Rest in Peace

It had the pathos of Shakespear’s Comedy of Errors. A few weeks ago, during

a chat with a journalist of a business magazine, I agreed that career courses in

information technology that led to the meteoric rise of this unique industry in

India, would have to be killed. The industry would have to undergo a

transformation and would see a greater role being played by the formal school

and university sectors and private training institutes.

First and foremost, computer education is not dead–far from it. In fact,

the Indian software industry has barely scratched the surface of the global

software opportunity and American and European CIOs are vying for tickets to

come to our country and outsource applications and processes to Indian

companies. What is dead however, is the old warhorse — the career course.

The career course was originally intended to keep 18 year olds out of their

homes and out of trouble for three years through a progression of semesters

teaching everything from fundamentals, programming and analysis to every

esoteric version number of software products as well as software engineering and

information management. This offering is no longer relevant for two reasons —

first, recruitment at software companies has come down to 10% of its volume

during the software boom and this need is adequately served by the hundreds of

engineering colleges and MCA institutions in the country. Second, the current

trend shows an increased focus on technology agnostic solution blueprinting

where modeling and use cases are more relevant than the programming task itself

and traditional careers in programming are an endangered species.

There are two major focus areas for all course planners and curriculum

designers —redesigned content and a new delivery method. Courses have to be

application oriented in order to meet the needs of the industry. And this means

more than adding a desultory session or two of finance or manufacturing that

used to pass for ‘management’ input in training centers. Specific courses

need to be researched and designed, which will bridge IT with banking, financial

services, insurance, retail, manufacturing, telecom, utilities and healthcare.

These should also cover a host of other sectors. A well designed course in IT

for retail, for example, would cover all aspects of point of sale, merchandise

management, data warehousing and logistics. A professional who has undergone

such a course would be an asset to any firm.

Delivery methodologies too need to be substantially reengineered to ensure

high quality education across the vast cultures of our country. The traditional

chalk and talk — read projection and Powerpoint, is no longer relevant. This

is because concepts and case studies are better covered through video or

multimedia used in synchronous or asynchronous delivery. Computer based training

and Web learning technologies are best used for drill and practice exercises to

ensure mastery over the subject.

The trainer’s role must morph into that of a facilitator and a mentor–available

for addressing specific queries or leading case study discussions in the

classroom. The challenge will test the most intelligent instructional design

brains but professionals like Ashish Basu of NIIT and Meena Kumari of Aptech are

certainly equipped to the task of creating the new generation courses the

student community is waiting for.

And finally, a thought for the industry warriors. At a time when all the

advertising agencies must be wetting their lips in anticipation of the great

marketing wars that happen every April, it would be good to see some educational

advertising about courses and opportunities rather than each of the majors

trying to convince themselves and their franchisees who is # 1 — in India,

Asia or the world. What matters to the students is who can provide the best

quality of education in their neighborhood–education that is well designed,

well taught and relevant for the needs of a prospective employer. A focus on

fundamentals and a willingness to mature beyond claims and hype advertising will

serve everybody well — the training companies, their shareholders and lest we

forget — the customer!

The author is deputy chairman and managing director of Zensar Technologies

and the global CEO of Zensar



He can be reached at ganesh@dqindia.com