The Indian IT sector has placed the country on the global map, but large firms still continue to grapple with issues of employability of IT graduates. With as much as 70% of graduates in India unemployable, IT companies, including the likes of Microsoft, are increasingly looking at roping in ?IT finishing schools? to groom future professionals, even while saving a part of the precious time and money that goes into the training of these employees.
Often, graduates lack in a number of areas and there is a major gap between their theoretical knowledge and its practical implication. Thus, companies need to spend much time in training them in order to get them to an employable level. It is at this juncture that IT finishing schools will be able to help.
All over India, technical institutes churn out almost 4.55 lakh technical graduates each year, but unfortunately, only 30% of these are fit enough to meet the industry needs, says a recent NASSCOM report. And by 2010, there might be a shortage of five lakh professionals if this trend continues. Many feel that one of the reasons behind this is the huge gap between academic curriculum and the actual industry need.
?With globalisation as well as competition from international companies, there is a need to meet international standards. But the interaction of the students with the industry is minimal.
Industry-academia convergence is the only way to address this growing concern,? says Tarun Gulati, general manager, developer and platform evangelism, Microsoft India.
?These IT graduates lack not only in technical skills but also in other areas such as analytical skills, language and communications, and in our IT finishing school, we try to address these issues and make the students industry ready,? says SV Venkatesh, CEO, Raman Institute of Information Technology (RiiT). ?About 70% graduates produced in India are unemployable and thus, most of the IT companies need to spend substantial time, money and resources on training of the recruited graduates to make them industry ready,? said Deependra L Chumble, chief people officer, Hexaware Technologies Ltd. ?The present scenario definitely indicates the need for IT finishing schools,? he adds.
?Finishing schools are surely of great help, but I feel that it?s more of a stop gap arrangement. What we need is a stable education system that can be rebooted completely to meet the skills that are demanded,? says Lokesh Mehra, regional manager, corporate responsibility, Cisco, South Asia.