Andhra Pradesh   

`Blend technical and soft skills'

A.D. Rangarajan

ExpertSpeak (Engineering)

The technical sessions proved to be the best part of the EAMCET career guidance programme organised by The Hindu Education Plus in Tirupati.

Experts laid stress on the need to improve communication skills, technical prowess in allied areas, teamwork etc., which are collectively referred to as soft skills.

Their message in their own words...

Prof. M.M. Naidu, HoD, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SVU College of Engineering.

Without knowledge of computers or Information Technology, no engineer can discharge his duties efficiently. As coding will be automated, domain knowledge, rather than software skills, will become increasingly important. NASSCOM has predicted that despite the churning out of thousands of software engineers every year, three lakh jobs will be still available by 2009.

As AICTE has now made it mandatory for every college to have its website and publish details of its courses, it is not a daunting task to find the college with the best attributes. Further, the AICTE has set up a National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to grade colleges.

Prof. N.C. Eswar Reddy, principal, SVU College of Engineering

As a professor of electronic and communications engineering, I feel that this branch is still No. 1 in the engineering stream, though computer sciences has an edge in the form of better placement. With the telecommunication industry growing by leaps and bounds, the electronics and communication engineering has an assured future. Further, as against the computer science student who learns only about software, an ECE student is exposed to the hardware part too.

I suggest the students to go for university colleges, where the infrastructure is extremely good.

The branch-wise priority anywhere is such that the circuit-based branches viz., ECE, CSE and EEE are preferred to the non circuit-based ones like mechanical, civil and chemical engineering. The job potential, as seen from our campus placements, is such that the ECE and CSE are much preferred, while chemical engineering is at the bottom of the list.

T. Srinivasulu Reddy, Director, Institute of Electronic Governance and Head, JKC

Our State has a large number of engineering colleges, but many lack facilities. It is to bridge this gap that the Department of Information Technology and Communications has set up Jawahar Knowledge Centres in engineering colleges across the State.

At the ratio of one teacher for five students, we have formed teams and introduced learning techniques like teaching sessions and group discussions. The basic idea is providing the right ambience for the students.

Prof. K. Kavikishore, HoD, Department of Biotechnology, Osmania University

The courses offered under this stream are biotechnology, bioinformatics and biomedical engineering, which have a great job potential.

Sadly enough, no university college in the State offers B.Tech Biotechnology course. Many colleges do not have an experienced and well-trained faculty. Also, college managements are reluctant to buy the software, that costs anything between Rs. 60 lakh and Rs. 1 crore, and their preference to continue with the free software available on the web, which is not wholesome in technical content.

Kancharla Ramaiah, correspondent, Prakasam Institute of Technology

As 92,000 engineering seats are available in the State, almost all students qualifying in EAMCET can get an admission. When admission into an engineering college as well as a nice job in the IT industry are almost assured, the wise option is to look for the best college that helps you hone your technical and soft skills. Most IT companies look for analytical skills in a prospective candidate and hence students from ECE and EEE streams are preferred.

I also appeal to parents to get involved in the exercise. Rather than merely paying the fee and assuming that the college management will take care of their wards the parents can play a really useful role in moulding their children into bright professionals. Paying a visit to their hostel every now and then not only helps as a morale-booster, but can also come as a timely intervention in preventing them from taking wrong steps, if any.

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