India has slipped two positions from rank 51 to 53 in the global survey released by IMD Business School Switzerland while Switzerland remained at the number one position. The fifth edition of the IMD World Talent Ranking 2018 ranked countries based on three factors - workplace training, education, and language skills.

The rankings are based on three factors: Investment and Development, Appeal, and Readiness. These factors include indicators that capture the resources invested in developing local talent, the extent to which a country attracts and retains talent, and the quality of skills available in the talent pool.

 While Switzerland has been at the number one position for the last five consecutive years,  Denmark, Norway, Austria, and the Netherlands were ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. Canada (6th), Finland (7th), Sweden (8th), Luxembourg (9th), and Germany (10th) complete the top 10.

The complete list is as follows-

                    Image Credits: IMD

Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, IMD Business School stated, “Economies placed in the top-10 of the ranking generally share high levels of investments in public education and a high quality of life, which allow them both to develop local human capital and to attract highly-skilled professionals from abroad.”

Interestingly, Canada is the only non-European nation in top-10. 

Meanwhile, in Asia, Singapore led the front and was placed 13th globally in terms of attracting and retaining talent. Hong Kong SAR ranked 18th while Malaysia ranked 22nd in terms of talent competitiveness. Compared to last year, Singapore keeps the same position in the ranking, Hong Kong SAR declines by six places and Malaysia moves up by the same number. The two city-states continue to excel in appealing professionals from abroad to sustain their top-tier talent pool, but lag behind in terms of public investment in education. On the other hand, Malaysia’s progress in the ranking is rooted in investments in education to develop its homegrown skilled workforce, in addition to improved perceptions of the quality of the talent pool available in the country.

Similarly, Indonesia advanced by two places to come at 45th rank following improvements in several indicators related to investment in education while the Philippines dropped ten places to 55th  due to a marked deterioration in every criterion related to the business community’s perceptions of the quality of education as well as a decline in labor force quality.

When it comes to India, as per the report, the factors that led to its decline include the lack of the quality of the educational system and lack of investments in public education, lack of high quality of life, and lack of measures in cultivating a skilled and educated workforce.

The report stated, “On one hand, the country performs above the average in terms of the quality of its talent pool (Readiness factor, 30th position). On the other, the quality of its educational system and the lack of investments in public education heavily penalize the talent potential of the country (Investment and Development factor, 63rd).”

This clearly shows that while India is doing well in terms of quality of its talent pool, however the lack of quality education is still a major factor pulling us back.