CHENNAI: To facilitate better industry-institute interface, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Southern Region, has commissioned a study to map manpower skills in Tamil Nadu.

To be conducted among all stakeholders, the Government, the public, the industry and the present and future workforce, it will map the mismatch between demands of the industry and output of academic institutions.

It will relay this information to both groups, suggesting changes to bridge the gap, says K. Jayaramakrishnan, convenor, Industry Institute Interaction Panel, CII, Tamil Nadu.

Any new recruit to the services sector has to be given additional training after recruitment and is not ready to be productive right from the day he is hired. "A number of software firms find that their new recruits have little soft skills and are often unable to communicate properly," Mr. Jayaramakrishnan told The Hindu . The companies, therefore, end up spending vast amounts on training them not only in soft skills but, at times, in technical skills.

If a study finds out the needs of the industry and communicates these to the academia for facilitating some change in the syllabus, it will reduce the time and money spent on training, besides encouraging all-round development of students. Moreover, a change in syllabus that will factor in significant changes in technology and process is essential.

The study, to be conducted by the ICRA, is aimed at freezing the number of people the industry will require in the next 10 years, and the kind of people it would like to take. Forecasting this will involve interactions with various sectors of the industry to provide insights into future operations and key success factors.

Some of the key sectors that will be involved are auto, information technology, construction, textiles and leather. Private and government engineering colleges and polytechnics will be chosen for the project.

The CII hopes the results will motivate the Government to introduce appropriate changes in the curriculum to achieve maximum utilisation of the potential of students/recruits.

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