Finishing School For Graduate Engineers-1

ABSTRACT

• The current education system doesn’t equip youngsters with the desired knowledge and skill sets needed to excel in the practical professional life.  • At present, the fresh pass out students hired by industries are given training at the level of their induction either through product-oriented training programme or through in-house training programme organized by a few industries. In-house training is limited to a basic orientation, because vendor-based training is expensive and equipment specific.

• Finishing School is a new concept in which curriculum is developed for students to prepare them for requirements of industries. The finishing school aims to provide skills both technical and soft skills to people to facilitate their employability and play a part in the supply side issues (of talent) of the industry.

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1996 Review of Engineering Education, Australia-It stated that engineering graduates, while needing a “sound base of mathematics and engineering technology” also must be equipped as communicators, with a broad understanding of, and ability to interact in the broader society in which their profession operates. AC Nielsen’s report (2000) - Employer Satisfaction with Graduate Skills, in particular notes the following “skill deficiencies in new graduates: Creativity and flair, oral business communication and problem solving.” The report also cites employers’ dissatisfaction with graduates’ “communication skills,

• Survey- Outlook 2005 in US- Top qualities employer want from engineer communication skills (written and verbal), interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, analytical skills, presentation skills. Employers say new graduates lack: Communication skills, business etiquette, work ethics etc. • An independent study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in the US-In this study found that long-term job success depends 75 percent on people skills and only 25 percent on technical knowledge. • Study done by Harvard University- Another study done by Harvard University had even more startling results — 85 percent of jobs and promotions happened because of the candidate’s attitude and only 15 percent due to the facts and figures he packed under his belt.

• KPMG study on ‘Global Skills for Graduates in Financial Services’ - KPMG’s recent study has found that financial services firms in both the UK and India are experiencing difficulties in recruiting the right people with the right skills, and that a “soft skills gap” is making itself increasingly apparent. This report attempts to highlight the gaps and provide direction for employers and educators looking to bridge this gap between the expectations of the financial sector and the current talent availability. • MeritTrac study- According to the MeritTrac report, only 23% of all MBAs from Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutes are employable. • AC Nielsen Survey - More and more IITians are now turning towards Management consultancy

• Understanding of Private Higher Education in India: A FICCI Survey-The survey reveals that students of private HEIs are less satisfied with the course curricula than the students of public HEIs. The employability is a greater concern for today students. • Mckinsey&Company survey: Universities and colleges in the region graduate roughly 25,000 engineers a year, of whom about 25 percent are likely to be suitable for work in multinationals. That will not be enough to meet demand for engineers at current growth rates. Demand for engineers will surpass suitable local supply as early as 2006 and reach 138 percent of supply by

• India Vision 2020, Planning Commission 2002Currently only 5 per cent of the country’s labour force in the 20-24 age category have undergone formal vocational training, compared with 28 per cent in Mexico, 60 to 80 per cent in most industrialized nations, and as much as 96 per cent in Korea. The urgency of the need for inculcating good soft skills can be understood from various surveys conducted recently which concluded that presently only 15 to 20 percent of engineering and other graduates being churned out every year in India were employable in the IT industry. Sadly, of the large number most are unsuitable because of lack of soft skills.

The concept of Finishing School programme is a pre-employment training programmes for graduating students from Engineering/ Polytechnic Colleges offering different specializations to cater to the needs of different industries. Finishing School is a supplementary training school that attempts to make-up for deficiencies of students providing

• The Finishing School aims to provide skills both in technical and soft skills to students to facilitate their employability and play a part in the supply side issues of the industry. • The aim is to "sharpen some of the social, presentation and communication skills in which many Indian engineers are found wanting when they interact with clients and colleagues from other cultures," Kiran Karnik, president of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

• Finishing School is needed to bridge the gap that existing between the needs of the industry and the academic curricula. • Through Finishing School, the students will get an opportunity to acquire and reinforce industryspecific knowledge, skills and competencies delivered by trained faculty and practicing managers from

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OBJECTIVES To enhance the employability of engineering students. To enhance the standard of fresh engineering graduates so that they become acceptable to the industry. To cater to the needs of the industry. To create a platform where the students can work towards accessing the skills required to get into industry. To bridge the gap between industry and educational institutions. To provide both technical and soft skill to people to facilitate their employability. To meet the needs of unemployed and non-employable engineering graduates and to improve their communication as well as I.T. skills. To reinforce the students skills and acquire industry–specific knowledge from trained faculty and experts from industries. To offer suitable candidates to different industries. To help young graduates to find jobs through appropriate training.

• The Human Resource Development Ministry, in consultation with AICTE, Department of Information Technology, seven NITs/IIT Roorkee and NASSCOM has taken up of offering Finishing School for from May 2007. • Finishing School programmes are conducted as per the directives of HRD in NITs at Kozhikode, Durgapur, Kurushetra, Jaipur, Surat and

• The popular ones in the I.T. domain are the Mysore based Raman International Institute of Information Technology, a division of Raman Computers and Bangalore based Purple Leap. These schools cover technical skills as well as communication and problem solving skills. Other Finishing Schools attempt to make up for the deficiencies in the secondary education system with regard to maths and science education and bring the student up to the level necessary for attending University and gaining admission.

