Shruti, a student of final year engineering has been excited since the time she was placed in an IT company via college placements. She has been looking forward to becoming a part of the big corporate world. But she has been extremely anxious about whether she is actually all set, in terms of skills to start off on her new job. A lot of young freshers like Shruti (a good 50%) realize at the end of their first day that they were unfamiliar with the job role they were hired for. What is frightening is that 262 million of such freshers will enter the workforce by the year 2025 around the world! Over half of this global workforce is Indian and Chinese. As per the Allied Workforce Mobility Survey, new employees are able to become fully productive only 8 months (on an average) from the joining date. This means companies spend about $5380 per employee during these months.
This clearly indicates that even fresher jobs require skilled talent that is aligned with the industry right from their first day at work. How can this gap between academics and corporate be bridged? How can freshers be industry-prepared, industry-smart, productive and self-motivated right from the first day?
As per a survey, corporate job-ready learning and higher education must ideally collaborate but they remain largely (99%) disconnected!
Here is an interesting perspective – We live today in an era of aggressively increasing information and learning that is replaced by knowledge. New industrial design, processes and latest technology often escape students. Corporate companies can function via training evangelists to make new advances and technologies available to tertiary education creating workforce that is up to date. Traditionally, practical training, internships and orientation sessions functioned in order to serve this purpose. They are even more relevant to us today in the digital age. Conventional training methods as a stand-alone do not suffice the needs of the present generation. Both the corporate companies and academia need to be on a loop with a technology evangelist playing the active role of keeping them connected. How is this possible?
Here is the way forward- 3 powerful ways in which industry oriented training can be looped in with formal academics:
- An efficient Learning Management System: The connection between corporate learning and colleges can be done with a well designed and relevant Learning Management System. This will help ease learning, employability and recruitment. MNCs are constantly looking for fresh talent from higher educational institutions across the world. Companies can provide access to white papers, crucial project papers in order to train students, and assess them via the institute’s Learning Management System in order to evaluate prospective employees. Engaging with corporate trainers will further allow companies to view the performance of students’ academic records. With skill training properly done and performance assessed, companies can easily identify the right fit for the job openings available with them.
- Social Learning: Business organizations rapidly deploy video conferencing, video chat, online collaboration etc. for their teams distributed across the world. This can be extended to universities and colleges for knowledge-transfer, discussions and career opportunities. This can enable guidance, industry insights and mentorship. Students can learn from each others’ experiences and also practice their interview online on the Learning Management System.
- Repetitive Learning: There can be unforeseen circumstances under which students may miss classes; this is when recorded classes uploaded in the Learning Management System can be of critical help. Students can also re watch the recording at their convenience for reference. The refresh and reinforce modules can drive all the crucial concepts home and assist with repeated learning.
With these principles in place, the way forward has less ambiguity in terms of the employability of students. IIHT’s Academia Learning Solutions forms a strong bridge between the corporate and the academia creating a holistic environment for industry readiness.