AN ARRESTED VIRTUOUS CIRCLE?
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Modifications and enhancements to curriculum. The IT industry has been in the forefront of demands for changes in the educational curriculum in India as a result of the industry perception that the quality of existing graduates is low. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), only about 25 percent of technical graduates and 10 to 15 percent of general college graduates are currently suitable for employment in the offshore IT and business product outsourcing (BPO) industries, respectively (NASSCOM 2005).12 NASSCOM has signed memorandums of understanding with the UGC and the AICTE to strengthen professional education in line with the IT industry’s requirements for skilled professionals. A key component is a mentorship program between a higher education institution and a firm. Some examples of these mentoring relationships are those of Zensar with VIT; Pune XANSA with Jammu University; Pixtel Technologies with the ISB Engineering College, Ghaziabad; and Pixtel Technologies with the Galgotia College of Engineering, Greater Noida. In addition, companies such as ITC InfoTech, Accenture, SUN, MindTree, Microsoft, and Patni are undertaking faculty training programs. NASSCOM is also piloting a “finishing school” for engineering graduates who are still seeking employment. One pilot was conducted during May and June 2007 for a period of eight weeks in eight institutions, including IIT Roorkee and seven National Institutes of Technology (NITs): Khozikode, Durgapur, Kurushetra, Jaipur, Surathkal, Thiruchirapalli, and Warangal. The “finishing school” addresses both technical and soft skills development and is staffed by trained faculty and practicing IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) industry consultants. The students receive an opportunity to reinforce key basic engineering skills and, in addition, acquire industry-specific knowledge, soft skills, and management and employment skills (NASSCOM 2007). Some NASSCOM members have intensively promoted training and supplementary education for their recruits and employees. Wipro Technologies has had an Academy of Software Excellence for over 10 years; the Infosys Campus Connect program (see box 2) is about 5 years old. The extent of remediation efforts being undertaken by the IT industry is an indication of the inappropriate training of graduating engineers from higher education institutions, at least from the point of view of the IT sector.13 These industry initiatives are in addition to a private training industry that began to develop along with the growth of the IT sector and has now diversified into training for back-office operations, retail employment, and the like. The courses do not have a certification other than the brand name of the institute.14 The responsibility for quality assurance therefore rests with the student. Some pharmaceutical firms have also developed linkages with universities, for example, through continuing-education PhD programs with universities for their lab researchers.15 These linkages, however, are restricted to a few institutions. Bhattacharya and Arora (2007) find that of seven select universities, only three (IIT Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Delhi University) interacted actively with industry in curriculum design across departments. In two (Pune and Jadavpur) such interaction was linked to a few departments, and Hyderabad University and the Indian Institute of Science reported no such linkages. These limited relationships may become