Employability is not about doing any job in a sub-standard way but doing it in a productive way, says Surabhi Karsoliya Sharma, Managing Director, Technocrats TIT Group, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
‘Employability Quotient’ of students is much-talked about subject. How do you view it?
The employability quotient is composed of three major elements: your general skills, your subject matter depth or expertise, and your corporate skills. But in India, we often read reports stating that ‘x’ per cent of graduates in India are not employable, ‘y’ per cent of engineers are not employable and so on. I am not convinced by these reports because I believe that their definition of employability itself is incorrect. Some people define employability relating it to life skills — ability to solve problems, articulate well and so on.
Based on this definition, they measure employability and ring alarm bells on low percentage of employability, especially among the educated youth in the country. Employability is not about doing any job in a sub-standard way but doing it in a productive way. For example, one may be unemployable as a pilot or a carpenter but may be employable as a HR consultant or a CEO. My point is, everybody is employable, but not for any job.
Now, this diverts our attention to how should we assess one’s employability? The real problem is employability assessment. According to me, the problem of employability is with the way we assess employability.
What are the initiatives of Technocrats for Student Startup, including strategies or methodologies adopted to enhance students’ teaching-learning experience?
We have Incubation Business Centre which help student to explore their start-up ideas, also we have tie-ups with many industries so that student can get expert advice from them. We, as a group, focus more on practical aspects. We have digital classes, hi-tech computer labs with over 6,000 high PCs, which give students new and enhanced learning experience.
Tell us in brief about Technocrats TIT Group.
Technocrats Group of Institutions is the Central India’s largest and leading technical education group established in 1999 in Bhopal. The group is led (we need past tense here) by a team of alums??? (what is alums? This is not English) from IITs, IIMs and Stanford University Graduate School of Business. The group comprises seven 7 (we don’t write 7 this way, consult style sheet) institutes, 15,000+ students and over 1,100 faculty members on campus. The institutes offer courses from Under graduation up to doctoral level in Engineering, Management and Pharmacy domains.
The group has been recognised as the “Best Engineering Institute in Central India” by Union HRD Minister of State (Dr) Satya Pal Singh in ASSOCHAM summit and companies like Cognizant, Accenture, Renault, Nissan, IBM, DELL among others regularly visit the group from campus recruitment drives.
We have MoUs signed with Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Bhopal; Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance (CRISP), Bhopal; King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi, Bangkok (Thailand); University of Central Missouri, United States; University of Cincinnati, Ohia, United States; Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia.
