The national science foundation predicts that mastery in one of the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) is necessary for students to make countries competitive and them to be employable. Education is transforming but the way education is viewed by our younger generation is troubling. Students/ Parents worry only about getting good marks. The attitude of just studying for exams is affecting the quality of students’ knowledge and job readiness. The time to adjust to corporates best methods, use of technologies, tools and methods is affecting the overall efficiency of companies and in the long run affecting many up and coming companies to compete in global environment. The image of poor employee standards affects business so much that many companies with high growth potential cannot grow beyond the boundaries of their own state many times to expand business. Even i’m not able to grow my company too due to lack of good software guys with domain expertise. Education become a major central, front and back issue for talent hungry companies. Education is the key for students to become highly successful in career and also for country to be competitive.
Universities, colleges are still promoting education which won’t meet the rapid, innovative and agile corporation’s needs that constantly upgrade their employee’s skills to stay relevant in business. Students become uninspired and don’t believe in hard work anymore. Teachers less motivated. Universities, colleges focus on survival. clcik here to know more http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_stu_att_fin_sch_bor-student-attitude-find-school-boring
Companies find it hard to get the Young talent they need. This has made major corporations to see this as a business opportunity and entering in to education sector in a big way. World bank is providing $500 million interest free loan to Indian government to promote quality education in Indian schools.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/world-bank-offers-500-million-loan-education-india-120005484.html
Indian Government is promoting $12.9 billion programme thru Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) http://www.indg.in/primary-education/policiesandschemes/rashtriya-madhyamik-shiksha-abhiyan-rmsa .
The national board of accreditation http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in/teqip.htm is trying to make technical education relevant and dynamic and aligned to industry needs
India is bidding to get a permanent seat on prestigious Washington accord for international accreditation of Indian technical educations. This is particularly a good news for BTech engineering students since it allows them to get overseas jobs easily and can eassily study in foreign universities. More about Washington accord here http://www.washingtonaccord.org/
More about this news here http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/soon-indian-btech-degrees-may-be-recognized-abroad/articleshow/12420543.cms
Intel Corporation, Facebook, IBM like companies have given Billions of dollars for reforming education sector. Money cannot transform the practices, mind set and how education is taught in the classroom. Money can give the required infrastructure but it cannot give the skills to be a good employee. It cannot give technical expertise or intellectual capital strength. Studies should move away from subject memorization to skills focussed trainings to match what companies are looking for. My prediction is that Online education and skills certifications given by companies become more relevant and acceptable for employment than a collage degree if students don’t pay attention to learning and college courses are not aligned to what industry needs.
Companies like Microsoft with collaboration with others are brining learning experience to millions of children across the globe. According to a report from FC “products like Office 2010 and Kinect for Xbox 360 that help bring education alive for kids, the company also partners with hundreds of NGOs around the world to help young people gain access to the tools they need in order to realize their full potential. Thus far Microsoft’s Partners in Learning program has channelled $500 million toward education systems around the world, reaching more than 196 million teachers and students in 114 countries.”
More on this here http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/reporting/serving-communities/education/
Microsoft Imagine cup encourages students to solve world’s toughest problems.
http://www.imaginecup.com/ and https://www.dreamspark.com/
Microsoft employees are encouraged to go and teach in schools and colleges under Technology Education and Literacy in Schools scheme. More here http://tealsk12.org/
When I came back from US I was interested to do something to our student community. I have seen many instances of money given to institutes or colleges not giving the results I expected. So I decided to volunteer myself to teaching and to enrich their skills thru my blogs. I constantly upgrade my knowledge of what companies look for in students and try my best to transfer that knowledge to them. Not many students read blogs nor i get a chance to go to every college but I’m hoping that students will realize that their involvement is what will shape their career and this country’s future. My contribution to my country’s young is to do my best to bring grass root student to global employee standards.
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