A strong message was sent out to companies and colleges that the students cannot be blamed for lack of employability skills since quality of teaching is poor in most of the higher education institutions. Only quality teachers can solve the employability problem faced by students. It is time to have a serious look at the quality of teachers employed in various engineering colleges and arts and science colleges as well.
E. Balagurusamy, Member (Education), State Planning Commission, said here on Thursday without mincing words that the issue of students' employability could not be addressed if the colleges continue to have unqualified and low quality teachers on their roll. “Our findings show that majority of teachers in many engineering colleges are in mediocre category. When the teachers themselves are lacking employability skills, how can we expect their students to be employable? So, the correction has to start from the level of teachers,” he said.
He was addressing an one-day interface programme, ICTACT Bridge, organised here on Thursday by the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu in association with NASSCOM to “focus on employability skills” by inviting teaching faculty members and experts from various companies to deliberate on overcoming the skill shortage among students passing out of colleges every year.
Dr. Balagurusamy, who had earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, said that nearly 50 per cent of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu came under “poor category” in teaching-learning process. He also took a dig at the IT companies for focusing more on communication and soft skills and not giving more importance to technical skills among students when they recruit candidates through campus recruitment.
“It is the IT sector that is destroying other sectors in India. Economic development cannot happen with IT field alone. The country needs ‘blue collar' jobs also along with “white collar” positions and we have to give priority to enhance the technical base of our students along with communication skill,” he said.
Focus on students' employability must start from the school level itself because only then they could be groomed by the time they pass out of a college. “Knowledge, skills and attitude are the three main pillars of education. Skill development initiatives are not meant for IT companies alone. Manufacturing sector also is pivotal for a nation's development,” Dr. Balagurusamy said and added that the “disconnect” between industry and education must be removed by all means.
Lakshminarayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Chairman of ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu, in his keynote address, said that the Academy had been organising bridge sessions at various places in the State, including Chennai and Coimbatore. “We want to take this programme to Tiruchi and Tirunelveli also to reach out to teachers, colleges and students of those regions. The objective is to make our graduates get intellectual competency to face the changing world.” The ICT Academy was determined to create employability skills and competency among college students by working closely with educational institutions, he said.
R. Balakrishnan, Additional Chief Secretary and Special Officer, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Government of Tamil Nadu, expressed concern over employability of students despite new jobs being created in the country despite a global slowdown.
M. Sivakumar, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy, spoke on the connect being created between industry and colleges for the benefit of students.
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