TNEA CODE
1303
TNEA CODE
1303
IT services industry being “people-centric”, requires talented employees to remain ahead of competition in the global market place. The IT industry employs a large number of fresh recruits from engineering colleges. However, IT service majors have noticed certain skill gaps while serving their customers.The need for academia-industry partnership is being strongly felt; it is therefore required to enhance the readiness of fresh engineering graduate workforce and make engineering students “industry-ready”.
Infosys launched an academia-industry partnership initiative termed Campus Connect (CC) in May 2004. The program aims to deepen the academia-industry relationship and create a strong foundation for the future needs of growing IT industry. The nation-wide program aims to build a sustainable partnership with engineering education institutions in India, and produce “industry ready” professionals by aligning engineering students’ skills with the needs of the industry.
The objective in launching the CC program is to enhance the quality and quantity of the IT talent-pool; sustain the growth of the IT industry itself. The aim is not to increase the number of engineering colleges, or the number of graduates, but to increase the employability of students. What is needed is a consistent output of certain minimum competence, irrespective of all variables involved. It doesn’t matter where the college is located (big city or remote town), the kind of faculty, or students. However the conditions may be, with the help of its partners, CC wants to achieve a high-quality, constant product
CC aims at creating an effective means of backward integration into the supply chain by going into the college campuses from where the IT industry gets people for its growth. Infosys, in this CC program, is therefore, sharing with the academia its mature technology training methods, courseware, student project samples and other such learning resources that have been developed, practiced and perfected over the last 15 years.
The CC program has several components weaved together to create synergy for effective, fast-paced learning. Some of them are: Conclave, Road Show, FEP, Industrial Visit, Sabbaticals, FP Capsule Roll-Out, Sponsored Events and Seminars.
The faculty involved will be provided with industry oriented artifacts for the respective courseware that they would be offering. This includes case-studies, prototype projects and similar teaching aids. In addition, the faculty from the practicing partner colleges will be sponsored for sabbaticals at one of the Infosys’ development centers. The faculty will receive an honorarium and a grant during the sabbatical.
The main benefit to the student is industry-readiness and a better chance of employability in an IT enterprise. The students get an access to Infosys’ resources, Industrial Visits, seminars, and student projects hosted on the Portal. Outstanding performance in the Infosys comprehensive examination will also make such students eligible for early association with real-life projects, and other special benefits.
The alignment of the IT industry’s skill needs with the college curriculum will help in better resource management internally by making the learning time shorter, reducing training time, and enhancing the quality of the engineers in addressing customer requirements. Industry partners directly benefit from this partnership by the availability of well-rounded engineering graduates who understand the software development process and collaborative work environment
The CC portal was launched as a part of the CC program. It is used by seven different kinds of users: students, faculty of partnering colleges, Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) from colleges, SPOCs from Infosys Development Centers, college management, Infoscions supporting the CC program, Infosys CC program management program. The portal will provide a digital collaborative platform for academia-industry interaction anytime, and anywhere.
Dr. K. Karnavel, M.Tech., Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Anand Institute of Higher Technology,
Kazhipattur,
Chennai – 603 103.
Infosys Campus Connect Event
