Varsities not equipping students with skills needed for jobs Tech colleges cling on to old courses
Professionals with expertise in areas such as cyber security, big data and Hadoop, mobile application development, cloud application development, the internet of things (IoT), automation and robotics, artificial intelligence, and scripting languages including AngularJS and Node.js are in high demand in the IT sector. However, not all engineering colleges equip students with skills and knowledge in these areas. This proves to be one the deciding factors at the recruitment stage.
IIT Hyderabad, one of the premier institutions for the study of engineering, is leading by example. It has introduced courses in machine learning, data analytics, computer and network security, wireless networks, quantum computing, and data mining as part of its syllabus.
A senior faculty member from the IIT Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) says that the IITs adopt a policy of framing a dynamic syllabus into which new concepts can be introduced at the earliest.
He said that students have the option to choose electives based on their fields of interest and to learn about the latest concepts.
Students from state engineering colleges are not as fortunate. According to Dr Ramesh Nimmatoori, the chairman of the Aurora Group of Institutions, the B. Tech syllabus has not undergone any major revision in the past eight or nine years.
“The syllabus was restructured a few years ago. A subject that had eight chapters was revised to include only five, but the content remained almost the same. In the last revision, in 200809, only 25 percent of the syllabus was changed. The remaining 75 per cent remained unchanged,” he said. This syllabus applies to nearly 250 engineering colleges in the state.
However, a few of the 20odd private autonomous colleges are in a slightly better position. MLR Institute of Technology, Dundigal, is one such autonomous college which offers courses in big data analytics, IoT, and mobile application development to CSE students.
Marri Rajashekar Reddy, the chairman of the college, said that the institute makes an effort to revise its syllabus every two years keeping in mind the latest trends in the market and demands of the industry. “To ensure that the teaching faculty remains up to date on new concepts, we conduct faculty development programmes during the summer vacations,” he said.
Prof. G.V.K.Reddy, a senior professor, says that state universities are not as agile or open to incorporating new concepts in the syllabus as institutes such as the IITs are.