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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

August - 2011 - issue > Buyers Perspective

Bridging the gap between Academia & Industry

ST Team
Thursday, August 4, 2011
ST Team
Thought the Indian IT industry is growing by leaps and bounds, it is also facing distress due to the increasing skill gap, a main reason for which is the disconnect between academia and the industry itself. In a candid conversation with The Smarttechie, Himanshu Goyal, Country Manager - Career Education, Academic Initiative, DeveloperWorks & Globalization, IBM Software India/South Asia talks about IBM’s initiatives targeted at university graduates.

1.An insight into the growing gap between academia and real world industry needs.

Today industry is looking for ready to deploy (or billable) job skills while Academia is building on theoretical and lab based (so called practical) skills. None of the two can compromise these focus areas as these are necessary part of learning and development of an individual. We at IBM are advocating a stronger focus on the curriculum with our approach of preparing Service Scientists. Today's Gen Y student, is a demanding young teen, who is a technologist, networker and a collaborator. When s/he has done education s/he can be a Call Center Operator, a blogger, sales executive, a techie, teacher or simply a service scientist. We are working with governments and private educationists to provide guidance to universities for building services research and new curriculum. Our ability to innovate depends on our ability to hire needed talent.

2. What are the sectors/areas where there is particularly a large knowledge/skill gap and why?

All growing sectors including IT/ITES have a skill gap. If one looks purely at IT, we researched ten most popular job definitions and concluded that we do not produce as many ready-made skilled professionals with a best combination of theoretical and practical skills. Some of these are - Software Quality Management, Application Development using Java, Embedded Systems Development, IT Service Management, Business Analytics Information Management, Enterprise Content Management, Business Process Management, IT Security, Social Software. We are working closely with select Educational Institutions and retail educational partners to fill these gaps and address such needs. Our Career Education Framework for Engineering and Business Schools addresses these gaps.


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