Where did you get placed?

CHENNAI: Since the academic year for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) across Tamil Nadu ends in a couple of months, the State-run universities and private institutions are gearing up to increase the number of placements by tying up with various organisations including multi-national companies.

In the last two years, the Tamil Nadu government has strengthened its placement drive by ensuring more students from State-run varsities and colleges receive good employment opportunities.

Additionally, the Higher Education Department (HED) also ensured that every government college has a placement cell with one professor heading the team to provide the link between industry and the institution.

Plan for govt colleges

For the first time, the Tamil Nadu State Council for Technical Education has proposed to conduct a training programme for placement officers, and principals of engineering and polytechnic colleges, along with representatives of industrial units through the Government College of Technology in Coimbatore.

To meet the industrial demand for skilled students and take stock of the existing skilling infrastructure, the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation has carried out a comprehensive Skill Gap Assessment Study at a cost of Rs 1.42 crore.

A senior HED official said, “This will be an important document for planning the future course of action. A report on District Skill Development Plan for 32 districts has also been prepared to identify job opportunities for students.” He added that placement cell officers in government colleges were given comprehensive training to woo companies and organisations to conduct job fairs on campus. “The placement officer will be responsible for training students to face interviews and meet company’s HR expectations, as framed by Anna University,” he said.

The placement in-charge will ensure the contact details of the placement officer is mentioned in all department brochures. Every student’s data, including marksheets of classes 10 and 12, and semester-wise performance, would be collected, and provided to the companies at the time of interview.

The official explained that every college would instruct its students to read about the company on its website before attending the pre-placement talk. “The placement officer will advise students in matters such as body language, dress code, etc,” he pointed out. “Students will be advised to avoid speaking ill of the college or university staff during interviews. This year, we expect all final-year students to find placements in areas of their interest.”

Special efforts are being undertaken to help youngsters studying in Government Arts and Science Colleges to find jobs after completion of their course. To facilitate more employment opportunities for the student community, the placement cells in the colleges have been totally revamped.

IIT-M’s strategy

Enhancement of internship opportunities is a primary goal going forward and this can be achieved by tapping into nationwide internship platforms for more online internships.

The strategic plan of IIT Madras, which was created for 2022-2027, revealed that in the current mode, online internships will thrive, but the process at IIT-M currently does not engage with companies offering such internships.

In future, the institute will also promote ‘semester-off’ programmes. Several companies, especially in the core engineering space, prefer to have students spend longer than 2 months that’s available during the summer break. While doing internship during an entire semester was not possible in the past, the online mode of coursework has given an opportunity to explore this idea further.

Judging by the kind of projects that IIT-M faculty has taken up in collaboration with the industry, there’s good potential for enhancing core opportunities for students, especially in streams such as aerospace, mechanical, civil, and metallurgical engineering. Some strategies that can be followed include the formation of department-level core employment monitoring committees, which would help identify a potential recruiter.

How pvt institutions prepare

Rajesh Khanna, president-NIIT University, said, “NU has maintained 100% placement track record since inception for all the eligible students.”

He added that market-leading organisations such as Ernst & Young, Cisco, Morgan Stanley, PWC, Data Security Council of India, IBM, Genpact, Western Union etc, have been some of the top recruiters and will be available this year also.

“The highest annual salary offered this year (up to February 2023) to a student from NU was Rs

44.27 lakh,” he added. “Students graduating from NU enjoy a high role fitment of 93% in job profiles like AI-Data Scientist, Cognitive Data Scientist, Business Analyst, Network Security Consultant, and Cyber Security Analyst with an average annual salary of Rs 7.92 lakh.

The first batch of iMBA graduates from NU has been placed across companies like Genpact, Virtusa, Nielson, Kantar etc. in roles of business analysts, social media managers, and management trainees (research).

Similarly, an MoU was signed between SRM Valliammai Engineering College and Sicame Group for hiring students through campus drive. Every year, internship opportunities are given to students for enhancing their learning, research and development activities for innovative ideas and academic-industry collaboration at various levels. Industrial visits are conducted for students and faculty members whenever required.

On the placement drive, M Balaji, group director-corporate and career services (CCS), Great Lakes Institute of Management said, “It’s good to see several leading companies across industries and current marquee recruiters offering our students a fantastic set of opportunities with varied roles.”

Importance of certification

Responding to a competitive, fast-changing labour market, both students and employers are focusing on acquiring professional certificates.

The results, which were released in Coursera’s Higher Education to Employment Survey, reflect the extent to which skills-first credentials are influencing both the university choices made by students and employer hiring decisions. It further reveals that 96% of students believe that earning a professional certificate will help them stand out to employers and get a job after graduation. 92% of employers in the country believe that a professional certification strengthens a candidate’s job application, demonstrating a widespread preference for credentials that demonstrate specific professional skills,

Similarly, 91% of students here in the country believe that a professional certificate will help them succeed in their job after they’re hired and employers in the country place a higher value on professional certificates.