SUSE Partners with Karunya University to Make Engineers Employable
In one of the very first initiatives of its kind, SUSE and Novell have partnered with Karunya University, Coimbatore, to ensure its students are industry-ready.
Out of the many interviews that we have conducted with recruiters asking them about what they look for in a candidate, one common requirement seems to be knowledge of open source technology. As per NASSCOM reports, between 20 to 33 per cent of the million students that graduate out of India’s engineering colleges every year, run the risk of being unemployed.
The Attachmate Group, along with Karunya University, has taken a step forward to address this issue. Novell India, in association with Karunya University, has introduced Novell’s professional courses as part of the university’s curriculum. Students enrolled in the university’s M. Tech course for Information Technology will be offered industry-accepted courses. Apart from this, another company of the Attachmate Group, SUSE, has also pitched in to make the students familiar with the world of open source technology.
Speaking about the initiatives, Dr J Dinesh Peter, associate professor and HoD I/C, Department Of Information Technology, said, “We have already started with our first batch of students, who are learning SUSE. I think adding open source technology in the curriculum is a great idea because nowadays, most of the tech companies expect knowledge on open source technology for the jobs that they offer. Open source technology is the future, and I think all universities must have it incorporated in their curriculum in some form or the other.”
The university has also gone ahead to provide professional courses from Novell to the students. Dr Peter said, “In India, where the problem of employability of technical graduates is acute, this initiative could provide the much needed shot in the arm. We are pleased to be associated with Novell, which has offered its industry-relevant courses to our students. With growing competition and demand for skilled employees in the technology industry, it is imperative that the industry and academia work in sync to address the lacuna that currently exists in our system.”
Growth in the amount of open source software that enterprises use has been much faster than growth in proprietary software usage, over the past 2-3 years. One major reason for this is that open source technology helped companies slash huge IT budgets, while maintaining higher performance standards than they did with proprietary technologies. This trend makes it even more critical to incorporate open source technologies in the college curriculum.
Speaking about the initiative, Venkatesh Swaminathan, country head, The Attachmate Group (Novell, NetIQ, SUSE and Attachmate), said, “This is one of the first implementations of its kind but we do have engagements with universities on various other formats. Regarding this partnership with Karunya, we came out with a kind of a joint strategy to make engineering graduates ready for the jobs enterprises offer today. We thought about the current curriculum and how we could modify it to make it more effective. Our current education system places more emphasis on theory rather than the practical aspects of engineering. With our initiative, we aim to bring in more practical aspects into the curriculum. So we have looked at what enterprises want from engineers when they deploy some solutions. Today, though many enterprises want to use open source technologies effectively, the unavailability of adequate talent to handle those technologies is a major issue. So, the idea was to bridge the gap between what enterprises want and what they are getting, with respect to the talent they require to implement and manage new technologies.”
Going forward, the company aims to partner with at least another 15 – 20 universities this year to integrate its courseware into the curriculum to benefit the maximum number of students in India. “The onus of ensuring that the technical and engineering students who graduate every year in our country are world-class and employable lies on both the academia as well as the industry. With this collaboration, we hope to take a small but important step towards achieving this objective,” Swaminathan added.
About The Attachmate Group
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, The Attachmate Group is a privately-held software holding company, comprising distinct IT brands. Principal holdings include Attachmate, NetIQ, Novell and SUSE.