"During 2006, recruitment activity in India was higher than in the UK, with many of the participating organizations recruiting over 5,000 employees, including both graduates and experienced hires," the KPMG report released in association with the UK-India Education and Research Initiative said.
Despite being a country with one of the world's largest labour pools, India is experiencing high competition and low supply versus less availability of appropriate skills as a serious constraint on the organisations, the report revealed.
The report titled 'Global Skills for Graduates in Financial Services' has been launched to encourage quality training within graduate professionals.
It found that financial services organisations in the UK and India, who operate on a global basis are increasingly using competency frameworks during their recruitment practices, which are tailored locally to reflect the market they are recruiting in.
"The recruitment of the right talent into the financial services industry is a big issue in cities like London and Mumbai. Our report shows that graduates gain theoretical knowledge, but lack practical job related skills," KPMG UK chairman (new and emerging markets)
There is a 'soft skills gap', which needs immediate attention. The findings of our report would be used to inform joint curriculum projects in the UK and India to help institutions address this issue, he added.
In 2005-06, financial services accounted for 9.7 per cent of India's GDP, which was 1.2 per cent more than the GDP of the UK.
Though the recruitments in the financial services space in India are higher than in the UK, the report indicates that 58 per cent of the Indian organisations experience difficulties in recruiting the right people with the right skills.
The main reason behind the lack of appropriate skill sets is that most Indian companies hire people directly for sales operations as opposed to the back-end work, where the chances of learning on the job skills are higher.
The recruitment pattern, therefore, calls for education institutions in India to improve their job related skills, it said.
The essential soft skills required by graduate employees joining global financial and business services in the UK and India include teamwork, communication, client relationship management, customer services, business awareness, problem solving and achievement orientation skills.
