SKILL GAP: KEY CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SECTOR

As per the Economic Survey 2017-18, the market size of the logistics sector is seen climbing to $215 billion by 2020, logging 10.5 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over 2017. According to another report issued by Team Lease, the logistics sector in India is likely to create 3 million new jobs over the next four years largely driven by GST implementation and significant investment in infrastructure. The seven sub-sectors -- road freight, rail freight, warehousing, waterways, air freight, packaging, and courier services -- are likely to result in 3 million new jobs, upping the employment numbers in the sector from 10.9 million at present to 13.9 million by 2022, the report further added. Indian logistics grapples with issues of unorganized transport, warehousing, logistics and packaging operations. It is also plagued with inadequate organizational skills, weak leadership qualities at the mid-tier and managerial levels. These reasons prevent Indian logistics from becoming a global leader. This is mainly due to lack of skills and education at the grass root level. The level of inefficiency in logistics has been very prevalent across all modes. The evolving business environment is creating a strong demand pull for quality and efficient logistics services. The core issues revolve around enabling infrastructure, regulatory environment and the fragmented nature of the industry needs fixing. The required pace of efficiency and quality improvement will demand rapid development of capabilities of logistics service providers. Skill gaps in any industry could arise from a combination of factors such as the gap between the addition of manpower than what is actually required, exit of manpower (attrition) being greater than the replacement and that recruitment not being in alignment with requirements. The key reason for insufficient addition of manpower in Logistics is due to poor image, challenging working conditions along with the rapidly evolving profile of freight forwarding services, which is growing at a faster pace than skill creation. The exit of manpower is a perceived lack of career trajectory, low investment in staff welfare and the demanding nature of the job. Logistics is considered to be not very “women-friendly”; a perception which is gradually changing but still persists. Moreover, improper recruitment also plays a role in curbing upskilling as job aspirants may find themselves in roles that are not in line with their aptitude and skillsets.