Industry Ready or Industry Leading!

Every now and then, we read, hear or talk about our youth not able to serve in industry effectively. Being “Industry Ready” or “Employable” is an intrinsic requirement of graduating students. Management and technical education keeps a strong focus on hands-on-experience so that students learn the way industry works. There has been genuine concern across the country and our college education system adopted pragmatic approach to relate education with livelihood.

There is an apparent difference in being pragmatic and taking right direction. Focus on short term gains has been detrimental not only for individuals and organizations but also for societies and nations. Higher education is not meant for giving industry training to learners but it is about equipping students with

1. The knowledge that is necessary for taking the industry beyond what it is at present and
2. The ability to learn continuously from all possible sources of knowledge.

In this rapidly changing world, not only organizations have to be agile but individuals must also have
a. an exposure to the emerging aspects of the discipline and
b. an ability to grasp and internalize the pieces of information and subsequently, enact and accomplish in the real world.

Industry training unveils the contemporary to the learners; education introduces them to the past, present and future. Industry training opens the world of doing – “how to” aspect to learners; education enables them to think, understand and know the implications and eventually, to devise the “new mechanisms of doing”. Training gives confidence; education nurtures curiosity. Training is for creating something that already exists; education is for creating something new. Training limits your action; education gives you an unlimited opportunity to evolve. Training is necessary, education is essential.

A recent study (http://www.pathwaysreport.org/) and (http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-Schools-Need-to/131595/?goback=%2Egde_130104_member_109359528) claims that by 2020, the world will have 2.6 million new jobs that would need masters, doctorates or professional degrees. There will be about 22% increase in jobs that would need master degree and about 20% increase in jobs will be for doctorates. It is enough to tell us the potential for higher education across the globe. Companies train the recruits to mould them according to their needs but they also look forward to the fresh capabilities that can help them in marching ahead in new territories. Let us not be only industry ready, let us be industry leading!

Urvashi Rathod