With the government’s aim to provide “housing for all” across the nation by the end of 2020, it is crucial to seriously work towards improving the work skills of the people dealing in the real estate sector of India. With the steady growth of urbanisation, lack of skilled labour is becoming an alarming issue. This particular sector has a substantial potential when it comes to catering to the needs of jobs for generations together. But the real problem with the real estate sector of the country is that it entirely depends on the age old practices that are predominant for decades. As a result, there is an inadequacy of skilled workforce which is proficient in handling modern types of equipment in this sector. But the pressing question here is that whether the age old practices in the real estate sector will be able to fuel its aggressive development?
What is the solution?
In case you couldn’t guess the answer to the above question, then it is definitely a big no. It is very important to train the workers for being professional and competitive. They should be able to garner the required skills for being more productive. According to the estimates of various reliable sources, our country is supposed to develop by 600 million by the next ten years. This indicates that there is a valid opportunity for growth in the real estate sector. The areas which were never thought of offering shelter to people, is now mushrooming quite fast and this is leaving a lack of time to upgrade the manpower. The strain of constructing new homes for people is growing every hour.
As per the reports of the experts, the only foolproof way of improving the real estate sector of the country lies in bridging the gap between the demand and supply of skilled workforce. For the real estate sector to become an improved and sustainable industry, the skills and abilities of the workforce must be taken into consideration.
Understanding the present lacunae of the real estate sector
The lion share of the individuals that work in the real estate sector at present is under trained. There is an inevitable lack of proper institution which can train the workers from the lower strata to get the optimum training for thriving in this sector. Lack of knowledge and expertise on the modern equipment used in the construction area is definitely an issue. This causes a reduction in the production levels along with delays in construction, thus bringing down the overall effectiveness of the real estate sector. Also, the cost of human resources is also rising and leading to reduced profitability. In the present scenario, the construction sector requires around 5 million skilled employees but this demand is nowhere close to being fulfilled.
So what is the way to boost the skills for the real estate sector of the country? The government of India has come with different schemes to fulfil the rising demand of skilled labour. Its objective is to allow the various companies to hire the suitable apprentices, training them as per requirements and making them suitable for the post. The most commendable part of this venture is that there are no legal liabilities involved and all the trainees are managed according to the framework and protocol of the scheme. The increasing demand for the real estate sector has led to a whopping requirement of manpower in this area. The workforce demand can be classified into 3 major segments which is specialized worker, core worker and non-core worker.
Under the sector of specialised worker, the professionals needed include valuers, facility managers, quantity surveyors and finally, sustainable development experts. On the other hand, the core professionals include architects, engineers and planners. Lastly, the non-core workers are those that work various streams such as electrical engineers, lawyers, management employees, business administrators, finance analysts and chartered accountants. The supply of core as well as non-core workers remain very low when compared to the rising demand. At present, the shortfall is thought to be around 4 million.
Creating sustainable development through training
As already pointed out earlier, the real estate sector in the country is quite unorganised for many decades. The skills, knowledge and talent that are available in the sector is not generally acquired through any formal training but through practical experience of the individual professionals. This is an undesired situation as the limitation of knowledge is not adequate for the dynamic requirements and goals of the real estate sector. Thus, formal training from both public and private sector is very important to achieve the goals at different levels. With the availability of formal skills development, the workers will be exposed to a broader horizon of knowledge and they will be able to better adapt to the changing status of the real estate industry.
According to the real estate experts, the skill development will definitely pave the way for superior quality products and services with standardised operating procedures that can make the entire industry an effective one while enhancing the value of the services offered to the end consumers.
The availability of skill development will also contribute to the improvement of the employment scenario of the nation. With a boost in the various focused skills of the employees, there could be a huge pool of talented workforce for the talent-specific jobs. This, in turn, could lead to the creation of specialists and provide improved quality and efficient timeline for the delivery of different products and services to the consumers. The industry will then be automatically directed towards creating a better status. Experts are of opinion that it will benefit individuals from each strata, from investors to developers to buyers.
To sum up, the real estate industry of the country together with the ancillary industries such as construction and infrastructure is developing multiple times. With the availability of training and skill development, it will become possible to reform the sector and boost the real estate sector to a considerable extent.
