What should fresh engineering graduates keep in mind while looking for a job? How has the employment landscape changed in the post-pandemic world?
The current batch of engineering graduates joining the corporate sector is witnessing a major transformation, perhaps the most rapid since the Industrial Revolution. The operative words for them would be resilience, growth mindset and lifelong learning. It is important to know – what, how and why to learn.
what New engineering graduates must develop a mindset for continuous learning and upskilling. The dimensions of upskilling will be technical expertise, practical/professional skills and domain knowledge.
How – In a world ravaged by the current pandemic, even an average learner is looking at increased attention span. Blended/online/byte and nano learning are important now, but the dilemma for the learner is to choose the right material and source to enhance their knowledge level. Communication, written, verbal and non-verbal, remains an important life skill to establish a strong professional foundation.
Why?The dynamic business and technology landscape driven by digital disruption requires candidates who can learn continuously. This is where platforms such as Infosys Springboard and Infosys Foundation play an important role in training new engineering graduates.
Why is reskilling increasing in importance and how are companies focusing on helping employees with upskilling?
The rise of the VUCA world has disrupted the business model. Projects are executed in an agile and iterative manner across all industries. During these iterations, companies and organizations are constantly tweaking and innovating their products to stay ahead of the competition. All these have contributed to the need for full stack professionals and reskilling/upskilling is an integral part of development, agnostic of age, experience, gender, designation etc. Organizations now look for adjacency skills for better results. The T-shaped skill structure has given way and also coexists with the Z-shaped structure where the gifted has to learn, unlearn and re-learn.
How important is it for educational institutions to collaborate with industry to have a future-ready workforce?
A student invests about three to four years to earn a professional degree and be ready for employment. There have been many changes in technology during this period. The agility with which industry develops makes it difficult for academia and curriculum to keep pace. The National Policy on Education (NEP) 2020 now provides a framework to help bridge this gap. But, the industry needs to be an integral part of the ecosystem to help make application-oriented learning for the learner and academicians. While academic curriculum lays the foundation for a subject area, industry must take steps to apply a concept to a real-time scenario. We have launched Infosys Campus Connect to bring an industry perspective to academia. The initiative is powered by Infosys Springboard, making it easier for educational institutions to have easy access to real-life scenarios for internships and knowledge from practitioners.
How can we engage youth in research and in creating solutions at the juncture of next generation digital, AI/ML and hybrid collaboration?
Agility must be at the speed of nature to meet dynamic changes. It must be sensitive; Unless organizations imitate and imbibe hyper-responsive approaches, it will be difficult for them to survive and ace in this business world. We see digital platforms for talent transformation, commerce, democratization of learning, content aggregation, etc. while being driven by AI/ML algorithms. With such a community-driven mindset, platform partnerships, university alliances, content sharing and resultant pedagogy are helping to re-imagine.
Students need to be aware of these tectonic changes and immerse themselves in these scenarios. Research is moving out of incubation centres, and academic orientation is based on its application in industry. This can be done by internships, short-term engagement with industry during the academic period, etc. to enhance the impact.
How is Infosys enabling new and experienced managers/technology professionals to build the right skill set?
Learning is an essential part of our workforce. Freshers will compulsorily have to go through the flagship Infosys Foundation program which comprises of two training sections – Generic Stream and Career Stream. General Stream provides the foundation of IT skills to the learners, making them knowledgeable in programming aspects. The career stream is constantly refreshed to keep pace with Infosys’ aspirations, customer needs and industry trends. 45+ Career Streams are updated from time to time. We have provided trainees with learning pathways that enable them to acquire industry-ready skills such as full-stack development, cloud-native development, big data, data analytics, automated apps and IT infrastructure (using tools like Ansible), Agile, and will prepare for DevOps.
Soft skills, critical thinking and time management have emerged as important skill sets for engineering graduates. How can these skills be honed?
We need to acknowledge our work, workforce and workplace for holistic development. It helps in honing the professional and soft skills of the talent. The definition of work, for example, has evolved from in-person, remote to hybrid and gig. In these changing forms of work, it is important that talent embrace the skills to learn and invest in lifelong learning. The workforce should develop soft skills including the ability to work in teams, an appreciation of multiple global and local cultures, creative problem solving, an appreciation of multi-generational cultures, sensitivity to multi-cultural groups and ethnicities, critical thinking, creativity and time. Management included. Nurture their passion for continuous learning.
Here are some measures that need to be taken:
- Creating awareness for institutions about the importance of soft skills Academics and institutions leaders must build both a vision and a culture for how students can be an integral part of the learning they need to succeed in their post-scholastic pursuit.
- Provide the requisite soft skill development infrastructure While many institutes want to impart training in professional and soft skills, there are also constraints like budget at times. Hence, providing them assistance in any form will help them fill this gap in an effective manner.
- Enhancing industry-academic linkages Collaboration with industry is vital for academia to help our students understand the real soft skills needed in today’s world. It prepares students for the professional world from their university itself.
With Infosys Springboard, we aim to bring this balance between digital and life skills to students. While these skills have always been important, the digital and remote work environment has made them even more important. The gap in these ‘unique human’ soft skills can be bridged by creating awareness, supporting and linking them to the industry.