Notwithstanding the fact that the Indian telecommunications industry has attained a new dynamism, in terms of size and nature since the 1994 deregulation, specialized education and training for professionals working in the industry or trying to begin a career in telecom has not really taken off. One reason for this could be that it is not really easy to start and run a specialized telecom educational institution. Moreover, while no one can doubt the potential, the business of specialized education or training in telecom is not considered lucrative enough. This is because while the working professionals have been too busy to spare time for training, telecom has not attracted engineers or MBAs, as IT, finance or management consultancy did some time back. And all this despite the fact that the Indian telecom industry surely needs thousands of new telecom professionals. Moreover, those already working in the industry will need to train themselves in the new technology, business and policy areas. Education and training in all aspects of technology, business and policy is needed to attain "the right mix of knowledge necessary to survive in a highly competitive environment," stresses a senior telecom professional with years of national and global experience.

What kind of training does a telecom professional needs today? The first important thing that a professional should realize is that education in technology is just not enough. He or she also needs to understand the regulatory, policy and business management aspects of telecom. This is required to give him the confidence to take things forward. Once a professional goes through the basic training in these areas, he will be in a position to develop himself further, update constantly, and then benchmark against the global standards.

In a country like India, which has a track record of often messing up with policies, an understanding of policy issues is a must. Lack of knowledge and understanding on policy matters and regulations can kill even the best of business plans. This is a significant issue, especially in view of the fact that there have been instances where operators in India have come out with, for example, tariff plans that did not meet regulatory obligations and hence had to be shelved. Moreover, even though many would blame the government or even the regulator for the tens of litigation that dog the industry, it is also true that many of the legal issues have germinated out of a lack of awareness and understanding on the part of operators.

Another important thing is that, as of today, different service provider segments have different kind of needs. For instance, as basic operators begin to roll out their services, professionals in this sector will need an orientation in telecom technologies and business. Marketing will be a highly sought after skill in basic services. On the other hand, as the cellular services business enters the growth phase, professionals here will need to arm themselves with skills that can fuel growth in their work areas.

As operators begin to roll out new services and operations, telecom is certainly going to be one of the major sources of employment in coming years. While in the early years of deregulation most operators were content with people hired from other industries, it is most likely that as the Indian telecom market matures, operators will be more inclined to take professionals with some kind of specialized education or training in telecommunications

Ravi Shekhar Pandey