The Banking, Finance Services, and Insurance (BFSI) industry have taken a quantum leap in transitioning to FinTech products and services. This includes an accelerated adoption to go digital and contactless owing to the pandemic and the consequent lockdown.
India’s digital payments swelled to 25.5 billion in real-time online transactions in 2020. Today, FinTech applications and services have captured a large unbanked population under the financial net and prompted the masses to transition digitally. India currently includes the highest number of FinTech adopters globally – 87% against the global average of 64%. With new businesses springing up and global investors pouring in, the market is estimated to grow to USD150 billion by 2023.
However, this rapid evolution has focused attention on the growing disparities between academic learnings and the real-time skills required today. This gap is projected to grow considering the increasing pace mismatch between industry and academia.
Research today shows only 2.5% of engineers in India possess artificial intelligence skills, while only 5.5% are qualified with basic programming abilities. These statistics project a bleak figure of only 1.5% of engineers in India being fit for new-age jobs. 63% of companies in India report a shortage of talented employees, mainly in IT, engineering services, and sales.
While the job market for engineering graduates with specific tech skills has exponentially grown, the current fresher falls short of key skill requisites in leading Indian tech enterprises and MNCs. Employers today are looking for fresh talent with knowledge beyond basic coding. The desire for domain-specific skills like Data Architecture, Analysis, AI, APIs, Full-Stack Development, and more are now primary. This is coupled with a focus on soft skills like communication, presentation, research, attention to detail, and business writing.
A few pedagogy head honchos have taken the onus to lead and create pathways to FinTech success by bridging the divide between industry and academia to address this gap.
Indian finance players like Axis Bank, HDFC Life, and Care Insurance are looking to leverage fresh tech talent to achieve great efficiency and scale in payments, operations, and interactions that lead to customer delight.
