India's Architects of the Upskilling Revolution Finally Get a Platform to Boost Skills of IT Employees

/ -- As the IT upskilling revolution gathers steam, the chief architects of training programs & organizational development at multinational organizations - the Learning & Development (L&D) professionals - are flocking to Connect L&D, a dedicated research platform established by SpringPeople, exclusively for L&D leaders & professionals.

India's 20,000 strong L&D community form the backbone of employee learning & development at companies, directly responsible for upskilling the IT workforce of about 4 million with estimated spends of $5 billion.

According to a recent study, 94% of Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) surveyed in India were of the opinion that there is a critical need for Indians to up-skill continuously to keep up with the changing technological landscape. But while the responsibility of upskilling employees & organizational development (OD) in an organization lies with its L&D professionals, there is a shortage of initiatives like Connect L&D catering to their needs. Moreover, with the demand for skills training programs in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, IoT & other emerging technologies at an all-time high, there is an urgent need for a common pan-India platform for such professionals to collaborate & design more effective training programs.

SpringPeople's Connect L&D is a not-for-profit initiative that aims to bring together L&D leaders from the industry on a common platform and provide them an opportunity to network, share knowledge, opinions, educate themselves and get a holistic view of challenges & opportunities. This would enable them to drive their organization's upskilling in a more effective way. Launched in December last year, Connect L&D has seen participation from over 5,200+ L&D professionals responsible for employee training at big brands including Flipkart, Walmart, IBM, Wipro, Infosys, Samsung, to name a few. Users can attend free conclaves, seminars, and webinars, get access to knowledge bank and a platform to interact, network and share thoughts.

Commenting at the latest Connect L&D event in September, Alka Rai, L&D Head at Flipkart, said, "When I was a young L&D professional a few decades ago, I found it hard to reach out to any other L&D professional or have immediate access to information. Today, with an initiative like Connect L&D, all the information L&D professionals need to drive learning in their organization, are at the tip of their fingertips. Forums like this are essential for us to update our workforce intelligently."
Himanshu Agarwal, Associate Director L&D, JDA Software, added: "I think very rarely does it so happen that an L&D conference at this scale ever goes so specific into a single topic, so I think that is great."
Speaking on the benefits of an initiative like Connect L&D, Arun Panayappan, L&D expert for Machine Learning, said, "Connect sessions like this are going to enable L&D professionals to connect with each other and learn best practices from each other. It will also help us to take our workforce to the next level."
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