The Hindu Business Line : Finishing schools vital to make engg grads industry-ready

"They can make graduates industry-ready — something that NIIT and Aptech did very effectively. Now, there is renewed need for such schools to re-invent themselves to fit the newer context."

Chennai , Nov. 28

WHEN a final-year engineering student finds his name missing from the list of candidates chosen by an IT company visiting his campus, the stars in his eyes quickly break and thoughts of future riches from a software employer dissolve. As he trudges back to his hostel room with a heavy heart, he may not realise that the rejection does not merely reflect on his abilities but those of his educational institution as well.

This was clearly evident when two academicians of consequence recently talked about the poor ratio of employable graduates to the total number of graduating candidates in a region.

In early October, the Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, Chennai, Mr D. Viswanathan, had said, "Only a fifth of the 75,000 students who pass out of our colleges each year are employable.'' More recently, the Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Mr Damodar Acharya, had said that only 40 per cent of graduating engineers in India are employable. There are 14,026 engineering colleges in the country with a student strength of 500,000. In the next five years, both these numbers are to double.

Why is this happening? Leaders in the IT industry, which employs more than a million individuals, feel that good faculty is the key. Says Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, President and CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions, "In the last decade, several hundred new engineering colleges have sprung up. They find it difficult to attract top-notch faculty, to retain them and to enhance their skills." Therefore, many such colleges cannot attract the best students.

It reflects on the ratio of candidates employed to candidates interviewed. Says Mr Shiv Kumar, CEO, Cybernet Software Systems, "Recently, a group company, ReadyTestGo (which is into software testing) interviewed 1,500 candidates across colleges. We could only take in eight of them." The industry average is one selection for every 20 applicants.

Interestingly, even `employable' candidates seem to require rudimentary training. Says Mr T. Mohandas Pai, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys Technologies, "The reason is that engineering colleges do not teach them what the industry needs."

Then, would the industry expect colleges to instruct students in newer technologies as quickly they emerge? Says Mr Kumar, "That would be unfair. If institutions changed syllabi as quickly as technology changes, it would create an atmosphere of instability. But some changes in syllabi certainly ought to have happened over the last several years. Even top institutes have not changed as quickly as they should have."

What does this mean to training costs for IT companies? Mr Mohandas Pai, says, "We currently spend about $5,000 per fresh candidate in training over the first 15 weeks." Cognizant spends 3-4 per cent of its revenues every year on training while Infosys' training costs could touch 7 per cent of revenues annually.

Now, if the syllabi were to change to the industry's favour, would training costs go down substantially? The response is mixed. Says Mr Narayanan, "There will only be an insignificant change. Technology changes are rapid enough to demand continuous adjustments to Cognizant's own in-house learning academy's curriculum and costs." Infosys' Mr Pai says that training costs would go down by as much as 30 per cent.

This gap between desired and existing skill-sets provides an opportunity for `finishing schools', says Mr Narayanan. "They can make graduates industry-ready — something that NIIT and Aptech did very effectively. Now, there is renewed need for such schools to re-invent themselves to fit the newer context."

What this means is that earlier schools that helped hone basic technical skills were adequate. Now, the industry needs schools that teach a bit of advanced technology as well as softer skills. Mr Narayanan says that the industry needs finishing schools that help hone communication and time management skills; teach cross-cultural management techniques; and, provide an orientation to process and quality . They should also be able to impart technology integration capability and skills in software architecture.

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