Digital India to create job opportunities: Experts

BENGALURU: With the mushrooming of engineering colleges across the country following the IT boom, a large number of seats were up for grabs and were vacant after the Common Entrance Test (CET) 2019. With unemployment hitting a staggering high of 7.45% in November because of economic slowdown, a large number of graduates and even engineers had applied for Group D jobs in states like Bihar, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Industry experts, however, are optimistic that the Indian governments' push for Digital India will boost employment opportunities in the country.

Dr Raj Padhiyar, founder of Digital Gurukul, said that with more than 15% of India's population already using the internet in various types and sizes of devices, it is imperative that growth and consumption of content, ecommerce etc. is going to be huge.

“There are big career opportunities in the digital marketing industry! Most of the companies are still thinking of adopting this strategy and there are top brands that have already invested heavily in digital media. Industries, SMEs and start-ups have already doubled their digital budgets and it is only going to increase in future," he said.

Skill gap is one of the primary reasons for the slump in employment which is the result of outdated curriculum in colleges and universities.

“In the current age, where technologies, platforms, ideas, innovations etc. do not last for more than 4-5 years, the course structure and content of most educational institutions remains unchanged for years. Initiatives such as digital skill council that will embrace the ‘National Qualification Frameworks’ in their curriculum are some of the measures that will ensure skill assessments and employability,” Mr Padhiyar said.

He said that the employability rate of graduates has come down because of the wide gap between course curriculum and industry-specific skills, and digital marketing will bridge that gap.

To stay relevant and grow in the industry, engineering graduates look forward to pursuing MBA. Mr Padhiyar said that though most MBA graduates have great command over theory, they somehow lack in practical application of the same.

“Digital Marketing course doesn’t require any specific educational qualifications and it equips you with industry specific skills unlike an MBA. However, MBA or not, digital marketing is a must learn skill!” he added.