Experts and stakeholders in the field of Information Technology have stressed the imperatives of more finishing schools to enhance the employability factor of graduates entering the profession.
They have also called for government and private sector encouragement to such finishing schools, which were critical if students graduating out of engineering colleges and universities were to be job-readied to meet the growing demands of the industry.
This was the opinion of speakers at the graduation day ceremony of Raman International Institute of Information Technology (RiiiT) here on Saturday.
Sanjay Tyagi, Additional Director, Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Bangalore, who delivered the graduation day address, pointed out that out of the nearly five lakh engineering graduating each year in India, the employability factor hovered around 15 per cent to 17 per cent.
This called for skill development and enhancement of technical skills through finishing schools, he said.
While IT giants such as Infosys and Wipro may have their in-house training facility, medium and small scale units in the IT sector should outsource trained workforce from finishing schools as these units lack resources to establish training centres.
Hence, it was necessary that the government and the MSME units support finishing schools, which will help the industry and fresh graduates as also such institutions to sustain themselves.
R.C. Jagadesh, Chairman, CII, Mysore, said it was a lamentable situation if 15 to 17 per cent of the BE graduates are employable and described it as a waste of talent in the absence of skill development opportunities.
He said skill development through finishing schools was a must and complimented the RiiiT, which is reckoned to be India’s first IT finishing school established almost 10 years ago, for starting such an institution to bridge the gap between the industry requirements and students skills.
India was poised to emerge as the world’s third largest economy after the U.S. and China and hence, trained manpower was a critical requirement and more IT finishing schools should be encouraged to bridge the gap, said Mr. Jagadesh.
Similar views were echoed by V. Subramanya, Vice-President and Head, Continuous Learning, Infosys, who said the government should announce tax exemption for teachers and such training centres that were providing trained workforce for industry and thus directly contributing to the nation’s conomy.
The RiiiT said 315 engineering and MCA internees received advanced diploma certificates, of whom 80 per cent had secured placements in the industry.
S.V. Venkatesh, founder of RiiiT, and Urmeela Venkatesh, Director, were present.
