EngageMint 2023: Ronnie Screwvala on building India’s skilling capital from scratch, ET BrandEquity

avatar
by Anna Munhin May 22, 2023 News
EngageMint 2023: Ronnie Screwvala on building India’s skilling capital from scratch, ET BrandEquity
<p>Ronnie Screwvala</p>
Ronnie Screwvala
In the knowledge economy, the meaning of skilling and upskilling has evolved from its physical connotation, where it meant learning tools of the trade or strengthening core competencies. Today, upskilling means developing our abilities and rewiring our brains to solve the challenges of the modern work environment.

An industry conference that took place in Mumbai highlighted various perspectives on customer retention presented by industry leaders from marketing, product, growth and customer experience functions. Over 1500 people gathered at a conference to listen to over 50 industry leaders talk about trends and best practices.

In his keynote address, Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Chairperson, upGrad spoke about the journey of building India’s skilling giant from scratch and shared his insights and thoughts on the online learning market in India from multiple lenses. He shared that previously skilling was perceived as a tweak that would add more material aspects to one’s resume. However, with the job market changing every two to three years that attitude has reversed and hence the idea of skilling must be redefined. In Screwvala’s perspective, today organisations are not looking at where you’ve been taught as much as how you present yourself and handle the challenges of the workplace. “Five years back organisations would be looking for problem solvers. Now, they’re looking for people who can identify problems before they become problems.” Additionally, organisations are also much more keen to retain top talent. A decade ago, organisations would look at moving out the bottom ten percentile performers in their workforce. However, as attrition becomes commonplace, organisations are looking to identify and retain their top 50 percentile performers because training and development of new talent is costly.The idea of leadership has also transformed. “People don’t look at leadership ability only in the rungs of senior management. Today, if 5-10 people are reporting to you then you’re a leader,” remarked Screwvala. India has a talent pool that is in demand globally. By overtaking China in terms of population there’s an enormous opportunity to upskill the Indian workforce and reap the demographic dividend. There’s an opportunity for India to become a skilling capital because essentially technology has brought together the best minds and made them accessible. Screwvala predicted that the next 200 million jobs are not going to come from traditional sectors such as IT and BFSI. It is going to come from new sectors, entrepreneurial ventures and small and medium businesses. “The opportunity is there from a demographic standpoint but it is something that we all say. The question is how are we going to take advantage of it,” commented Screwvala. “We can’t do it like China because we’re a practising democracy so we will have to figure out a much more inclusive way.” Screwvala further said, “There’s a large consumer base in rural India where the aspirations of young people are equal to those of urban India. They’re the ones lacking opportunities.”

UpGrad was focused on workforce development from the beginning because of the huge market opportunity. The ed-tech category was helped to build acceptability and respectability by the Pandemic. Two-thirds of people who want to progress in their career don't have the option of taking a year off to study. They are stuck in a time warp because they can't find a job.

In a formal learning environment like school or college, you can’t afford to drop-out because it is a public affair. But online learning is lacking that kind of commitment because nobody knows if you’ve dropped out. So, upGrad tried to change the entire approach. It started building a community of learners and learning groups where people learn from each other and not just the professors, lecturers, or industry professionals. Next, it tried to make learning on the platform a more participative process, and not just about consuming content. Every time a learner dropped off a course, the company nudged them back on track via a guidance counsellor.

In the last seven years, I have come to realize that the future of online learning is going to be peer-to-Peer and not just content consumption. The 85% completion rate was achieved by putting these pillars in place.

By understanding the needs of consumers, educators, organisations and identifying learning trends, upGrad has been able to enrol over 10 million learners on its platform. “There’s a constant sense of change that has pervaded the business environment,” described Screwvala. “Many organisations don’t have the time and patience to train their workforce. The only way to break into the top percentile of the workforce is to take 360-degree ownership and accountability and have the perseverance to stick it out in tough times.”
I don’t think a CMTO role will exist: Martyn Riddle, Verint

The vice president-marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan, Verint, answers why it's important for organizations to break departmental silos to build consumer confidence He thinks that a role that combines the capabilities of a chief marketing and technology officer is less likely to exist.


The brand equity was published on May 22, 23, and 24.