Need to diffuse industry and academia for greater employbility

New Delhi, June 7 (UNI) On the employbility issue of the graduates passing out from many colleges in the country, a panel of experts from all walks of life has called for greater diffusion between industry and academia in technology education to make them industry-ready from the first day of employment.

This was the subject of a panel discussion organised by the newly formed Exchange for Connecting Industry and Technology Education (EXCITE).

The panelists included senior industry professionals, academics and persons involved with the management of higher education.

It said the current boom in the services sectors has fueled requirements for talent in large numbers, adding that the academic institutions have also seen a change with increasing involvement of private sector in education and the traditional institutes also adapted to industry needs.

The EXCITE agenda, laid down by Prof Ranjan, who felt that with a typical non-questioning attitude fostered in traditional education format, the development of an entrepreneurial spirit is not fostered.

The academicians largely decried the lack of properly trained faculty with adequate exposure to the actual work environment and suggested that their faculty be accepted for special summer programmes by industry during which they would get an exposure to actual working environments and thereby become better equipped to prepare the students for the same.

Agreeing with this idea, TeleTech CEO Mohan Kulkarni said, ''If a formal structure for such exchange can be established, TeleTech will be willing to fund such a programme as it will help us as employers in the long run.'' Vikram Karayi of Xansa mentioned there would be a shortfall of five lakh engineers by 2010, as many graduates of the engineering colleges were unemployable, and expressed his concern on the engineer productivity.

Among the key recommendations, the need to set up a benchmark or standard - an independent audit mechanism acceptable to both industry and the academic setup was felt.

The panel suggested that the aim of this process should be to create a quality ranking system, which will help in the measuring of performance, in terms of the graduates produced by the institutes.

The forthcoming EduTech Expo 2007, to be held in New Delhi later this month, is being promoted by EXCITE as one such initiative to help young Indians leaving school to make a better informed choice about a career in technology and science.

Among the speakers from academia were Dr R K Verma, Director of Systems and Development at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Prof Ravindra Kumar, Head of the Faculty Development Institute of the Sharda Group of Institutions, Mr Rajesh Sahay, Founder Chairman of the Hierank Business School.

Industry too was well represented, by Mr Mohan Kulkarni, President and CEO, TeleTech Services, one of the largest BPO organisations in the country, Mr Ranjit Ratra, Head of APAC Business Development with Cisco Systems Inc, and Mr Vikram Karayi, Head of Human Resources for Xansa India.

Prof Ishan Ranjan, Head of Computer Science at IEC College of Engineering and Technology at Noida was the Panel Moderator.

UNI