Gaming industry boom is helping build skilled talent workforce

The sector is expected to grow by a further 20%-30% and add 100,000 direct and indirect jobs by FY23 in areas like game development and engineering, according to a report by TeamLease Digital.

This means the industry is working overtime – by setting up their own academies and partnering with the government and academia – to ensure it has a steady supply of trained talent.

Lakshya Digital, among India’s oldest game design studios, is working to independently set up training academies as well initiating pilot projects with the National Skills Development Council, its chief executive Manvendra Shukul said.
“We are working to set up ‘train the trainer’ academies which will help us reach a larger set of people,” he said.

Lakshya is also in talks with several universities to embed some of the skills needed into their curriculum so that graduating students need minimal additional training before they can start working.

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The shortage of skills is a problem for the global gaming industry, which needs about 70,000 engineers globally.

Creating trained talent, he said, is important to attract more global game development studios to India.

The opportunity to earn a living from gaming has expanded multi-fold in recent years, said Rajan Navani, chairman, JetSynthesys, a gaming and digital entertainment firm.

“Apart from the work that goes into creating the game, the growth of e-sports has opened up opportunities in areas like infrastructure development and maintenance, as well as on the development side, which weren’t present a few years ago,” Navani said.

At present, most companies have their own programmes to train and upskill their employees. Lakshya has been running its training academy for about a decade now.

“Talent is in high demand in this sector at present and there is an opportunity to train and skill more people,” said Navani.

As per the TeamLease report, the sector will employ about 200,000 people by FY24.

There are between 50,000 and 80,000 job roles for developers, programmers, testers/artists and customer support, it said.

“With a 480 million strong gaming community, India is second largest globally after China. To address this growth, employment in the sector is going to significantly increase. Today, we have a 90% Millennial and Gen-Z workforce, and the majority of these professionals are aspiring to work in emerging sectors like gaming,” said Munira Loliwala, business head-specialized staffing, TeamLease Digital.