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Kauffman Foundation Report Reveals the Secret of India's Success in Global R&D: Advancing Workforce Development
Thursday July 24, 12:31 AM
Despite low science and engineering student graduation rates, and widely varying education quality, India rapidly is becoming a global R&D hub, with a momentum and on a scale akin to what it accomplished in information technology services. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released a study today that shows that India's private sector has overcome its education system's deficiencies by adapting and perfecting the best practices of Western companies and integrating them through innovative workforce training and development programs. The study asks whether it is time for the United States to learn from the experiences of its former disciple, India.
According to How the Disciple Became the Guru, http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=1118, conducted by Duke University's global engineering and entrepreneurship project team, Indian senior corporate executives have implemented company-wide workforce development initiatives that have dramatically improved productivity and performance. They have, in essence, developed a surrogate education system by helping to create, for a variety of industries, skilled labor pools capable of handling very complex work.
The study has broad implications for the United States, long the world's workforce development guru.
"To maintain its global competitive edge, the United States should perhaps learn from India," said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation." America needs to couple its education system--among the best in the world--with an investment in upgrading workforce skills. In a global economy, this approach is critical to remaining innovative and competitive over the long term."
The paper details the best practices of 24 companies in emerging sectors in India that have managed to grow rapidly despite skills shortfalls and talent shortages. These companies have created comprehensive and integrated systems of talent development and management that combine recruitment, training and development, performance management and employee-engagement initiatives. Indian competencies in technology have helped them not only to develop systems by which to deliver online learning, but also to conduct skills forecasting; track and analyze recruitment and attrition data; conduct online performance reviews; communicate with employees; and share knowledge. Indian companies are also finding innovative ways to collaborate with educational institutions to develop necessary talent pools for the country.
"Because they are investing in, cultivating and empowering their employees, Indian companies can hire bright but largely inexperienced talent and train them to be world-class engineers and scientists," said Vivek Wadhwa, executive-in-residence for the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, and the study's lead author. "India is proving what a nation can achieve when it invests in upgrading the skills of its workforce."
The Harvard International Review will spotlight the report in its October 2008 journal and has posted a synopsis of the study at http://www.harvardir.org/articles/1752/.
About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and has more than $2.4 billion in assets.
Contact:
Kauffman Foundation Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288 bpruitt@kauffman.org or Communication Partners Tom Phillips, 212-935-4655 comptwp@aol.com
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