Job boom ahead: Where?s the talent?

IIM-LUCKNOW director Professor Devi Singh predicted an unprecedented spurt in job opportunities as well as salaries in 2006 but added that until issues of ?employability? were addressed, the boom in the job market would not have the desired benefits.

IIM-LUCKNOW director Professor Devi Singh predicted an unprecedented spurt in job opportunities as well as salaries in 2006 but added that until issues of “employability” were addressed, the boom in the job market would not have the desired benefits.

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He also raised the issue of inadequate “quality faculty” at India’s management and technical institutes and said the big task was to produce “globally employable graduates”.

Delivering his keynote address at the Academic Interaction Meet organised by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Prof Singh predicted 16 million new jobs this year. The salaries too are expected to increase by 13.7 per cent this year thereby, getting pegged among some of the highest in the world.

“But mind you, the market has no heart. It’s a competitive world where talent would drive growth. The situation, as I see it, is such that jobs would be available but only the qualified would stand up to be counted,” the director told principals of reputed colleges who had gathered for the industry-academia interaction.

He said several companies had now begun taking in experts directly as CEOs and added that there soon would be a “guerilla war to attract talent”. However, he cautioned that unless adequate “quality stuff” was available, the emerging job opportunities in banking, telecom, hospitality industry, Information Technology, IT enabled services etc would go waste.

He said, “Talent alone would be respected in the emerging scenario. The architect who designed IIM-L is such a busy man now. He has got scores of offers since and is difficult to catch. Again, five new airlines started last year and pilots are hot property. But pilots are less, jobs are more.”

Talking about IIMs and IITs, he said, “There is pressure on us to double the intake. The counterpoint is that until we have enough number of good teachers, how would we be able to retain the quality of our programmes. Everyone is short of a good faculty.” Saying that post-1997, there has been a sudden spurt in the number of technical and management institutes, Prof Singh asked, “Has the ratio of qualified faculty and research work or PhD scholars also gone up similarly? How many top colleges have started PhD programmes?”

This, he felt, was the most alarming aspect. “There are about 1,700 odd technical/engineering colleges nationwide. But top recruiters visit only 100 odd institutes. In UP there are about 160 colleges. Of these, prominent recruiters visit only about nine. So, job opportunities are there. Question is whether we are willing to grab them?” he asked.

Prof Singh said with the markets opening up, the entry of foreign institutes in India too would start soon. “There is a debate going on at present on the issue.

But the big point is that if you are opening up in various sectors how can you stop top technical and management institutes from coming to India. And even if 1 per cent of our population could afford the cost of studying in these institute the numbers would be huge, still.”

Calling for an innovative approach to education, IIM director said non-degree programmes too, should be encouraged. Earlier, Regional Manager, TCS, UP and Uttaranchal, Jayant Krishna, delivered the welcome address and gave an update on the TCS.