Integrating Industry Academia

Bridging the Skills Gap

The industry academia in India has been mostly on the go to obtain a premium learning in its schools and ensuring the students garner niche education to meet the rising demands of employment sector. In the present times of knowledge economy, a productive interface between academia and industry is a critical requirement. Failure to recognise each other’s role will reduce the import of interface between institutes and industry and this can potentially give rise to mismatch between demand and supply of quality manpower. The session on Bridging the Skills Gap showcases how the void can be filled

GURMEET SINGH DHALIWAL, Chairman, Baba Farid Group of Institutions

India and Canada have similar issues in the higher education domain including ensuring access, quality, establishing effective relationship with countries, maintaining academic independence and of course skills gap

In an industry where there is a plethora of opportunities to look forward to, what is left is searching for the right candidate. It should be clear what we look in a prospective employee. An employee will provide the necessary attitude and skills if correct guidance is initiated. You give them attitude, we will teach them skills, you can’t teach a horse to climb a tree. It takes time to generate the right amount of skills. It should be harnessed during the employment.
Agar kuch nahi kar sakte toh skills karlo (If nothing works, then one should do skill education). This is what comprehended from skill learning, but it is a different picture altogether.
The National Skills Quality Framework has some key aspects: Quality of training, infrastructure assessment, adequate compensation, in short, the universe of skill development is doing fine. The current government has ensured to practice National Skills Day, for skilling the abilities.
The basic thing which an employer should keep in mind is developing the curriculum, make them understand their future of the job. Apprentice opportunities like skill slab opens the gate to teach, participate in assessment, encourages the employer to recognise the skills. But there is a gap, not much is explored yet for retiring employers. These should be used as trainers, we should hire them, pursue them or request them to train, working professionals, industry should move into hiring certified candidates.
We should make skilling aspirational for both boys and girls. Academia should set skill lab to provide simulation to the students and generate in them the real time look and feel. Academia is a far away thing for college dropouts, plenty of things needs to be done, and this is just a drop in the ocean. 70 per cent haven’t even seen college. We should not get overwhelmed by skill development, a much larger role is required.

HARSH MEHROTRA,

Head Trainings, Mahendra Skills Training & Development Pvt Ltd

In today’s time ensuring the right vocation to the right resource is very necessary. Today, a business magnate tells me how to teach or train teachers, where an industry expert comes and tells me, I will teach you the assessment process, how to create a curriculum. My core profession is been taken by somebody, that is the issue that needs to be taken care of. Doctors, bureaucrats and engineers acquire basic skills that are common to all professions. The university can provide them the right choice, the right market, mandatory basic human competence, professional and business combined together.

PROF MITHILESH DIXIT,

Vice Chancellor, Career Point University, Kota

POINTS TO PONDER:

An employee will provide the necessary attitude and skills if correct guidance is initiated
Right vocation should be given to the right resource
Don’t ignore the responsibility for the people of the unorganised sector
Experiential learning cannot replace any form of learning

The topic regarding skill development is very interesting. I have done my engineering in automobile as I was interested in working with cars. But after four years, I ended up not having a job. My only option was to work in a garage and gain experience. I sensed that my degree was not good enough for my practical skills and unable to relate with the physical components of the car. We developed two elements in partnership with institutions and set up an automotive lab to help students feel the different components, simulation exercises, etc. We also want to partner with skill development firms. A conventional way of learning or experiential learning cannot replace any form of learning.

VARUN SURI,

Senior Manager,Automotive Aftermarket, Robert

Bosch Engineering and BusinessSolutions Private Limited

After years of research, to bridge the skills gap, we at BFGI (Baba Farid Group of Institutions) have come up with a unique model for skilling India, the solution side of it.
India by far has the largest higher education institutes in the world. The engineering colleges here are growing at 20 per cent per annum and the Bschools are growing at 60 per cent per annum. The academia is not getting sufficient placements, and the industry is not getting good employees, quality side needs to be looked upon. There is a lack of quality supply, and there could be multiple reasons for it: lack of regular industry academia interface, lack of job oriented and skilled based curriculum, lack of evaluation and solutions of practical skills and lack of internship and apprenticeship opportunities in the academic world.

GURMEET SINGH DHALIWAL,

Chairman, Baba Farid Group of Institutions

A person having knowledge cannot ensure that he has skills too. We expect our teachers to have a different set of skills. As per our society, we perceive the person taught in the class to be at a lower, we have engrained certain misconceptions in our mindset like creating a hierarchy. Some things have to be changed. We cannot ignore our responsibility we have for our society. We should think about the people employed in the unorganised sector. And working on a methodology through equipments must be taken care of as human resources are free resources in the country.
For the research labs, the government recruits best of talent and trained them for two years. It is an investment for their training, and personalities are generated for the industry we cater to. There’s time for us from industry side to reflect upon.

PROF SWAPAN BHATTACHARYA,

Director, National Institute of Technology, Surathka