Action plan to fill a gap between industry and academics

Unemployment in any country is a grave concern.

It can be attributable to multiple factors like

-          Slow economic growth,

-          Slow industrial growth,

-          Lack of investment opportunities etc.

There is another important aspect which is often ignored.

While

Academia is complaining for slow job market.

Industry is complaining about non availability of quality resources.

It’s quite common to witness a sharp individual doing excellent job in interviews but fails miserably in practical scenarios. In short merely theoretical knowledge copying products and business models is no more helping graduates stand out of crowd. Even graduates aiming towards entrepreneurship, normally settles for less creative ideas like franchising instead of opting for ideas that can address the gaps with in the society.

Industry has tried to bridge this gap with on job trainings, however it’s not a permanent solution and it’s also killing the productivity.

While concern is severe but can be addressed with mutual co-operation of academia and industry. Few areas that shall be addressed are:

Revision & Alignment of Curriculum with Industry requirements

It’s time to ascertain gaps in curriculum to make it more practical. This can be achieved through involvement of industry specialists while devising the curriculum. This shall not be a onetime activity but shall be continue brainstorming activity.

Workplace exposure through internships, live projects, and corporate interactions:

Well-timed and well-deliberated exposure to the industry provides a much-needed experience to the students. They can take the form of internships or part-time projects that students can work on, which provide practical insights about how the industry operates and expose students to the current realities of the workplace. While there is no guarantee that these internships will fetch permanent jobs, it will equip the students to adjust to the needs of the business once they actually join the industry.  Such opportunities boost students’ confidence as they learn a lot by being present in the workplace.

Up-skilling the faculty: 

Apart from only focusing on the curriculum structure, it is also imperative to provide the right exposure and training to the faculty. Most of the faculty do not possess requisite industry experience which comes in the way of imparting practical knowledge about industries. It will be great if the faculty can regularly undertake short industrial projects in collaboration with industry experts. This will help ensure that the faculty is in line with the current industrial trends.

It would be great to see employers coming forward and working exclusively with the academicians to create and develop a shared model for jobs and curriculum to address their specific industry requirements. The successful model will ensure many benefits for everyone -the graduating students will find their transition into industry roles smoother, employers will be able to hire people who are skilled and job-ready and academic institutes will take great pride in seeing their students getting placed with good firms.

Industry exposure

It shall be mandatory for the graduates to have industry exposure for example Internships etc. While academia can argue that internships are already in place but in most of cases this model has failed miserably.

While for academia it’s just a formality and for industry these interns are mostly restrained to clerical activities ranging from filing of documents to setting up racks at day end. In rare case scenarios they gain relevant practical knowledge. This need to be addressed with more rigorous controls from academia towards monitoring interns as well as setting key objectives for industry to be delivered during internships.

Industry-experienced teachers & professors

Gaining industry experience shall not be restrained only to students, it shall be compulsory for the teachers and professors to have relevant industry experience. I belief theoretical model has its own worth but without practical exposure it cannot be translated into real life scenarios. This shall not imply that PHD professors are losing worth. They have own strengths with research back ground that shall be topped up with industry knowledge and to be updated regularly. In addition academia shall invite industry professionals with relevant subject knowledge to share practical insights with students. This activity shall be done regularly.

Incubation centers

Each university shall have its own startup incubators, whereby students shall be given an opportunity to share and test ideas under supervision of not only academia but also industry professional. They shall be provided with relevant resources financial or otherwise. This can ultimately not only broadens horizons of an individual but can improve Institutes ranking multifold.

Entrepreneurship and Commercial Viability

Technical knowledge shall be bridged with business knowledge. No technical project can be successful without a business case and vice-versa no project can be successful without analyzing its technical aspects.

Academia shall devise courses in a way that this gap can be addressed. Business graduates shall be able to understand technical aspects and vice versa.

Academic Research

Academic research shall be tuned towards bridge the gap between knowledge producers and knowledge users. Academic researchers shall come up research papers that are addressing core industry problems and shall be more practical. Research shall not only focused on developing new ideas & products but also ensure its practical worth.

"In short, both academia and industry has to work together to being in necessary synergies focused towards delivering quality graduates that can play effective role in economy progression."

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Till then