The T-School Survey 2017: Creating Future-Ready Workforce

The existence of traditional job-roles in the IT industry is at risk, given the fact that bots and automation are fast eating into them. This is making T-Schools conscious as well as anxious. As a result, T-Schools are now showing the signs of change and are aligning to the industry requirements. They are partnering with IT firms to offer students hand-son experience on latest technologies – cloud, IoT, AI, robotics and cyber security, etc.

India’s IT sector has so far been successful because of the people it employed. Engineering colleges spread across India have thus been equal partners in the sector’s growth. While the government owned colleges – IITs, IIITs and NITs, etc – remained in the forefront of supplying the necessary skill sets, the private engineering colleges also played a key role in empowering the IT sector. The demand has always been high for the right kind of talent. And it stands true even today. Although automation and the US president’s focus on Americans are eating into a lot of jobs which Indians held traditionally, it is believed that the market will still be hungry for graduates who are equipped with the latest skills – big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality and cyber security, among others.

The Dataquest-CMR T-School Survey has always played a key role in identifying the best T-Schools in the country – private as well as government; thereby helping the students and the employers to find out the best colleges in a particular region or pan India. At the same time, the survey has worked as a benchmark for institutions which want to be in the list. Because of the T-School Survey, the engineering colleges in the country perennially remain on their toes to improve the quality of infrastructure, faculty, academic environment and industry interface, etc. Like every year, this year’s survey does also present a picture of the engineering education in the country.

T-Schools vs Automat ion

This year’s survey brings forth a wide array of facts. It outlines how most of the colleges are endeavoring to align themselves to the industry requirements so that they can provide the latest skill sets to handle the new roles, which robots and bots aren’t yet capable of. This is a positive sign, given the fact that engineering graduates aren’t usually prepared to take any role in the industry. It surfaced in the survey conducted by Aspiring Minds. The survey had outlined that 95% engineers in India were not employable. Aspiring Minds had claimed that the graduates could not even write code. It happened due to two flaws existed in the colleges – the substandard teachers and disconnect with the industry. This problem continues to ail many of the private T-Schools even today. However, many of them have now taken it seriously and tried to address the issues with quality faculty members and guest teachers.

Employers vs T-Schools
The T-School survey gives ample insight into the education landscape in India and plays a key role in driving the hiring activity in the country. Employers – TCS, Wipro, HCL, Infosys, Cognizant, IBM, MindTree and many others often go to T-Schools which have made to the list. However, as pointed out earlier, employers (IT companies) need to change the process of hiring the quality talent. It has been found that most IT companies in their campus hiring focus on the aptitude test. They do not take the coding test. This has given the wrong message to the colleges. This is the reason that they do not teach the necessary coding skills to their students. Experts believe that their campus hiring needs to include certain coding test so that the graduates entering the industry are able to handle critical roles in the future and be able to upgrade as per the needs. It is highly important in the current scenario where job roles are becoming redundant and botdriven. Ability to grab new skills from time to time is critical to stay relevant in today’s world.

Top 100 T-Schools of India for 2017