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Education Plus
For work readiness
It is a known fact that out of four lakh graduates coming out of engineering colleges, merely a lakh are employable, given the lack of industry experience among them. The situation is no different in other fields of employment as students coming out of colleges need at least a year to ‘produce’ something for the employer and the economy.
Realising the large gap between supply and demand, many companies, including those in Information Technology, have opened ‘finishing schools’ to polish the academic experience and make students employable. One such international initiative has been Junior Achievement (JA), founded in 1919 in the U.S. JA’s core ideology is “to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy,” according to its President and Chief Executive Officer Sean C. Rush. JA prepares the young for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it.
Abysmally low
“Students have limited knowledge of the world and have no connection to reality,” says Venkat Matoory, Executive Director, Junior Achievement (JA), India. Today, companies need engineers who are industry ready and productive from the start. Although they hire engineers from top institutes, companies spend huge amounts on training programmes such as technology skills, soft skills and engineering processes. The rate of skilled engineers is abysmally low despite being highly educated and with high IQ levels. The current educational system faces lack of proficiency in communicative skills, lack of quality teachers and curriculum, under-developed analytical and logical skills and shortage of resources.
JA, a not-for-profit organisation, has a dedicated volunteer network that provides in-school and after-school educational programmes focussing on entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy.
Working with many corporates that fund this group, JA has numerous branches all over the world in order to help students understand the work environment as well as adapt to it. It is present in five cities in India including Bangalore. It has different courses for different age groups. So far, JA India has trained over 20,000 students in nearly 50 institutions in these five cities.
Tie-ups
With this background, JA India recently announced a tie-up with Bangalore-based EMC India Centre of Excellence to overcome skill gaps between the Indian IT industry and fresh graduates. EMC has already tied up with 75 educational institutions and over 3,000 students in India are undergoing storage technology training.
Sarv Saravanam, Vice-President and Managing Director, EMC India CoE, said the joint programme will focus on Tier II and Tier III engineering colleges as students in these institutions are in need of proper training. As of now, four colleges in Bangalore have been identified to impart classroom training and many, including those in other cities and towns of Karnataka, will be included soon.
Mr. Rush said, “We are excited about the relationship with EMC India CoE. It has come at the most opportune time given the strategic global presence of the Indian IT industry and the need for skilled workforce for maintaining the competitive advantage.” The partnership involves EMC India CoE volunteers engaging with students to enhance their operating-level understanding of the Indian economy and business, with the software industry in specific focus.
The beauty of these programmes, including JA’s, is that neither the students nor the colleges need to pay any fee to get trained. All the expenses are borne by corporate houses, which are keen on strengthening the economy, Mr. Rush noted.
M.N. SWETHA
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