The New-Nonnalin Higher Education

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Plotting the safest route toEducation Loans

: THE ULTIMATE'CHOICE OF CORPORATEEducation deficits can hinder a society in

isolation, but in a globalized world thesedeficits can be even more detrimental toa country's economy and development.

By merging many national markets into one globalmarket, globalization increases the competitivepressures faced by individuals, companies, andsocieties. Management and Technical education hasbeen a vital component of the successful globalizedprogress.

The biggest challenge in India's growth and futureis the shortage of the skilled employees across theindustries. According to NASSCOM, each year over 3million graduates and post-graduates are added to theIndian workforce. However, of these only 25 percentof. technical graduates and 10-15 percent of othergraduates are considered employable by the rapidlygrowing IT and ITES segments. The need of industryis knowledge and skills acquired with an eligibility toinclude skill-ready employees from day one. So, whatwe have today is a growing skills gap reflecting verysmall availability of high-quality college education inIndia and the multi-fold growth pace of the country'sservice-driven economy, which is growing faster than

most countries in the world. Thus, there is a needfelt for the integration of job and learning,

thus creating a need for customizedprograms for the industry.

The spectra of a severe shortage of trained,skilled and knowledge workers is haunting IndiaInc., while demographics weigh in the country'sfavor, quality of workforce does not. A look at theIndian education system will reveal that the numberof technical schools in India, including engineeringcolleges, has actually more than trebled in thelast decade, according to the All India Council ofTechnical Education. Ironically, creating a robustand continuous pipeline of talent has become evenharder. The best and most selective universitiesgenerate too few graduates, and new private collegesare producing graduates of uneven quality. In thisscenario, will industry-academia partnerships bridgethe demand-supply gap?

An ideal illustration of one such effort inbridging the gap that was personally evaluated isPyramid Finishing School at NIET (Noida Instituteof Engineering & Technology), Greater Noida,where students are trained according to the industryrequirements giving individual student a 360 degreeimprovement, not only in the areas like soft skills,life skills, technical skills and etiquettes but alsoexposing the students to time management, team-work and project management. In the pioneer studyconducted at NIET, it was observed that the studypopulation (ones who studied this amalgamatedcurricula), when reached their fifth and seventh

semesters to face placement drives,showed a stupendous rise in placementfigures by 400% as compared to thecontrol group (who were not subjectedto the additional finishing schoolcurriculum).

Noida Institute of Engineering andTechnology (NIET) is an acclaimedinstitute offering high qualityeducation to all section of students.NIET is located on an extensivestate-of-the-art campus in GreaterNoida-a hub of global MNC's. Theinstitute has a sprawling area of 13.90acres and a lush green campus. It isemerging as a centre of excellence,imparting management & technicaleducation and generating competentprofessionals with a high degreeof credibility, integrity and ethicalstandards.

NIET believes that to set up abenchmark in the real world, studentsneed to widen their mental horizonand develop their thinking abilityto tackle the challenges of complexbusiness environment, globalizationand rapid change, The Total StudentDevelopment Program (TSDP)emphasizes on every aspect ofstudents' personality, helping themdevelop interpersonal skills, technicalskills and business skills. It workstowards the identification of weakstudents through constant monitoring.Special Study Schedule for weakstudents focuses towards theirprogress. After implementation ofthis program our results have shown atremendous improvement.

Creativity, lateral thinking andcommunication/people managementskills are essential components forprogress in any sphere. Students are

"Creativity, lateralthinking andcommunication/peoplemanagementskills are essentialcomponents for

•progress In anysphere "

encouraged to develop these throughgoal setting exercises, groupdiscussions, mock interviews andpresentations. Interested studentscan also learn foreign languages oncampus. The depth of technical skillsthat students develop, depend to a greatextent on the course they have chosen.However, all students are given aconceptual grounding in core skillsand application orientation throughreal time projects to ensure their skillsare concurrent with market needs. Allstudents are taught essential businessskills through industry interactionas well as innovative channels likeMarketing and Finance clubs. The

institute believes that trainingwill make them stand in

a position,where

they will learn about technicalities oftransition from employee to employer.NIET invites guest faculty fromvarious MNCs to attend the seminarsconducted at the campus. The topicschosen are oriented towards growthand well being. The students thus geta chance not only to learn from thefaculty but also to discuss and debatethe concepts they learn with thedecision makers of the economy.

Achieving quality standards inemployability has fuelled the settingup of the Pyramid Finishing School(PFS) by the management of NIET.The PFS at NIET provides students',the practical trainings with real lifescenarios. The students from allwalks of life have gained tremendousconfidence and have polished theirpersonalities to a Global Level in the"Art of Business Etiquette", "SocialGraces", "Confidence Building" ,"International Etiquette", "LeavingLasting Impressions" and "RemovingShyness", etc. This process is initiatedin the early semesters of their coreprograms thereby amalgamating it

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with their standard curricula.NIET mainly focuses on bridging

the industry-academia gap by bringingthem closer to each other. For the same,the Institute has made tie-ups with bigshots like Microsoft, Oracle, KPMG,IerCI Direct and Prometric. Thesetie-ups not only promises to enhancestudent employability by manifold,but also takes the lead in encouraging'innovative' learning like never before.Building on their illustrious trackrecord in helping students to connectto future challenges, NIET has takentheir ability to deliver industry readyhuman resources to the next level,by partnering with Microsoft as anexclusive Ed-vantage PLATINUMcampus. The institute becomes the firstcollege to have Microsoft InnovationCenter in entire North India, whichwill create 250 internships and over100 placement opportunities for thestudents of NIET in a year. We alsohave a tie-up with KPMG to provideSix-Sigma Certification Course to thestudents which will get them jobs notonly in KPMG but with its clients aswell. Oracle Workforce DevelopmentProgram is training students over Javaand Oracle Database Management.IerCI Direct Center for FinancialLearning provides PGDM students

"The institutehas become thefirst college tohave MicrosoftInnovationCenter in entireNorth India "

expertise on Capital Markets.Pro metric Test Center in the instituteis providing students a platform togive the various certification exams ata subsidized cost and thus encouragethem to go for numerous learningoptions.

NIET, besides, being famous forproviding the outstanding placementsto its students, has been awardedwith Best Placements Award in theregion for consecutive two years andhas also won many other accoladesfor its outstanding efforts towardsbridging the industry academia gap.After showing its potential in India,the Institute has now started tappingthe International Organizations toget the jobs for its students. SaharaComputers, South Africa has recruitedFour students from NIET.

Moreover, NIET has opened aplacement office at Dubai, locatedat the Jumerah Lake Tower. Thishas been done with a vision to bringmore core companies of Civil,Mechanical and Chemical branchesfor the campus placement drives.The Institute also has a consultingfirm, Manria Consulting, in Dubai tohave a continuous interaction with themajor firms. The efforts have resultedin partnership with Adnoc (AbuDhabi), Boodhai Group of Companies(Saudi Arabia), Caterpillar (SaudiArabia), Indosol (Abu Dhabi), etcfor International Placements. Thesecompanies would be offering anaverage salary of $1000-1200 plusfood, accommodation, health & lifeinsurance, and one to-&-fro travel tohometown in India to the students ofNIET.

The placement success story atNIET, Greater Noida has proventhat if innovative solutions from theacademia are initiated, understandingthe needs and are downloaded tostudents, it will help industriesto meet their business needs forhigher productivity, lower costs, andincreased efficiencies III