Why corporate reskilling needs to move beyond training courses

Indian companies can spend thousands of rupees training employees in new skills and still struggle to find people ready to take on changing roles. The problem often surfaces after the training is over. Employees return to their usual responsibilities, managers have little room to let them apply what they have learnt, and the business continues to hire externally for skills it was trying to build internally. Reskilling only works when the organisation changes alongside the employee.

This will be part of the discussion at The Economic Times’ Future of Knowledge Work Summit 2026 in Mumbai on 25 November 2026.

The SHRM India Skill Intelligence Report 2026 found that 45% of organisations identified AI, digital and data skills as their biggest workforce constraint. Only 2.3% of India’s workforce receives formal skills training, according to the report. There’s also a mismatch between training formats and workplace needs, that is, nearly 60% of learning and development budgets go towards digital self-paced content and classroom instruction, while hands-on learning accounts for just 3%. For employers, the challenge is to connect training more closely with the work that employees are expected to do as role evolve.

When learning is disconnected from the job

A training programme can teach an employee how to use an AI tool. It cannot, by itself, determine which tasks should now be automated, how responsibilities should be redistributed or who will be accountable for the final decision. Those choices belong to the organisation.

India’s NIIT India Skills Gap Report 2026 highlights the gap between investment in learning and its reach. While 69% of organisations surveyed had increased learning and development spending per employee in the previous year, 62% said their learning programmes reached less than half their workforce.

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The study, conducted with YouGov, drew on 3,500 respondents across students, professionals, recruiters, business leaders, and academic representatives.

Employees also need opportunities to apply what they learn. If a worker completes training but remains in a role where the new skills are rarely used, the organisation gains little from the investment. The same applies when employees are expected to take on unfamiliar responsibilities without time, guidance or changes to their existing workload.

Making reskilling part of business planning

Reskilling becomes more effective when it is tied to decisions about how work will change. If AI reduces the time needed for routine analysis, for instance, a company must decide whether analysts will take on more complex work, move into different roles or develop new specialisations. Training can then be designed around a clear destination rather than a broad prediction about future skills.

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Companies that can prepare existing employees for emerging roles may reduce their reliance on external hiring while retaining knowledge of their customers, systems, and operations. Managers also need to recognise learning as part of work, rather than an additional responsibility employees must fit around their usual targets.

At the Future of Knowledge Work Summit 2026, the discussion will centre on how businesses can connect changing workflows with workforce development. The issue reaches beyond human resources, it affects how companies organise teams, plan talent needs, and maintain productivity as roles evolve.

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