To bridge this gap, academia needs to create partnership with corporates. This was the central theme that emerged during the recently-held Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) seminar on “Industry-Institute Partnership: Bridging the Gap.”
Talking on the issue, AICTE Vice Chairman Dr. R.A Yadav said, “We are producing a huge number of management graduates but very few of them are employable. To fill up the gap between institute and industry we need better interaction between the two. Learning has to be a continuous process -- and strategic partnerships can provide the forum for learning.”
The major areas of concern that emerged during the seminar were: syllabus, employability, training of students and faculty development. Emphasizing on the industry academia interaction Dr Y.S Rajan Principal Advisor, CII said, “Industry academia interaction should not limited to lectures; it is also required for research.”
BIMTECH director Dr. H. Chaturvedi added, “Institutes should be guided by the recruiter about what they require from institutes and students. In this direction, we are also forming a committee and will organize a series of dialogue. Continuous dialogue is very important for understanding.”
Industry professionals emphasized on improving both workforce and faculty. Said JC Jhuraney Sr. Vice President-HR Samtel India Limited, “Industry can play a great role in creating learning environment in institutes by providing training to trainers in terms of teaching methodology, understanding psychology of students.” According to Lokesh Mehra Regional Manager-Corporate Responsibility, Cisco Systems South Asia, institutes need to invest in faculty, infrastructure and research.
Representatives from the industry also talked about some of their programs for developing students and faculty. Dr Pratul Sharma, Head-Technical Training, Birlasoft, said, “We have the Student Mentorship Program and the Faculty Mentorship Program for improving the quality of students and faculty. Institutes should also encourage guest lectures from the corporate world.”
According to Dilip Mohapatra Vice President, Global Learning and Development, there is a ‘thought dissonance’ between academia and industry; their priorities and expectations are also ‘unequal’. So the partnership should be with clear sense of purpose and must be mutually beneficial. Veenu Jaichand, vice president, Bharti Comtel Ltd, added that, “We require more collaborations to fill the gap the institute-industry gap.”
Other speakers at the seminar included Dr Ajay Sharma, director general, Krishna Group of Institutions; Dr B S Sahay Director IMT Ghaziabad, Dr Sanjeev Gupta, chairman, ‘Industry-Institute Interface’ Forum; and Dr. S K Mukherjee, vice chancellor, BIT Mesra, Ranchi.
