CII, University of Madras to enhance job prospects for students

Chennai, June 13 (UNI) The confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the University of Madras have come together with the aim to enhance the employment opportunities for students.

Speaking at the launch of the University-CII-Industry Consortium on Knowledge Partnership for Employability, Vice-Chancellor S Ramachandran said the partnership would help to bridge the critical divide between industry requirements and the availability of soft skills among students.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed yesterday by S Ramachandran and R Santhanam, Chairman, Task Force on Skills, Employability and Affirmative Action, CII Southern Region, and managing director, Saint Gobain Glass India Ltd.

The university had implemented a slew of measures, including making spoken English, a mandatory module in the university curriculum and to enhance the employability of students, Mr Ramachandran added.

The consortium would have Vice-Chancellor as chairperson and representatives from firms, including Satyam Computers, TCS, Cognizant, Scope International and Sutherland Global Services.

''The students will benefit from the industry content and experience. Also, such initiatives will help companies to recruit from the available talent pool, thereby reducing training cost and time after requirement,'' Sreeram Iyer, CEO, Scope International said.

The higher education system has to strengthen its foundation in terms of quality and relevance to the global market to ensure employment opportunities, he said, adding to facilitate this, the CII had decided to take major initiatives to make the educated youth more employable.

According to CII officials, the consortium would provide a platform for the industry to interact with the academia for increasing employability, besides catalysing joint initiatives to launch student development programmes.

The consortium would assist the varsity in developing a soft skills curriculum, provide expert facilities for training students, set up an assessment process and institutionalise campus recruitment.

UNI