“Innovations in present methods can make students industry-ready”

Interview of the Day: “Innovations in present methods can make students industry-ready”

No Comment Posted by admin on Oct 10, 2013

Dr. K. Mallikharjuna Babu, PhD, Principal of BMS College of engineering
Kanchana Dwarakanath, TimesJobs.com Bureau 
There is a skill gap between corporate requirements and what the student learns. What are the key concerns you have as an educationist?
I as an educationist agree that there is a skill gap and that is primarily because we still follow a traditional education system. Students/fresh graduates are not able to perform/adapt to the techniques and work structure ones they get a job because they lack hands-on-experience. They manage to survive only with book knowledge that has been imparted to them during their academia.
To eradicate this we need to improve our teaching techniques with innovative approaches. One of the ways is to conduct continuous workshops and seminars on subject/segment specific industry, which allows each student to participate and experience the trends in the current market. Also, encouraging regular internship programmes along with apprenticeship programs during the course of the semesters, as part of the curriculum. This helps in bridging the gap between corporate requirements and what the students learn. 
Do you agree that there is a skill shortage in the industry? What do you think is the reason behind the same?
The world today is on a high-speed track. Every approach, be it science, technology or Pharma is developing very fast. Something which was invented a few months earlier is  considered old after  a couple of months.  With this continuous improvement across all industries, there’s a constant need and pressure to learn and keep yourself updated. Hence, there is a required skill shortage.
The problem is, India is a vast and developing country, and there is societal pressure and competition among students to constantly perform well. This applies mostly to theoretical performance, which results in students having only bookish knowledge rather than being street and industry smart. This is evident when students from other countries are able to understand technology, and are more practical in approach than their Indian counterparts. Even with existing infrastructure and access, full use is not made at colleges.
This is a key problem.  Even with the existing infrastructure and syllabi many things can be achieved. Our education system coupled with the environment of parent-societal pressure does not allow the use of the required facilities and the bandwidth to accommodate many advanced techniques.  For example: use of cloud computing is still not a part of the curriculum while this is widely used in advanced education systems abroad. 
There is a growing trend of corporate-academia cooperation to make education requirement-specific. What do you think both parties should do to address the skill-gap requirement?
We need to take this further to have a greater impact. I suggest that a consortium of the industry and institutions must be formed to address this issue. Some leading institutions may be given an opportunity to train the students in that area. These skill centers need to be established by the Industry and Institutes together. The training must be made on current as well as future requirements of technology and at the same time made affordable to the students.
For example: We at BMS Engineering College constantly conduct workshops and seminars for students; recently The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering along with the placement centre of BMSCE organized ‘Bosch Day’ at the BMS College in association with Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI). The aim of this program was to provide students with knowledge on the functional expertise of Bosch in the building of electronic control units (ECUs) for automotives. 
We have also incorporated a new approach to admitting students into the institution, we conduct an induction programme on various segments/field before they join. Through this induction programme students are able to gauge in which segment/field  their interest lies in and opt for that as their course.
There are skill development organisations and foundations. Do you think what they teach are relevant? What would you suggest, if not, as an alternative?
There are skill development centers/organisations across the country but their reach is limited. Only a few get in there and students have to pay huge amounts to train themselves. All students can’t afford this and there is no guarantee what they learn at some of these institutions would be relevant once they pass out. There is no mechanism to verify this. In order to counter this, the training must be provided in-house, with sufficient collaborative supervision.
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“Innovations in present methods can make students industry-ready”

Dr. K. Mallikharjuna Babu, PhD, Principal of BMS College of engineering

There is a skill gap between corporate requirements and what the student learns. What are the key concerns you have as an educationist?

I as an educationist agree that there is a skill gap and that is primarily because we still follow a traditional education system. Students/fresh graduates are not able to perform/adapt to the techniques and work structure ones they get a job because they lack hands-on-experience. They manage to survive only with book knowledge that has been imparted to them during their academia.

To eradicate this we need to improve our teaching techniques with innovative approaches. One of the ways is to conduct continuous workshops and seminars on subject/segment specific industry, which allows each student to participate and experience the trends in the current market. Also, encouraging regular internship programmes along with apprenticeship programs during the course of the semesters, as part of the curriculum. This helps in bridging the gap between corporate requirements and what the students learn. 

Do you agree that there is a skill shortage in the industry? What do you think is the reason behind the same?

The world today is on a high-speed track. Every approach, be it science, technology or Pharma is developing very fast. Something which was invented a few months earlier is  considered old after  a couple of months.  With this continuous improvement across all industries, there’s a constant need and pressure to learn and keep yourself updated. Hence, there is a required skill shortage.

The problem is, India is a vast and developing country, and there is societal pressure and competition among students to constantly perform well. This applies mostly to theoretical performance, which results in students having only bookish knowledge rather than being street and industry smart. This is evident when students from other countries are able to understand technology, and are more practical in approach than their Indian counterparts. Even with existing infrastructure and access, full use is not made at colleges.

This is a key problem.  Even with the existing infrastructure and syllabi many things can be achieved. Our education system coupled with the environment of parent-societal pressure does not allow the use of the required facilities and the bandwidth to accommodate many advanced techniques.  For example: use of cloud computing is still not a part of the curriculum while this is widely used in advanced education systems abroad. 

There is a growing trend of corporate-academia cooperation to make education requirement-specific. What do you think both parties should do to address the skill-gap requirement?

We need to take this further to have a greater impact. I suggest that a consortium of the industry and institutions must be formed to address this issue. Some leading institutions may be given an opportunity to train the students in that area. These skill centers need to be established by the Industry and Institutes together. The training must be made on current as well as future requirements of technology and at the same time made affordable to the students.

For example: We at BMS Engineering College constantly conduct workshops and seminars for students; recently The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering along with the placement centre of BMSCE organized ‘Bosch Day’ at the BMS College in association with Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI). The aim of this program was to provide students with knowledge on the functional expertise of Bosch in the building of electronic control units (ECUs) for automotives. 

We have also incorporated a new approach to admitting students into the institution, we conduct an induction programme on various segments/field before they join. Through this induction programme students are able to gauge in which segment/field  their interest lies in and opt for that as their course.

There are skill development organisations and foundations. Do you think what they teach are relevant? What would you suggest, if not, as an alternative?

There are skill development centers/organisations across the country but their reach is limited. Only a few get in there and students have to pay huge amounts to train themselves. All students can’t afford this and there is no guarantee what they learn at some of these institutions would be relevant once they pass out. There is no mechanism to verify this. In order to counter this, the training must be provided in-house, with sufficient collaborative supervision.

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