Thaindian News

Chennai, June 30 (IANS) It is the responsibility of colleges to train the students in the fundamentals of the course while industries should provide the fresh recruits with the requisite training and skill set - this was the unanimous view of speakers at an interactive session held here.

“Institutes will train students in basics. Industries can adopt colleges and train the students so that they are aware as to what the industry looks for in them,” said M.S. Shunmugam of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.

He was speaking at an interactive session on Tamil Nadu Manufacturing Outlook 2011-12 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Wednesday.

According to John Devadason, unit head of Apollo Tyres Ltd Chennai operations, the company is tying up with local educational institutions so that its employees can pursue B.Tech courses and the company officials also teach the students on tyre production technologies.

“There is no separate course curriculum on tyre technology, as a result the students are benefited with our teaching,” he said.

The tie-up with educational institutions has resulted in reduction in attrition rate, he said.

Asked if the industries were trying to shift the training burden on to the educational institutions, Shunmugam said: “Educational institutes cannot churn out industry ready graduates. Industry has to train the fresh graduates. Industry has to invest in people.”

Giving the industries’ perception, N.K. Ranganath, managing director at Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd, said: “Most of the engineering graduates are unemployable and many colleges do not have proper facilities.”

“Industries look at the basic skill sets in a recruit. We expect the institutes to impact such skills in their students, and companies can take on from there,” said Jayakumar Ramdass, managing director at Mahendra Submersible Pumps Pvt. Ltd.

Stressing the important role played by micro, medium and small enterprises (MSME) in the economic development of a state, R. Mahadevan, group technology director at India Pistons, said the involvement of SMEs in Indian economic development is below expectations.

According to Ramdass, MSMEs need a Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) similar to the one for the textiles industry so that they are able to upgrade their operations.

Predicting downturn for next three quarters, Ranganath said Tamil Nadu is lagging behind among the four southern states in terms of growth rates.

He said the vision of policy-makers is short-sighted and restricted to five years.

“For developing power sector, one needs a vision for 25 years. We have to make development widespread and take the industries away from Chennai,” Ranganath added.