Today Globalisation has come to stay and the Indian economy is integrated with developed economies. Liberalisation process initiated by the Indian Government in the early 1990s has set the faster growth path for the economic development of the country. The growth rate of around 9% during the last year is an indication of the emerging potentialities in different sectors of the economy.

The policy planners are projecting ambitious growth targets for the future based on the various opportunities and all round development envisaged in the decades to come. But as the past experience indicates,our approach to meet the targets lack conviction and direction due to various complexities involved in the economic progress. There are two new issues which will play crucial roles in achieving the goals set for ourselves in the globalised economy. First is competing with and managing the global players entering the country in various sectors and second is enhancing the capabilities of our domestic players to make forays into the lucrative global markets. To compete with and manage global players in India and to make strong penetration into the global markets, a strong and effective technological human resource is required.We have in our country a fairly good educational infrastructure and a competent industry. We have pioneer educational institutions in the country which produce world class graduates. Some of the graduates produced by our institutions are most sought after in the global corporate. But the volume of those who are performing well in the global enterprises is just a miniscule percentage compared to the graduates who pass out of our institutions all over the country.

Already the industry is complaining about the employability of our engineers and productivity constraints at various levels of the industry. Also the entry of multinationals in various segments of the economy and the advent of emerging technologies in various production processes and services have created the demand for enhanced skill levels for our human resource to meet the dynamic needs.

But the dynamic demands of competitive global and domestic markets and increased demands for higher quality standards for products and services is putting the industry and academia in a challenging situation. To survive and succeed in this scenario, we must understand the importance of the quality of human resource in production and services.

But Individual industries cannot afford to have structured programs for its human resource development programs to meet the ever increasing demands,because their main profession is industry. Developing the skills of human resource is a specialty requiring a focused and dedicated effort. Likewise Education institutions cannot have a dedicated skill development initiative for their students on their own, because already they are over burdened with imparting knowledge in many subjects for their students. Also the technology development is putting enormous pressure on the curriculum development.

Need for Industry Institute Interaction

Here comes the joint initiative of the Industry and the educational institutions. All ready we have some initiatives taken like the Industry-Institute Interaction programs initiated by the government, industry and the educational institutions.

We have powerful industry organizations in the country which have enormous political and financial power to make policy changes of the government .We have over 1000 quality ngineering colleges with a fairly good infrastructure and teaching faculty. We do have some pioneer technology research institutions which are doing a reasonably good work in research.

The initiatives taken by the policy planners,educational institutions and the industry in the Industry Institute interaction program is grosslyinadequate and is in bits and pieces. It is time that Industry and Institutions join together to substantially improve the employability of young graduates and productivity of our already working human resource.

The Engineering colleges impart knowledge on various engineering faculties to the students. The lack of imparting hands on field experience in engineering faculties creates serious employability problems for the graduates and the industry. In other words, the graduates who come out of the colleges are not well prepared to take up jobs immediately on completion of the course.

The educational institutions cannot do much in this regard without the support of the government and the industry. The industry and the industry organizations also do not have the infrastructure and dedicated teaching faculty to impart training for skill development. But the industry now feels the need to upgrade the skills of the graduates. Also the engineering colleges could also feel the inadequacies of their graduates during the placement programs. But the placement process has brought together the industry and institutions together to a great extent. Now the industry shares their skill requirements with the institutions and most of the colleges have a reasonably good placement department working to improve the placement potentialities of their students.

Need for Integrated Approach

What is required is an integrated approach to the issue. Now the industry and the institutions know what is required of the graduates and the employability issues. What is required is to develop a mechanism in the Industry Institute Interaction in the form of an effective and continuing professional development program for the students. If the industry gets employment ready graduates, it can have enormous technical and financial benefits. Likewise if the institutions can provide employment ready graduates it will help the students to become productive immediately on completion of the course and thereby improve their stature as a productive institution.

Construction Industry - Need for Skill Development

Construction industry is a vital sector of the economy which is one of the fastest growing segments in the country and also providing great opportunities for the industry to make strong nroads into other world construction markets. Construction industry in India is one of the least organized segment where there is tremendous scope for improvement with regard to technology upgradation and mechanization.This is one segment where skill development  from the grass roots to managerial skills is immediately required to improve the quality standards and efficiency. Cost effective and quality construction are going to play vital role in the industry and any enterprise in the construction industry has to focus seriously on these issues if at all it wants to survive, if not to prosper. Employability problems and productivity constraints in the construction sector require the serious attention of the industry. Industry Institute Interaction has a great role in addressing such issues and makes the Indian construction industry effective in meeting the growing internal demands and become globally competent and competitive.

Initiatives Required

Many initiatives are required for intensifying the Industry Interaction a few immediate and definite strategies will go a long way in improving the standards of production and services in the country to make India an economic power house of the future.The curricula must integrate field exposure to the students from first year of education itself, rather than having a final year training or post graduation internship.Some of the sandwich courses in our colleges are examples in this regard. But even in this case much improvement is required.

Practitioners Must Teach; Teachers Should Practice

First and foremost is to introduce compulsory Industry - Institute exchange programs. After considerable research, the American Society of Civil Engineers have concluded about a decade ago that the quality of education and productivity of civil engineering graduates can improve only if Practitioners become part time teachers and Teachers getting exposure in actual practice. Successful industry professionals and managers must be made to teach in institutions. Even though guest faculty system is there in our institutions, it is not very effective in Tier II and Tier III towns. The Tier I city students normally get a good exposure and opportunity to interact with industry professionals. So there must be a compulsory provision in the curricula to introduce subjects of field exposure, for which the faculty should be from the industry. Many industry organizations in our country are having a pool of field experts onvarious faculties of engineering. Such experts must be made as faculty in the institutions. The involvement of industry associations like CII, Institution of Engineers, Association of Consulting Civil engineers,Indian Institute of Architects etc will go a long way in providing faculty for different subjects on a permanent basis. Industry in turn can sponsor some of the faculty for important subjects which they feel will improve employability.

