Addressing The Employability Challenge

It has been seen that employability of fresh engineering graduates has been dipped significantly.While artificial intelligence,cloud computing ,data analytics and Internet of Things(IoT) have been identified as top technology trends impacting business.There is a skill shortage in these areas.

Companies today look for graduates who have technical aptitude,problem solving mindset,learnability and behavioural skills.They should be strong in fundamental concepts of algorithms,data structures,etc. At the same time they should learn to adapt themselves to working with new technology areas.The students should also have an early time exposure to real time projects in order to build their technical skills ,get exposed to processes and terminologies and also develop a problem solving mindset.

This will help them "connect the dots" and see the big picture.Articulation and communication skills are of prime importance as industry demands intense collaboration with all stakeholders.

START AN EARLY CAREER

Currently companies are having interventions in final year in terms of online learning,internships,instructors-led training to bridge the gap between the campus and corporate but the current model has limitations as most of these interventions happen in the final semester. The courses can be integrated with the syllabus so that students do not feel the burden and get credits for these courses from university too.These trainings can also be started much earlier in the curriculum so that they get more time to learn and be more hands-on.

E-LEARNING FOR AN EDGE

Universities should bring a major change with more focus towards digital learning. Learning should change from physical to digital as it provides limitless opportunities. Prime focus for colleges should be to imbibe in students the culture of "learning to learn digitally".The mindset of digital learning and being a life long learner has to be extended to the entire faculty members too.This mandates a change in the culture,environment and overall focus in the current educational system.

The universities should involve a mechanism to give academic credits for online programmes,so that the students can continue their learning even while in the job.Using the power of Artificial Intellingence(AI)

for personalised learning can also be seen as an option to overcome some of these challenges.

EVOLVED ASSESSMENT

The entire assessment needs to change.The calibration has to be done towards skills and competency rather than knowledge and rote learning.As the industry today demands multi-disciplinary skills for example , linking Humanities to Management,interpersonal and soft skills to Engineering,and the entire methodology needs a change.