users and an installed base of around five million PC units. As per late Dewang Mehta, the ex-President of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the reduction of duty on PC components to zero and bringing the PC prices to less than Rs.10,000 will create an annual market of five million PCs. The general consensus figure for the PC penetration in 10 years is about 30 percent.
In the IT area, data entry work requires the lowest skill level. For these jobs, one needs to type fast and correctly. These jobs pay the lowest in IT related fields. As the use of computer increases in different sectors, more and more data entry people will be required. However, our work environment is not going to be computerised as much as in the developed nations.
The next higher skill level is required for sales and services. This is similar to TV sales and services. Diploma holders and graduates with some training can fill a good amount of these job slots. These areas will continuously witness enormous number of new jobs being created.
As per the NASSCOM report of January 2001, in India the Internet subscribers and users witnessed a 100 percent growth last year compared to the pervious year’s numbers of 0.9 million subscribers and 2.8 million users. By 2003, these numbers are expected to balloon to 15 million subscribers and 50 million users. The Internet users are expected to be 25 percent in about ten years when the PC penetration is expected to reach around 30 percent.
Increased Internet usage will further open the gate of opportunities for the Internet browsing centers. They will be mushrooming just like the telephone booths providing plenty of jobs. The skill level for owning and manning these Internet browsing centers are slightly above the skill level required for telephone booths.
At present, the Internet usage rates are quite high and it should fall below five rupees for some meaningful e-commerce. The increased penetration of the Internet can make some e-commerce companies (with good fundamentals) prosper. The jobs in the e-commerce are in sales, creating web sites, e-commerce support and programming in Java, XML and so on. Creating web sites and graphics related jobs require people with the artistic bent of mind. Till the e-commerce takes off in a big way, the job increases are not going to be much. For these jobs, the skill and education levels have to be more than the personnel for repairs and service.
Media and entertainment industry are going through revolutionary changes. The companies in these areas need to have a global perspective. Here, the employees require very good language and communication skills. IT related technologies are also impacting the way content is delivered to customers. Also, gradually, customers will have the option of delivery of content of newspapers, books, music, movies, and so on, directly via the Internet and other advanced means. How we live up to the changes and challenges of a global economy will determine the job opportunities that will be created.
There are plenty of opportunities in IT education. As a matter of fact, there is a shortage of IT teachers at all levels. This will be pronounced as the popularity of IT increases. The IT teaching opportunities range from training students in basic popular software packages such as Microsoft Office to teaching programming in C, C++, Java, XML and so on. These teachers require different education levels from academically good graduates to postgraduates. In IT industry, though there is a preference for math, science, computer science and engineering graduates, there are good teachers and programmers from other educational backgrounds such as arts too.
As per Goldman Sachs (a leading international securities firm) report, our share of export of IT services was 1.2 percent of the world market in 1999. Within next three years, revenue from export of IT services is expected to be around $30 billion out of a $585 billion worldwide market. It comes to around 5 percent. As per NASSCOM report, software exports reached $6.2 billion during 2000-2001 and it estimates that IT industry will be $50 billion by 2008.
Despite the WB warning, we will achieve the $30 billion figure within the next five years. Let us be clear that major US high tech companies are going to turnaround. The only debating point is whether it is going to take more than a year. Notice that there are many vested interests and the affected people are in large numbers. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, does not have much time to twiddle around with interest rates.
In the IT export services segment, jobs will be in call centers, technical support services, system integration, programming, consultancy services (providing on site services), etc. Personnel in call centers and technical support services need to have a global perspective and have good English speaking and writing skills. They may have to support customers from all over the world.
The highest skill levels are required for the challenging jobs of system integration, programming and consultancy services. The employees in these areas need to be at least graduates with aptitude in programming and good communication skills. They should be willing to work long hours under very tight delivery schedules. Work pressures in these jobs are tremendous. These personnel are highly sought and highly paid. This is the right area for our engineering and other IT related course graduates.
Those companies, which do not have much computer and computer networking skills, outsource the installation and training of personnel for data centers on a turnkey basis to outside companies. Also some large corporations, scrambling to cut costs and reduce staff, outsource the data center management to system integration related IT companies
When nobody was willing to listen about system integration, Ross Perrot, with almost nothing but a vision, started Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962. He turned EDS into a powerhouse in the system integration area. Currently, it has a revenue of $19.2 billion with 120000 employees. IBM is another classical example. From nowhere, within a decade, IBM has emerged as a major player in the system integration area. When there is a downturn in any economy, the system integration presents enormous opportunities. Our IT companies need to diversify into system integration market. There are plenty of opportunities internally as well as externally.
The US high tech sector, our primary export market, is going through major hiccups. They are already affecting some of our IT giants. This will naturally force them to explore markets in other nations and diversify into areas such as system integration. Due to internal growth and steady computerization of our companies and government sectors, we will witness a growth rate of around 40 percent (a very pessimistic number) this year too. From every number, it is certain that within next ten years, the number of people employed in our IT sector will be at least thrice the current number.
Computers cannot solve all problems in the world, but they will certainly improve the quality of life.
EXCEL (The New Indian Express Technology and Job Supplement with editorial revisions), October 1, 2001.