Likewise experienced and passionate teachers with sufficient years of teaching experience may be asked to work in the field in different environments. For example Civil engineering faculty with 5 years teaching experience may be asked to go on employment in reputed construction firms for a period of one or 2 years from the start to completion of big projects. This will enable the teachers to learn the practical aspects of construction planning, design and management. After the deputation period, if the teachers come back to teaching, they will be able to provide the students the much needed field experience along with the theory. Industry also requires qualified teachers in some of their activities like structural engineering, foundation engineering, pre-stressed concrete and so on.

The Industry Institute Interaction can be drawn under two broad approaches.

• Industry Participation in training of students
• Institution Initiatives

Industry can sponsor skill development centres in institutions and provide training facilities for teachers and students. Teachers must be trained by industry professionals on emerging field developments and ensure that field developments are taught to the students.Similarly students must also be trained in such centres on practical aspects of engineering. This training should start from first year of education itself. Effective and creative modules of training can be developed by the industry in close consultation with the faculty and based on the curricula and industry needs.

Industry sponsored training can have two parts.

Modules for Industrial Training:

First we require a training module and secondly the evaluation module. The training module will have a program with specific topic and expert faculty doing the training with suitable credits. The evaluation module is important, because whatever be training module, it can function effectively only if the nett effect of the module on the expertise of the students is evaluated at the end of the program. This training/evaluation module can provide a good platform for Industry and Institute to prepare the graduates for the industry of the future. Also the institution can consistently upgrade their curricula to suit the industry needs. This will go a long way in improving the quality standards of education and ensure that graduates are industry ready when they graduate.

Sponsored Research Programs

The industry has many problems where technology upgradation is required. Also medium and small scale industry cannot afford to have Research and Development activities due to inancial and administrative constraints. In such cases sponsored research programs can be a great boon. Industry organizations can identify areas wherever research is required and join with Institutions to have joint sponsored research programs. There are many specialized institutions in the country. Industry can join them for specific areas for research and development. This will provide opportunities for growth and innovation for the industry. Also the institutions can use such programs to upgrade their technical expertise and expose the faculty and students in technology development activities.

Institution Initiatives

Employ Industry Professionals as Faculty Already the institutions have a few field oriented programs like in-plant training, field visits and so on.But these are not sufficient to improve the field exposure as these programs are conducted rather casually by the faculty as well as the students. What is required is intense training programs to substantially improve the practical orientation for the students. This requires a separate Faculty with practical experience. Institutions normally have a basic infrastructure for training programs. What they lack is practical orientation. Every institution can employ on a permanent basis industry professionals either on a part time basis or retired industry professionals on a permanent basis as faculty in their institutions for specific programs of study.. These faculties can work with the industry and institutions to develop programs for improving skills of the students.

Such professional faculties will device programs for evaluation of skills of students and identify strengths and weaknesses of the students. This will provide opportunities for the students to work in areas of strengths and improve in areas of weaknesses.Also this will provide the students an opportunity for self-evaluation to enable them choose their careers in the future.

Students may be asked to do yearly projects and the industry can support these projects. This may be a tall order when you consider the enormous number of subjects the students need to study during the course .The yearly projects can be during the semester holidays on industry specific needs.

Industry must come out with industry specific short term field oriented projects based on the curricula. . But more number of practical projects during every year will go a long way in improving the practical orientation.

Government Initiatives

Government can deploy funds so that money is available for Industry Institute Interaction effectively. But as of now the funds earmarked are not effectively used for such programs. government from time to facilitate consistent interaction till a structured mechanism is put in place for intense co-operation between them. Government also should ensure step by step improvement of quality skill improvement in the institutions and should make it mandatory for the industry to part take in such programs. Industry may be made to contribute a small percentage of their annual turnover for funding Industry Institution Programs. Similarly Interaction programs must be made mandatory for Educational Institutions with proper evaluation mechanisms to ensure that such programs do not be in paper, but are actually conducted.Motivation for institutions can be in the awarding Star Status with financial and other incentives (like AICTE) for those institutions who focus on Industry Institute Interaction Program.

Incubation Centres

Government can develop incubation centres with state of the art technology and equipment in select institutions which should be open to all other educational institutions and all students. Such incubation centres must be centres for promoting creativity,innovative skills and excellence. Expert faculty from the academia, research institutions and the industry must manage and monitor such incubation centres with industry specific and technology specific knowledge dissemination & research programs. Students and faculty will get the opportunity to avail the facilities and expertise in such incubation centres for skill development and improving their creativity.Such centres can be established throughout the country on a step by step basis to each maximum number of students and to serve the industry. Universities and Industry can be joint partners in such incubation centres to promote high technology among the students and also to provide Human resource for high technology industry projects.

Conclusion

If the country wants to become competent and competitive with developed countries in the future, it is imperative that we make our engineering graduates with world class education and expertise and make them industry ready on completion of the course of study. Also the innovative and creative skills of the students must be nurtured carefully so that they can creative and productive in their future work places. The country's responsible industry and equally responsive educational institutions can definitely join together with the support and motivation of the
government to make the Indian Industry and Institutions among the best in the world by making Industry Institute Interaction more effective and vibrant.

S Pichaiya ,Ex. President, ACCE