- Institutions should prepare courses as per the needs of the industry
Ranghosh special. Dr. Parmanand
To deal with the job crisis in IITs, students and the placement department need to work together. This can give more options to students and make it easier to get a job. Students should not get discouraged and should continue to enhance their skills. Also, they should pay attention to the time and demands of the companies. While exploring alternative avenues, they can approach NGOs and take advantage of job portals. Institutions should prepare courses according to the needs of the industry. Private universities implement it quickly, whereas in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) it takes more time to implement, due to which companies sometimes give priority to students of private universities and students of government institutions are left behind. Challenges remain for students in the core engineering streams of IITs – electronics, mechanical, civil – and especially electronics. It is necessary to emphasize on manufacturing in the country because at present many things are brought from outside and only assembled. If manufacturing is promoted, employment opportunities will increase and unemployment will reduce. Additionally, IITs should focus more on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in placements and keep students exposed to new technologies so that they can get better job opportunities. Institutions must change the way they work as the private sector is putting more emphasis on AI technology and teaching students how to use it in industry. IIT institutes have limited exposure to industry and companies and internship opportunities are also less, due to which students do not get exposure to the latest technologies. On the contrary, private universities have strong industry contacts, visits and approaches due to which their students get jobs easily. The sources of income of government institutions are limited due to which they have to face many problems and this also affects the education of the students.
Whereas in the private sector, there is no limit on income for teaching latest technology and providing new equipment to students. Government institutions should focus on manufacturing structure. Students should understand that the current recession is temporary and the market situation will improve soon. To get a job, they should focus on those skills which are currently in high demand. Due to economic factors and technological advancements, many companies are cautious about new hires and are recruiting selectively, especially from below tier-1 colleges.
(The author is Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology, Sharda University)