The Hindu Business Line : Up against a bar so high

Finishing schools have come a long way, it seems! What once began as an institution to groom young ladies to make them eligible for marriage is now a thriving business that hones the skills of engineering graduates to make them employable.

In recent years, the demand for human resource has increased rapidly in the Indian IT industry, and many such schools have been established with the aim to impart to the graduates the necessary skills that will enable them to work in the industry.

The Indian education system, the industry says, largely produces talent that is, at best, trainable.

“The markets are changing and the education system needs to keep pace,” says Som Mittal, President, Nasscom. The companies have to provide 16 to 18 weeks of full-time training on the fundamentals to a fresher. The employee is then in the shadow period for another two-three months. So it is about six months before the student can get productive, Mittal says. “Nowhere else do we have this in-house training. We are trying to teach people what they should have learned in college,” adds Mittal.

Shortage of good faculty

The academia feels the root of the problem lies in the shortage of good faculty in colleges. Because they are poorly paid, people who are good do not come to the profession. “The country is running with limited faculty. For the second-level colleges, it is impossible to find good faculty,” says Dr Srinivasan Ramani, Faculty, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. Faculty pay must be increased, he adds.

The education system has other inherent faults as well. There is no facility for slow learners to catch-up. “Not everybody can finish the course in four years,” Dr Ramani says. Also, students with average qualities go to an average college, and then it becomes doubly difficult for the college to produce employable talent. Only 20 per cent of students who graduate are employable. The average and the below-average students find it difficult to get a job, says Dr Ramani.

Schools and colleges do not focus on fundamentals. They teach students how to score more in qualifying examinations, and this is a major problem. Because the fundamentals are weak, students find it difficult to answer problem-solving questions, says Dr Ramani.

Computer programming is also another area of weakness, according to him. Many students do not have the discipline to write large software or to work in a team. Most of them also have poor English, writing and communication skills.

But communication skills are extremely important in the IT industry. IT services is a communication-intensive industry where employees need to be in close touch with clients. The employee needs to understand what the client requires and should be able to communicate how they would execute the project, says Girish Vaidya, Senior Vice-President and Head, Infosys Leadership Institute.He says many of the engineering graduates the company hires do not know how to articulate their thoughts in English. They struggle when they have to communicate ideas. They feel nervous. And this might cause a negative feeling of failure in them, he points out.

What the students say

Students differ in their opinion of the college curriculum. While some think it might enable them to build a good career, others say it is inadequate to get a decent job.

Ravi Kumar, who recently completed B.E. and got a job with a leading Indian IT service provider, says the curriculum taught in his college might or might not help him get a career of choice in the IT industry.

Mohan Kumar, with a B.E. from Bangalore, says it is not likely that he and others like him would get a good job based on the curriculum. Meena, on the other hand, thinks it is likely that her college curriculum will help her land a good job.

For that finishing touch

The finishing schools that have come up offer courses that include technical training as well as training in communication skills.

The schools eWorld spoke to say their curriculum is designed after consultation with the industry. These schools say they help students overcome their weaknesses and assist them in getting a job.

The IT finishing school run by Raman International Institute of Information Technology offers two courses, which include technical, analytical skills, soft skills and English skills. Catherine Suchita, Business Head of the school, says the curriculum focuses on the application part of the technology. The school tries to teach how the student can apply a particular technology. The number of students they admit depends on the industry requirements, says Catherine. The school gets to know from the industry what the requirement is, and accordingly admits students.

Radix Learning, which provides technology-enabled learning solutions, recently launched a programme called Yogyata. Developed together with the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), this is a professional certification programme that aims to increase the employability of the IT sector.

Dr K.R.V. Subramanian, Chief Executive Officer, Radix Learning, says the curriculum is a mix of various learning methodologies, such as face-to-face coaching, online mentoring, e-learning modules and ‘actionable learning’. ‘Actionable learning’ helps students learn at their own pace. It allows them to practise and then provides feedback. There are students who are slow learners and this will help them, he says.

IIIT-B is the certifying body for this course. Placement assistance would be provided by CareerNet, a recruitment agency. The face-to-face classes will be held at the IIIT campuses in Bangalore and Hubli. The course is basically for engineering students in the third and the fourth year, but it will also enrol students who have had some years of experience in the industry.

According to Dr Subramanian, the curriculum has been fixed through discussions with the industry. There would be 100 students in every batch. The idea is to run multiple parallel batches.

The main advantage of this programme is that it is scalable. Initially, it will prepare students for application development and management, and later add other tracks such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and remote infrastructure management (RIM).

Two sides to the picture

The industry seems to be in two minds about finishing schools. Som Mittal says because the job requirement is so large, any positive effort is good. The quality of all the finishing schools is definitely not the same, but to cater to the growing demand, more finishing schools are needed, he feels.

Dr Ramani is of the opinion that just as we need supplementary food in our diet, we need supplementary education. The finishing schools can provide this but there are chances that the supplementary education might be as bad as the main education.

Finishing schools can also help reduce the training a company has to give freshers.

Vaidya says if employees come with finishing school experience, the company will have to train them less. This will reduce the burden on the company, which can then invest in more complex training, he adds.

Shamik.paul@thehindu.co.in

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Up against a bar so high