BetterPlace launches SkillConnect – A Digital Bridge for Blue Collar Skilling to Meet Demands of the Industry 

BetterPlace, India’s leading technology platform for Blue Collar workforce launched SkillConnect, a digital platform on 30th August in an one-day event in Delhi. Shri. Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) unveiled the platform to the top industry leaders and conveyed the importance of hiring skilled workforce. On the day of launch, SkillConnect indicated availability of more than 20 lakh jobs for the blue-collar workforce.

SkillConnect, a digital platform bridges the gap between demand and supply for blue collars skilled workforce, by addressing the problem in a holistic manner from industry demand aggregation to sourcing, training, certification and placement, based on industry specific future demand.

Highlights

• SkillConnect launches with more than 20 lakh jobs to be filled in the next 6 months
• Backed by Machine Learning, SkillConnect forecasts 2 crore jobs creation in the next 12 months
• BetterPlace aims to on-board one lakh employers in the next 18 months
• SkillConnect is in line with PM’s vision of making India skilling hub of the World

Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder & CEO, BetterPlace said, “We are seeing that employers are facing a severe shortage of skilled manpower, especially in the high growth sectors like logistics, facility management, security services, On-demand services, schools, etc. Meanwhile, the training institutes are looking for opportunities to place their trained & certified candidates. SkillConnect would be digital bridge to help connect the 2 sides. We are already seeing a demand for 20 Lakh candidates in the next 12 months based on current hiring trends of our customers. The total demand would be more than 2 Crore in the next 12 months.” The Company aims to on board one-lakh employers over the next 18 months, he adds.

Adding to this, T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education said, “Indian consumers today demand a world class service, and for industry to deliver that kind of service, there is an un-fulfilled need for a highly skilled workforce to meet the customer’s expectations, be more productive and to be real-life ambassadors of the brand”.

SkillConnect will work as a digital bridge to address the gap between demand and supply of blue-collar jobs pan India. Currently, the training institutes are skilling the candidates based on a fixed curriculum and then they start looking for a job matching with their skills. This doesn’t result in high employment as the industry demand is constantly evolving. Thus, the idea of SkillConnect is to make the platform demand driven so that the training institutes already know the job roles available in the market in a quantifiable manner and train the manpower accordingly.

A digital platform to move 20 million skilled rural youth, into India’s formal economy, in a friction-less manner. We have been looking for technology focused solution to address the challenges of getting reliable data that reflects the demand specifics, so that we can enhance placements by aligning our efforts with the demands of the industry. SkillConnect will help us by aggregating demand based on current hiring trends and future projections provide by employers”, said Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC

Highlighting the challenges of both demand and supply side, Saurabh Tandon, Co-founder & COO, BetterPlace said, “On the demand-side for blue collars workforce, besides the shortage of skilled candidates, there are sourcing challenges because the supply consists of ~75% migratory population, mainly coming through an un-organized ecosystem. Technology adoption can give dividends in terms of transparency and cost saving”.

Top employers in verticals like facility management, delivery and logistics, QSR, cab hailing, attended the launch event and have thrown their weight behind the initiative.

“As an industry, the facility management space is currently growing at 15% annually, and the attrition rates are very high especially at the front-line level. Our industry will need more than 10 Lakh people in the next 1 year. Getting trained and ready-to-be-deployed-workforce via an aggregation platform like SkillConnect would be a significant catalyst,” said Sandeep Sethi, MD IFM, JLL, a market leader in the Integrated Facility Management space in the country managing more than 450 million SFT facility space.

“Getting access to growth companies in the industry from across the country will be very beneficial for our Training Partners in expanding their geographic reach from remote corners. Aggregated demand data of future hiring trends will help us address the needs of the industry better in supplying trained workforce as the trends are fast changing” says Col. Anil Kumar Pokhriyal, CEO at MEPSC (Management & Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Council), the industry body responsible for skilling private security guards, in addition to many other roles.

“Apart from the benefits of demand aggregation we are very excited to explore how the platform can enable us to enhance soft skills of our students, a skill highly critical for any successful employee. This can even be extended to our trainers to ensure they impart a more holistic education. The flexibility this platform provides through virtual usage will enhance the reach and assimilation tremendously.” says Navanit Samaiyar,  CEO of ASTP (Association of Skill Training Providers), whose members together skill more than 15Lakh youth per annum, across various schemes like PMKVY, DDUGKY, NULM (Central & State Skill Missions), etc.

BetterPlace, started in 2015, by Pravin Agarwala and Saurabh Tandon, has been working tirelessly to accelerate blue-collar workforce movement from unorganized to a formal economy with an aim to provide them with a better quality of life and a clear career progression path. The launch of SkillConnect is the first of many steps in realizing that vision.