In this week’s edition of Fixing the Bug, Shivangi from CodeQuotient sat down with Prof. Vikas Singh to have a candid conversation about the IT job landscape in India. Prof. Singh is the founder and current vice-chancellor of Geeta University. He shared his valuable observations and insights on the direction of Indian tech education and the job market.
What is X-edge in education?
Geeta University claims that its students have an X-edge in education. Prof. Singh explains the meaning of X-edge, calling it an extra edge. In essence, it is the practice of implementing hands-on learning into university education.
There’s no doubt that college education in the technical fields can easily become too syllabus-oriented. However, providing an extra edge to students means giving them the freedom to explore the realities of the corporate and real world. CodeQuotient’s partnership with Geeta University is one of the first steps the university has taken to make its students more capable of working in real-world scenarios.
This edge in education is vital for learners who want to go into entrepreneurship as well. Today entrepreneurship is an option for many tech professionals. Knowing how to get actual work done will play a key role in entrepreneurship.
Technology in higher education
Nothing in human history has changed education more than technology. Dissemination of knowledge started with printed books, but the internet accelerated it exponentially. The role of a teacher, consequently, has changed. Now teachers do not need to teach per se since information and data are already available on the internet. Instead, their primary responsibility now is to motivate students and give them direction.
Technology has revolutionised recruitment as well. Today, a company can conduct recruitment drives in colleges across the country. Geographic restrictions curbed the prospects of most students in Tier-2 and Tier-3 colleges. In the post-covid world, virtual recruitment drives have become the norm. The playing field is now more even than it has ever been.
Making the most of technology is essential for anyone who wants to be successful, regardless of discipline. Basic IT skills are no longer for engineering graduates only. It is a vital life skill in 2022 as the ability to speak English.
Changing times requires changing mindsets
Stability is a keyword in Indian life at large. Everyone chases stability, be it career or relationship. But as the Great Resignation and other events have shown, stability in a job does not equate to staying in the same company or field all your life. When you have a growth mindset, you can identify new possibilities and opportunities that may lie outside your comfort zone. Chasing those goals is much easier now than ever before.
Adaptability and changing according to requirements brings us to another underrated job/life skill – soft skills.
Soft Skills
Soft skills may not seem like the primary driver of success in the corporate world, but it is crucial, no matter your skill area. The common notion is that professionals in backend jobs do not need to hone their soft skills. Unfortunately, that turns out to be false. While backend professionals do not require as much proficiency in soft skills as frontend professionals, they still need it to climb up the ladder.
Developing soft skills is not something that college curriculums traditionally deal with, particularly in engineering disciplines. It is seen as a sales skill rather than an overall career skill. But as we invent new job roles, everyone needs to have some soft skills proficiency.
You cannot develop soft skills by reading books or watching tutorials. You have to go out there and talk to real people to develop soft skills. It’s in high-pressure situations that you come to realise the true value of soft skills.
Time management
Like everything else, technology has two sides, and they often overlap. We cannot deny the distraction that smartphones have brought to our lives. Studies show that an average person spends more than 3 hours on their smartphones in a day. According to Prof. Singh, managing distraction and time are the two biggest challenges for Gen Z learners.
As the need of the hour, we need to start considering time management as a learnable skill instead of an intuitive ability. Since time management is not an institutionalised discipline yet, learners have to take it upon themselves to gain this skill. However, there are a lot of resources available on the internet that can help you learn the art and science of managing time.
Gen Z faces some unique challenges when it comes to education. For the most part, the generation itself has to figure out the answers. Here again, the role of educators is to motivate them and keep them on track.
What the founder of Geeta University wants you to know about life and success
Prof. Singh believes that the key to success is goal setting. Nothing can stop you if you know your goals and how to achieve them. At the same time, the role of teachers is to ensure that learners do not deviate from their goals. When you have a specific objective in mind, achieving it seems much simpler. Chasing a vague objective is often much more difficult.
We hope to have given you some valuable insights into the present and future of engineering education in India. For more resources, check out the CodeQuotient blog and the Fixing the Bug podcast.
