Industries today ‘desperately require professionals' with an entrepreneurial mindset', which students should acquire even when they are doing their academic courses, according to Mr Ashok Bakthavathsalam, Managing Director, KGiSL, Coimbatore.

He said the while there were endless opportunities available for the youth, they were accompanied by challenges that needed a lot of creativity and problem solving skills to sort out.

Inaugurating here the fourth edition of The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair on Saturday, of which the VIT University, Vellore, is the presenting sponsor, he expressed happiness that the fair has become a ‘permanent fixture' in the calendar of events in Coimbatore and advised students to make full use of it for their career advancement since it brought together a large number of premier educational institutions under one roof that would help them make decision ‘efficiently'.

He said while opportunities available are virtually ‘limitless', they come hand in hand with ‘global challenges' that require lot of creativity and problem solving skills.

To take maximum advantages of the opportunities and challenges, it was imperative that students start looking right from the time of joining under graduate courses to come up with their own ‘original ideas' so that they become aware of the skill sets needed to bring their ideas to fruition, to bring them to light and action.

Mr Ashok felt that ideas should be the ‘fuel' around which skills should automatically be developed and these required the right kind of knowledge, fundamental concept in learning etc.

He said students should not be entirely dependent on the educational institutions for acquiring this knowledge as they are constrained by an educational system which does not keep pace with what was required.

‘Academic inflation'

This was so not only in India but globally. While the system could be expected to meet 50 per cent of the needs of the students, the balance responsibility was with the students and their parents to ensure that students simultaneously develop their skills and ideas to come out of the ‘comfort zones' and become `remarkable individuals' as there is an ‘academic inflation' with lakhs of graduates coming out every year.

Mr Brijesh Nair, Associate Professor, VIT University, Ms Anusha Mahesh, CEO, Park Group of Institutions, Mr Aniruddhan, Principal of Nehru Arts and Science College and Mr.Kavidasan, Director, HRD, Roots Industries, Coimbatore, spoke.

Mr K.V.Prasad, Chief of Bureau, The Hindu , Coimbatore, said the fair would help a student to identify a right course for a right career. More than 30 educational institutions are participating in the two-day fair.

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