Skilled for success?

Shivli Tyagi / TNN / Nov 1, 2006, 00:17 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

Google India's recruiters say they are finding it tough to find required talent in India.

Google India's recruiters say they are finding it tough to find required talent in India.
A great campus recruitment is every youngster's dream come true. And if it happens to be in one of the A-list firms then nothing like it. The recent report about Google shortlisting and selecting students from two prominent universities of Gujarat — MSU and SVNIT — has raised hopes of other institutes and students all over the state.
So does it finally prove that the educational standard of the state is not as bad as it seems?
Rohan Gulati, student of SVNIT is optimistic about even better placements next year. "Once a company like Google decides to pick up students from one university, other A-list companies are going to follow suit."

Officiating Dean of technology and engineering department, MSU, Prof BS Parekh is equally happy. "We are constantly trying to improve our standards and facilities being provided to students. Our aim is to attract more such companies."
"I think the reason these companies have chosen universities in Gujarat is because they have realised that students from our universities are going to stick around for a longer time. IIT and IIM students move on once they get a bigger package," he adds.

But when Google director Ram Shriram recently gave a statement saying the firm was finding it tough to hire engineers from India who had required web development skills like Javascript and Ajax — it raised a few questions.
Shriram was quoted as saying, "The people are smart, innately smart but don't have this particular skill set yet."
However, associate professor Sanjay Choudhary from DAIICT feels that students from Gujarat are at par with students of other states. "But students here have different problems. They need to upgrade their communication skills alongwith their acdemic proficiency. Other than that somewhere we haven't been able to strike a balance in the theoretical and the technology related aspects of the IT courses. Since technology is becoming more and more complicated, we need to stress more on lab exercises as that would help our students get more hands on practical training."
Further reiterates a technical faculty member, MSU: "Companies like Google want students who are able to think for themselves. We need more research based education if we want more students to be recruited by these companies. Maybe that is where our students are lacking."
Says professor S N Pradhan of the computer engineering department at NIT: "A college curriculum is more broad-based and we can't be just emphasising on specific requirements of one company. Industry demands are based on a particular time whereas we need to cater to a wider spectrum. Added skills can be acquired later, through specific courses."
But will the world's top firms have that much patience and the time to train 'broadly trained' students?
shivli.tyagi@timesgroup.com

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.

End of Article