Most of us are familiar with the paradoxes in employability skill gaps. In spite of India being a large producer of Engineering graduates in the world every year, most industry members keep sharing challenges in getting the right talent for running business for customers.
Reports from associations like Nasscom say that the employability levels are as low as 25 per cent. With a huge growth plans in various industry segments, industry is struggling to get the right talent.
Quality of technical education imparted is essential for overcoming the challenges posed to us by the increasing global demands and to prepare ourselves for the future technologies.
This critical call of the hour can only be resolved when the widening gap between the severe need for skilled workforce and the inability of our existing education system to produce them is resolved. Fortunately, many private and governmental organisations, industries are coming forward to work together to arrive at suitable solutions.
Corporates providing specialised training to students, support to faculty members, supporting curriculum design, enabling student projects etc are many such ways where industry and academia are working together in the Indian engineering education space.
This symposium of knowledge needs to be categorised in three important aspects.
The first is bridging the chasm between teaching, practice and research. These must be closely and synergistically linked, like strands of DNA. If we can do this, we will have a virtuous cycle. This virtuous cycle will really help in education playing the role in society and drive real Innovation which is an absolute must.
The second issue is that of 'multi-disciplinary' knowledge. Knowledge cannot be artificially divided into "subjects" or "departments". In our complex world today, all issues are of multidisciplinary nature, and our education must respond to that. In fact all of us who work in industry or in civil society organisations or in the government definitely know that the real issues of the world need an integrated approach of different streams of knowledge and how to apply that knowledge in real-life scenarios.
The third issue is that of "execution". In India, we have an enabling policy environment and good intentions. But the real challenge lies in execution, where one good idea executed well will have better results than hundred great ideas executed poorly.
This applies both to the government sector and the private sector. And like any other issues, there is no simple solution, we just have to go after it relentlessly and consciously, day after day, issue after issue. These important aspects of innovation synergise to one simple practice of integrating our curriculum to practical usage of real world. Wipro as a forward looking organisation has been conscious and deeply engaged in the area of education through its various educational initiatives.
In India, institutes follow conventional teaching and higher courses like engineering requires something more than the traditional teaching methods. These days we see that in many engineering colleges faculty members have started using Active Learning Methodologies which will help students effectively apply the concepts learnt to practical situations.
There has been an increase in familiarity and in-depth understanding of concepts in teaching-learning process where ever the Active Learning Methodology is applied. Some of the innovative methods that faculty member can use in their classrooms are video lectures, education trips, building relevant models, classroom presentations by students. Leveraging technology in the teaching-learning process will help the students in gaining the right skills.
Students too have shared that they see a large difference in their faculty members' teaching styles after implementing Active Learning Methodologies. They say that it's no more "teacher only teaches and students only hear". There is active participation from both the teacher and the learner. Such new learning approach with innovation will help students to prepare according to the industry demands.
Some of the innovative methods of teaching reported:
Explaining complex engineering concepts with the help of an innovative analogy which is related with day-to-day life.
Using Role-Plays in engineering classrooms.
Using Socratic Discussion Activity to enhance learner participation in classrooms
Such innovations in classrooms will help in bridging the skill gaps.
(The writer is General Manager and Head Mission10X, Wipro Technologies)