Training and Skills Development:Academic Institutes.

The employability of fresh graduates – including engineering and management professional, is pegged at around 30 to 40 percent in all the surveys. Even those graduates who do get employed fail to realize their full potential and hence the job satisfaction is generally low amongst the new entrants in to professional work force. There are many reasons for this sub optimal achievement of employment potential. However the major shortcomings – which can be overcome by timely industry oriented training and skills development intervention, are as under:

• It is generally forgotten that the permanent edifice on which all skills and knowledge reside are ethics, values and character. If the edifice is weak and it is compromised for short term gains the infrastructure of skills and knowledge collapses or becomes counter productive.
• Generally students lack self awareness- what they are good in. They chase goals in sectors where they may not be exploiting their strengths instead they be exposing their weaknesses. More than the IQ it is Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Spiritual Quotient (SQ), which, count in an enduring manner. This is what top organizations pay more attention to.
• The academic focus in most colleges and universities is on “knowing’ or rote knowledge. Employer organizations look for the propensity for ‘doing’ or tacit knowledge.
• There is a content lag in what is being taught at the academic institutes and what is being practiced in real corporate organizations.
• In most cases the precious time available for industry interface through internship and project work is not utilized properly. This is considered as a mundane routine or ritual. Hence the value addition in internship programs is marginal to zero.
• Skills learnt today become obsolete tomorrow. Hence more than the immediate learning it is “learnability” which needs to be developed.

Desirability of Industry Interface: Inbuilt Interface Mechanism 

The design and pedagogy in professional studies has inbuilt mechanism for bridging the gap. There are enough slots available for practical orientation, project work and structured internship (towards the end of the courses) with the corporate entities where the scholars are expected to work later. This opportunity is generally frittered away. It is desirable that inbuilt mechanism for enhancing the employability of students is fully exploited.

Core Strengths of SSDN Technologies in Contextual Skills Development

SSDN Technologies have their core strength in training and skills development college graduates so that the candidates:

• First learn about them selves. We follow a process of mentoring to help the candidate in self -awareness.
• We encourage understanding and believing in globally acceptable ethics, values and character. This is the permanent edifice on which the infrastructure of skills and knowledge can be built.
• We offer most modern skills development programs in high demand.
• We value each student as a winner based on her intrinsic and unique strength.
• The training approach is transformational.
• All project work is taken up and guided to derive maximum value. This is possible for us due to our vast corporate clientele.
• Placement interviews are assured for each trainee.

Proposed Modalities:

In view of the need and our proven strength the proposed modalities for training and skills development intervention is as under

• Identification of unique needs and capabilities of individual students. Self-awareness goal (what I am and what are my dreams?).
• Unfolding the job opportunities, industry expectations and environment by conducting seminars, workshops and small group discussions.
• Organizing and handholding during internship projects- problem definition, design formulation, data collection and analytics and project writing.
• Generating a healthy competitive environment amongst the aspirants by holding skills based competitions under industry supervision. Select groups identified in these competitions will be trained for high end skills and employability by the industry partners with some compensation to the learner.
• Exposing aspiring candidates to job interviews – in campus or in company premises activities.
• Training select and willing candidates for the job interviews.