An engineering degree alone is no longer sufficient to land a job in the IT industry and students pursuing the courses need to acquire specialised skills to boost their employability quotient, IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan sought to underscore on Thursday.
He was addressing college students who were imparted employable skills under an initiative of Nasscom Foundation and Aricent, a global design and engineering company.
“Let us be sensitive to the fact that a rapid transformation is happening in the technology landscape world over, including India,” he said, adding IT companies were increasingly looking to hire candidates with specialisation.
“If [students with conventional skills] think people will be lining up to hire [them], those days are behind us,” he said, listing Big Data, data analytics, AI and machine learning, AR/VR and API as emerging areas. “You should be able to specialise in one of these areas to make a rewarding career,” Mr. Ranjan said.
Earlier, certificates were distributed to students of the first edition of ‘Arise by Aricent’ programme. Over 900 of the 1,400 students from select colleges in and around Hyderabad, who were trained, successfully cleared the 250-hour-long rigorous training and examinations and got certified as software developers.
The on-campus programme, with which vocational training provider MindMap LLP was associated, equipped the students with skills ranging from basics like SDLC methodologies to programming languages like JAVA, database management languages like SQL, API creation through Jdbc, project designing and software testing. They were also trained in essentials such as oral and written communication, business etiquettes and other soft skills. Chairman CSR Committee and Chief Operations and Quality Officer of Aricent, Ashwani Lal, said the programme, conducted as part of the corporate social responsibility activities, would help contribute to bridging the knowledge and skill gap existing in the IT and ITeS domain.
NASSCOM Foundation CEO Shrikant Sinha said 16 companies were partnering with the Foundation and undertaking skill development programmes, as part of their CSR activities, across the country. The partnership with Aricent, which over two years saw more than 6,100 students trained on employability-driven skills, is to be renewed for the third year.
