A cademia and industry are just like two sides of the coin, both of them coexist for the growth and development of the young aspiring professionals. The education system acts as the backbone for the students but finding jobs that match their abilities is quite difficult. Academic institutions and industries have been working in two separate sectors for a long time and both have different styles and ways of training students and freshers respectively. Collaboration of institutes with the industry helps students to understand the industry and its expectations better. It is very important for institutes to take initiatives to connect students with the industry by providing internship opportunities, training programs, skill development programs etc.
Talking about MBA students in particular, they are expected to start working from the day they join the organization. However, if the students are provided prior guidance through industrial collaborations, then they are familiar with the corporate culture and have better industrial exposure. The situation worsens when students with best academic records fail in the job interview just because they are unaware about the organizations or industrial outlook. This gives rise to unemployment which means lack of job opportunities for individuals who could have got a good job had they been trained properly about the industry. According to institutions, corporates come looking for the right person but the definition for right is different for them and different for the institutes.
Therefore, academicians have started to be more considerate towards the quality of students that they give admission to and the faculty members that they hire. Several new-age institutions have realized the importance of connecting with the organizations to train students better.
Presently there is a wide gap between the existing knowledge and the acquired knowledge i.e. academia and the industry expectations. Students acquire knowledge but they find it difficult to find employment opportunities because the expectations of the employer are different from that of the educational institutes. The academia lays emphasis on theory and helps them gain theoretical knowledge which is nowhere near to the employer expectations. There are innovative tools and techniques which institutes may adopt to fill in this existing gap between educational institutions and industry expectations. The rapid pace of the outside business environment and advanced technology must bring both academia and industry together to bridge this gap. Below mentioned are the tools and techniques to connect the institutions with industry:
- Encourage Industry exposure: Institutes must invite guest speakers from various
industries so that they can come and interact with students and share their valuable
experience with them and encourage them to participate in industrial visits.
- Make use of experiential knowledge: Provide opportunities to students to work on short
term projects with industries and make use of practice based learning and experiential
knowledge. This will help students to be well prepared before starting their corporate
journey.
- Provide training on both hard and soft skills: Students must be trained for the necessary
hard skills which may be needed by a fresher when they join an organization and soft
skills too
- Being a part of the professional societies or groups: Institutes can help students to tie up
with organization from various industries and create groups so that students can be a part
of it
- Growing skill gap: Institutions must remain in touch with the industries so that they are
aware about the new-age skills and technologies that are required to be in line with the
industry expectation. For eg. AI is need of the hour, every industry and organization is
trying to make use of Artificial intelligence and if students are trained for the same they
can be a great asset for the organization
- Curriculum upgradation: Institutes must update their syllabus often so that they do not
lack in any sphere
However, for the institutes to take these initiatives, the organizations have to be welcoming and
entertain the requests brought up by the institutes for students' upskilling and upliftment. One
way to tackle this gap is by tackling the lack of skills and job readiness in partnership with
institutes and organizations. Predicting the kind of jobs which will be available in the future is
difficult but efforts can be made to make students ready for the upcoming trends.
Developing a skilled and talented workforce is essential for India's economic growth. There is an
urgent need to invest in human capital, as no nation can progress without it. Ultimately, it is the
people behind the machines who drive success, not the machines themselves. Educational
institutions play a pivotal role in this process, serving as the backbone of any nation by shaping
healthy citizens and future leaders. Today, skill disruptions are reshaping the prosperity of global
societies. With its large youth population, India holds a demographic dividend and a strategic
advantage on the global stage. Ensuring students are both employable and ready to contribute is
critical for driving the country’s economic progress.
In conclusion, bridging the skills gap between academia and industry requires a collective effort
from all stakeholders, including educators, students, parents, academic institutions, industry
leaders, intellectuals, and nonprofit organizations.