Future-Proofing Careers: Getting College Students to Embrace Emerging Technologies
In this era of techceleration and changing business models, organizations need digitally skilled talent. nasscom FutureSkills Prime in collaboration with Dr. D Y Patil Educational Complex Akurdi, Pune organized a Digital Adda round table session on the topic, “Transforming Human Capital through Digital Skilling”, as part of the Industry Academia Conclave 2023. An august Industry panel shared their views on the topic.
To create awareness about the need for skilling in emerging technologies in college students, first and foremost the faculty needs to be trained. Only then they can disseminate this to the students, according to Dr. Amit Andre, CEO, The Data Tech Labs. He said that the biggest motivator to upskill for students and employees alike is to show them the bigger picture. In the case of students, it is important to expose the students to why they need to know AI/ ML and how it will impact their career. Applicability of skills – we need to give students insight and exposure. Similarly, if employees know the vision of the Management,
why a particular product is being brought out and why they need to upskill and what will be the outcome of their actions,they will be more than willingly to be a part of it and contribute to the vision actively.
Niloy Bakshi, Head of TA (India), VOIS (Vodafone Group), stressed on the need for business vertical heads / domain experts to go to educational institutions, spend some time and teach them different subjects. Set the expectations on what is the need of the hour at the least.
Sridevi Sira, Head – Academia, SSC nasscom, moderated the session and shared an interesting project undertaken as part of industry academia collaboration to transform human capital through digital skilling. One of nasscom FutureSkills Prime partners was looking to hire students trained in Java. So, a pilot was launched at a remote college in Maharashtra to train all final year students on the required technology. Content was curated and put on the FutureSkills Platform. To impart practical training, two industry experts from the partner organization visit the college every fortnight and spend the weekend training the students and faculty. The vision is to replicate this format across other Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges to digitally skill talent.
Sushant Kumar, India Lead – University Relations & Campus Recruitment, Tata Technologies, explained that with the pace of change at which new technologies are coming up, organizations prefer to upskill their employees rather than new hiring, through in-house L&D teams as well as third party vendors.
Kedar Taskar, MD – Faurecia Clean Mobility India, shared how they are encouraging their employees to upskill by providing short three minutes duration videos for learning. Post this contests are held where employees battle against each other and then winners get awarded. This motivates employees towards continuous learning.
Sujit Patange, Director, AI & Analytics – Engagement Delivery Head, Cognizant, highlighted the importance of soft skills. The technology landscape will continue to change; the deciding factors when recruiting is how the candidate is able to apply knowledge to solve business problems, attention to detail and last but not least, the ability to handle pressure.
All the panelists agreed that if they get Competency certified resources who are mapped to a particular job role – it would help them in their decision making. Such certifications also give the candidates an edge over others. The organizations will be happy to give preference to nasscom certified resources.
Sridevi also shared that the Government of Maharashtra is keen to make it the skills hub of India. An MoU to the same effect has been signed by nasscom FutureSkills Prime with Maharashtra State Faculty Development Association, Department of Technical Education, and the Department of Higher Education. Loud applause from the audience followed. The event was attended by 250+ students, faculty and academicians.
Written by Kaamna Jain