Millennials are up-skilling! Why is X-gen still hesitant?

India’s total IT workforce spans approximately to 30 lakh with mid-level managers amounting to 15% at tier-1 companies. Recent studies state that cutting of employees in the top-tier companies has augmented due to the lack of the desired skill-set among the experienced employees. The Simplilearn Customer Insight Survey recently reported that a negligible percentage of IT workers in the age brackets 30–55 received an increment in 2017 indicating the gap between industry requirements and the employee’s lack of new-age skills.

On the other hand, Millennials are consistently up-skilling to stay relevant and employable. In Hay’s survey, it was found that 5% said “upskilling leads to a salary hike while 54% believed it will bring financial benefits on a long-term basis,” whereas only 56% of Gen X and 40% of Baby Boomers were open for a transition and career-shifts.

Regardless of the statistics, it is in the need of the hour to take a personal initiative for a career-shift to stay relevant in the rapid workspace developments. Organizations developed a keen interest in training facilities and building in-house talent rather than external hiring. Given the increasing importance given for the demonstrable new-age skills, the mid-level managers are threatened with their job security. Leveraging past experiences to get to a new place by reskilling in your career can open up wide avenues.

A Harvard Business School professor Howard H. Stevenson indicated that “There’s a difference between 20 years of experience, and one year of experience 20 times,” and further added, “People do the same thing and they don’t grow. They don’t face new challenges.”

Institute of Product Leadership

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Founded in 2012, the Institute of Product Leadership is India's first B-School for technology managers, focusing exclusively on Product Leadership with the aim

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