A recent development in the field of education indicates the requirement to move beyond one’s formal course curriculum to meet the requirements of the industry. Higher education institutes (HEI’s) are now urging students to take up courses in advance to be ready for the industry they would be joining.
“Today, taking up certificate courses is directly linked with getting a job. Global trends emphasise on the importance of learning and value addition through add-on courses, a phenomenon yet to reach the Indian education system.” said the officer on special duty, at the
campus of open learning, University of Delhi.
Some of the popular value addition courses include Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Data Computing etc. “Demand for multi-skilling is enabling students specialising in fields like Medicine or Chartered Accountancy opting for certificate courses in management or data science,” shares Uma Shankar Pandey.
According to Tapan Kumar Nayak, the director of Jaipuria School of Business, the trend of being industry ready was facilitated by the entry of the Edtech companies in the education sector around seven years ago. Since then, this trend has been growing rapidly. According to others,
the skills students acquired during their higher education were enough. But today the industry expects students to come with a varied number of interests and skillets and certification courses are just what the students need.
According to industry insiders, practical learning along with theory helps students to be more savvy. Industry insiders project that the following requirements in the industry would be to join hands with academia and disseminate the knowledge to the masses as quickly and clearly as possible.
Level one courses have seen a three-fold increase in the number of students applying for these courses. According to the co-founder of Skillslash, “Certificate courses are generally in collaboration with an HEI or industry magnate. We have chosen the project-based certification
route. As of today, students will be given knowledge in their chosen area of Data Science or Full Stack developer followed by projects with a company. Based on feedback regarding success, the student will get a certificate,” he adds.
To be relevant in the industry, HEI’s are revamping their courses periodically. “Every year, the academic council deliberates emerging market trends, based on which certain certificate courses are offered to students as part of their PGDM degree, ” said the director of Jaipuria School of Business, Mr Tapan Kumar Nayak.
Photo Credit: Jaipur School
