19, Aug 2011

It has often been mentioned that many applicants to various jobs often lack communication skills; if that wasn’t bad enough now we are told that a majority lack knowledge in their core subjects as well. There are many instances of job-seeking graduates who either fail to impress at interviews, unable to express themselves well, or/and do not have the requisite technical knowledge their degrees purport them to have.
NASSCOM’s recent survey concluded that only a quarter of the students from the various engineering colleges are employable. Compare this to China’s score of almost 85 percent employability quotient.

The IT industry will continue to grow although Europe’s economy is unstable, the US has lowered its dependency on India and is bargaining hard, and competitors such as China, Philippines, and Mexico are catching up fast. Experts point out that the domestic sector will play a major role in the future. There is a surfeit of prospective candidates, but the quality is very low. Entry-level hiring is good and is likely to grow; however, many of the companies are switching to low-cost alternatives such as B.Sc.-computer science graduates, who are cheaper to hire and about as efficient as engineers.  Costs considerations are many since training entry-level candidates costs IT and ITES companies millions.

The problem of paucity of skill sets is more severe in tier II and III institutes, not so much in tier-I institutes. If you take engineering entrants in the IT sector, there are 5 skill sets:

1. technology,
2. process,
3. project management,
4. soft skills, and
5. academic excellence.

While hiring candidates for technology departments most IT companies presume the applicants to have programming knowledge of C, C++, Java and HTML, Database Management System, Data Structures and Algorithms. They also want the candidates to have a basic knowledge of software engineering, business and system requirements management, software design, software testing, software quality management, software configuration management, and software reverse engineering—all this in addition to a good understanding of project management concepts.

Ability to use the English language, both oral and written, is highly valued. Furthermore, companies look for leadership traits, business etiquette, team player features, attitude, and passion towards work. Companies generally test candidates in their area of specialization, mathematics, and project work. The value of project work must not be underestimated, especially the remarks of the evaluating body/person. Many students produce project work by dishonest means; some colleges are trying to discourage this by including mentorship and on-campus opportunities to do the work.

Experts say that the problem of skill gap should be addressed by the colleges by supplementing the course with programs that can continually enhance the students’ skill set. And this they say has to be done on an ongoing basis and not dealt with in a piecemeal fashion.