• All NIIT inductees come down to the School of Employee Education and Development (SEED), in Delhi, during their induction programme when certain generic skills for people across all divisions are taught. • A wing of TVS Group of Companies, in association with Indian Institute of engineering graduates, from the next academic year. Engineering graduate students will have an opportunity to equip themselves with skills that are relevant to modern engineering practices in leading industries nationwide and worldwide.

• Global software and outsourcing giant Accenture has joined forces with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to train its employees. •

Dale Carnegie Walchand Finishing School has been started in October, 2007 in Ramnagar, around 20 kilometres from Bangalore; it aims at making candidates industry-ready.

• In Wipro, weekly communication workshops on vision and business plans, continuous communication and Web training to new recruits, extensive verbal and documented communication to line managers and intensifying efforts to add to the current

• Indian Institure of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad finishing school - the objective of school is to meet the immediate trained human resource requirements of the IT industries, to improve the quality of engineering graduates to enhance their employability, to impart knowledge and skills as required by the industry for matching of jobs. The finishing school shall provide an opportunity to graduate students of different engineering colleges to develop soft, managerial and communication skills in

• The Government of Kerala has taken the first step towards this by way of setting up the Model Finishing School in the capital city of Trivandrum. The Model Finishing School is a joint initiative of IT Department, Government of Kerala and Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD), with the support of Infosys. This school for the kerela students, who in spite of academic and technical brilliance are not able to get employment in adequate numbers, commensurate with their skills. • Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Finishing school at Ernakulum, Kerala a joint venture of Kerala State IT Mission and C-DIT. The need of the school is to reduce the gap between the non availability of FOSS based software tools and trained manpower in FOSS. The Development Centre cum Finishing School in FOSS becomes a reality in the end of November 2008

• The recent boom in the Indian Economy has enhanced the need for such Finishing Schools. • The Commissioner of Technical Education has stated that it is hoped that the offering of Finishing School initiative would help in bridging the manpower supplydemand gap by atleast 30 to 40%. Offering different technical courses along with soft skills through the Finishing Schools will definitely increase the employable working population by 40%. The graduates securing jobs in vain due to lack of employability, communication skills and entrepreneurship quality will be over come by offering Finishing Schools. With complexities of business increasing with time, the need for trained IT related professionals along with soft skills is growing. With computers and internet becoming a way of life, there has been a manifold increase in the development of networking components and technologies, thus resulted in a need for Finishing School Programmes to

• The finishing school programme will enhance the employability of 20,000 students per year and to train students to better fit in to the industry and enhance students technical skills as well as soft skills and request the Government to pass orders on the proposal to establish the “Finishing School” programme in Government, Government Aided and Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges from May 2008 onwards. • The Government permit the Commissioner of Technical Education to establish Finishing School programme in Government, Government Aided and Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges from May-June 2008 onwards with a minimum strength of 50 students and maximum of 100 and above in each institution for a period of 5 weeks every year, without any additional expenditure to Government.

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According to experts in the IT sector, the need for the finishing schools is immense. The IT industry which saw a Rs 6,750 crore turnover last year, has around 25,000 direct vacancies at present. However, the need of the hour is a trained professional, a product experts feel only an IT finishing school will be able to turn out. There are 4,00,000 engineers graduating in the country every year, but only one in four is employable in the IT sector. The finishing schools are the need of the hour -- a recent survey showed that nearly 30 percent of the engineering graduates aspiring to enter the IT sector are not in employable positions, as they need to upgrade their skills. The growth of IT industries is highly dependent on the supply of the talent pool. The academic institutions of the state have a tradition of producing quality talents which are necessary for IT industries to grow. In view of the huge manpower required to cope with the IT/ITeS growth projection in the State during next four years’ time, we need to set up more finishing schools in India to fulfil the future needs of efficient quality professional.

• Government of India, Ministry of human resource Development in 8th editors’ Conference on social sector issues (ECSSI – 2008), New Delhi has recommended to repeat the Finishing Schools programme for Engineering Graduates in the summer of 2008, and other centrally funded technical institutions are also being advised to start it from this year, that were conducted on pilot basis during May-July, 2007, in seven central technical institutions (one IIT and six NITs). The aim of the programme was to enhance the employability of engineering graduates through appropriate training so as to make suitable candidates available to IT industry.

1. The Commissioner of Technical Education, Chennai 25, LetterNo.5294/ Y3/SO(CDC)/2008, dated 12.2.2008. – Establishment of “Finishing School” in Government, Govt. Aided and Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges. 2. KPMG study on ‘Global Skills for Graduates in Financial Services’ 3. MeritTrac study on employability of MBAs from Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutes. 4. FICCI Survey on emerging skill shortages in the Indian industry. 5. Understanding of Private Higher Education in India: A FICCI Survey. 6. 1996 Review of Engineering Education, Australia, engineering graduates skills. 7. AC Nielsen’s report (2000) on “skill deficiencies in new

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An independent study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in the US on job success skills in the workplaces. 10. Study done by Harvard University on factors for the promotion in the workplaces. 11. Mckinsey& Company survey done on demand for graduate engineers in India. 12. India Vision 2020, Planning Commission 2002 report on labour force undergone Vocational training in India. • National Association of Software and Service Companies(NASSCOM) Assessment of Competence – Technology (NAC-Tech) for IT / Engineering candidates. • Government of India, Ministry of human resource Development in 8th editors’ Conference on social sector issues (ECSSI – 2008), New Delhi(6.3)

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