Private agencies help engineering graduates get industry-ready

HYDERABAD: With fewer engineering students getting placed over the past few years, colleges are now outsourcing training and placement to private agencies to give students a head start in their quest to get hired in a cut-throat job market.
Placements of students pursuing various undergraduate and postgraduate engineering courses have been declining in the state, with experts saying that figures will plummet further this year.Academicians attribute the drop to students not being industry-ready in engineering and technological fields. While a majority of colleges focus on theory, companies want students with knowledge and hands-on experience of the latest software and technologies. Firms say this reduces training time and students can start working on projects as soon as they join.
To meet industry requirements, colleges for their part are turning to private agencies to train students as well as teachers. “We have about 15 faculty members in our college who are certified by a private agency. These faculty members train students in various subjects. As part of the training, students have to go through 80 hours of classwork and lab work. Every week, four hours are separately allocated for training,” said K Kishore, director of training and placements at Vasavi College of Engineering.
A few top colleges such as Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology have tied up with private players in the market to provide the necessary exposure to their students before placements. “Nearly 299 students from CBIT have enrolled with us. Apart from training, students were offered with jobs in various companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Serendebyte, TechM, among many others,” said Suman Reddy, managing director of Pegasystems, one of the private agencies offering training programmes in colleges across the city.
Core computer science courses with focus on big data, artificial intelligence and cyber security are in demand, say experts. In these fields private agencies train students not only on updating their knowledge about changing technology in the market but also on the soft skills.
Hyderabad: With fewer engineering students getting placements over past few years, colleges are now outsourcing training and placement to private agencies to give students a headstart in their quest to get hired in a cut-throat job market.
Placements of students pursuing various undergraduate and postgraduate engineering courses have been declining in the state, with experts saying that figures will plummet further this year. Academicians attribute the drop to students not being industry-ready in engineering and technological fields. While a majority of colleges focus on theory, companies want students with knowledge and hands-on experience of the latest software and technologies. Firms say this reduces training time and students can start working on projects as soon as they join.
To meet industry requirements, colleges for their part are turning to private agencies to train students as well as teachers. “We have about 15 faculty members in our college who are certified by a private agency. These faculty members train students in various subjects. As part of the training, students have to go through 80 hours of classwork and lab work. Every week, four hours are separately allocated for training,” said K Kishore, director of training and placements at Vasavi College of Engineering.
A few top colleges such as Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology have tied up with private players in the market to provide the necessary exposure to their students before placements. “Nearly 299 students from CBIT have enrolled with us. Apart from training, students were offered with jobs in various companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Serendebyte, TechM, among many others,” said Suman Reddy, managing director of Pegasystems, one of the private agencies offering training programmes in colleges.
Core computer science courses with focus on big data, artificial intelligence and cyber security are in demand, say experts. In these fields, private agencies help students to update their tech knowledge as well as soft skills.