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Opportunities beckon engineering students
Eighty per cent of Indians don’t have bank accounts, 50 per cent of Indians don’t have access to primary health care, 50 per cent of food distributed by the government for public doesn’t reach the targeted groups and the country faces a shortage of nearly three lakh teachers. These are facts, yet have lot more significance than mere statistics mentioned at the routine government meetings suggest. Academics and industry heads see tremendous employment opportunities in these facts and want the engineering students to turn these challenges into opportunities instead of cribbing over recession that has hit the IT sector. Professionals from the industry and academics shared these views at an Industry Academia meet on “Employment Opportunities, impact of recession on students, and how to overcome it,” organised jointly by JNTU Hyderabad, Nasscom and Globarena in Hyderabad.
The experts were unanimous in their opinion that recession is a temporary phenomenon and it has to be fought with improved skills, performance and productivity. Even in this recession period, more than 60 per cent of companies are growing in India and less than 13 per cent are considering retrenchment. If IT industry is hit, banking industry is on a high with commercial banks earning Rs. 36,500 crores combined net profit, which is more than 25 per cent than previous year. “Job seekers have to look at such fields.” However, there was a word of caution for engineering graduates. Even if recession is over, not everyone would be absorbed and there will be a majority who have to search for newer avenues. And there are many other avenues available that unfortunately engineering graduates are unaware of. An expert team constituted by the Planning Commission of India has identified 30 such fields other than IT where employment opportunities are abundant and students need to explore these areas for better future. And some of these include Banking & Financial Services, Health Care, Education, Public Services, Telecom, Pharma, Travel, Retail and Manufacturing.
Sanjay Singh, Senior Director HR of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories wanted the teachers in the colleges to expose these areas to students and influence students to go into areas that have promising future and colleges have to play a big role in it. Ramesh Loganathan, MD, Progressive Software felt that universities can introduce these areas as electives in the final year so that students get better exposure. He felt that final year curriculum should be vibrant and in tune with industry needs and universities should work on it. Sandhya Chintala, Director, Education Initiative – NASSCOM supported the argument.
While the representatives of industry wanted more to be done in improving the skill sets of students, academics argued in favour of more apprenticeships for students in the industry. Practical training is what ultimately helps students felt principals of various colleges while industry representatives expressed their inability to absorb all engineering students for training due to lack of financial and HR constraints. Senior academics argued that students need not lose heart if they don’t end up in jobs immediately after their course. Prof. Sadagopan, Director IIIT-Bangalore felt higher education was always an option and they need to be serious about developing skills in core areas. Many advised the young graduates that first instance of failure is not the end of the world.
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There is more to engineering than IT and higher education is always an option, writes R. RAVIKANTH REDDY
Greener pastures: There are 30 fields other than IT where employment opportunities are abundant and students need to explore these areas for better future.