Good marks fetch you good jobs is no longer true, or so it appears for students this placement season.
Placement officers of various colleges and universities have seen even academically bright students unable to land jobs because of the ever-widening academia–industry knowledge gap. In the post-COVID times, some companies have also tightened the selection criteria.
A recent trend is companies looking for students with perfect academic scores from Class X to graduation or post-graduation. This means a slip-up in even one of the years is costing students jobs.
Higher cut-off
“On one side, there is excitement about placements, whereas, on the other side, there is the criteria problem,” said Fouzia Khanum, Placement Officer, Jyoti Nivas College (Autonomous). “Some companies take the average percentage of Class X, Class XII and degree marks and expect students to have above 80 – 85% marks. This cut-off used to be 60-65% earlier,” she said.
“Some students who get high marks manage to get slots for interviews based on cut-offs, but they might not get through. And, they (companies) do not tell us on what basis they shortlist candidates,” Ms. Khanum said.
Confusion about qualifications
Kiran Jeevan, Placement Officer, St Joseph’s University, said, “The industries do not tell us what qualifications they require until they land on the campus. Students find it difficult to land jobs, especially in fields like chemistry, botany and biology, despite being thorough in the subjects. We have academically good students, but there are skill gaps. The only way to bridge this gap is by industries getting more involved in campus life.”
On the other hand, students claim that the training in educational institutions loses its relevance once they sit for placements. “Ideally, I should have been placed at the college itself. But it did not happen. My institution did not focus on giving hard skill training, which the companies seek. Companies do not want us to by heart and tell them theories,” said Pavan Shivakumar, a BBA graduate from a well-known college.
Afreen, a recent MCA graduate from another reputed college in Bengaluru, also reiterated that academic training is usually just the “tip of the iceberg” compared to industry demands. She said many students from her batch took workshops and skill-building courses externally to cope with the industry requirement.
Industry integration
Recognising these problems, some educational institutions have taken up industry integration programmes, which they claim work well for their students.
“Every year, an industry person comes and tells us what should be added or removed from the syllabus. Every student must participate in internship programmes with industries for hands-on experience before getting placed. We also bring in resource persons from big corporate companies who teach here for certain hours according to their requirements. This approach has been working very well for us, and we have also increased our industry partnerships with this,” said Preethi Bhandari, Head of Corporate Relations Jain Group of Institutions (JGI).
