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More on techies: Just 4/100 grads job-worthy. That's IT

Recruiters say quality of education is pathetic, skill set below par.

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It’s a long road ahead for India if it wants to be the next Silicon Valley of the world or produce the next Google. Numbers show that only 4% youth in the country are employable in the IT product industry. Given the nature of the industry, wherein there is a new technology every year, the skill gap is even more stark.

“There is major skill gap across all industries. However, the gap is more pronounced for companies who are in the IT product space. The fresh graduates do not have specific skills required for the job, while they might be super good in communication and basic skills,” says Lovleen Bhatia, co-founder and director, Edureka, which provides online courses.

Subjects like analytics, mobility, big data, digital marketing, which are not part of any curriculum, are needed to be relevant in the product industry. Colleges say it is practically impossible to keep pace with the industry in terms of changing technology.

“Technology changes every six months. We can’t change our curriculum this often. It is easy for the industry to say that graduates are not employable. But, how many companies are making real effort to bridge the skill gap!” says BS Satyanarayana, principal, RV College of Engineering. The industry, however, refutes these charges.

“The issue is not so much about curriculum, as much as it is about the quality of teaching. Barring the top engineering colleges in the country, there is a serious crisis. There are no teachers, no basic infrastructure at place etc. One needs to address these issues first,” says Bhuvaneswar Naik, vice-president, HR, SAP India.

There is a shortage of talent as far as hot skills like cloud and big data are concerned.

“Even at the mid-management level, it is difficult to replace an employee having these skills,” rues Naik.

Experts opine that adequate efforts need to be made from both academia as well as industry to address the issue.

“Both academia and industry need to dive deep to tackle the issue well. While academia needs to make internship for students compulsory for at least six-seven months, companies should also be willing to train or upscale skills of these students,” says Aravind Sankaran, director, Marlabs.
Some companies are partnering with colleges to bridge the gap.

“We have partnership with 30 colleges across the country. We reach out to these colleges on a regular basis, keep them abreast about new technologies in the market, sometimes we provide training within the college campus,” says Chetan Mahajan, head of HCL Learning.

National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) holds Power to Empower competition in association with TiE, which aims to encourage students and entrepreneurs to be part of the large business opportunity in the skills development arena. The competition is focused on encouraging innovative and practical business solutions that contribute to a sustainable vocational skills ecosystem in India.

“We have partnered with Nasscom to address the current challenge. We also hold regular tech sessions wherein we invite engineering students and give them an idea about the latest technology,” says Naik.

Stats speak

Approximately, 53% of employers in India say that skills deficiency is one of the key reasons for entry-level vacancies (McKinsey)

Currently, of the 1.5 crore individuals who enter the workforce, only 3% undergo vocational training due to limited access to such training opportunities in a fast growing economy

It is three times harder (in cost and effort) to identify an employable graduate from a tier-2 campus as compared with a tier-1 campus for a product company.

What’s going wrong?

Subjects that are not part of the taught curriculum in colleges need relevant attention in the product industry

Technologies are changing every six months, according to BS Satyanarayana, principal, RV College of Engineering

Institutions lack basic infrastructure, teachers to impart learning, rendering graduates unemployable

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