NIIT Careers@Campus programs launched by World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand at SREC and SRIT, Coimbatore

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  Innovative in-campus training programs to bring employable skill sets to students

Coimbatore, July 04, 2011: NIIT Limited, leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia’s largest IT trainer, today announced the launch of its innovative Careers@Campus programs at Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College (SREC) and Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology (SRIT), Coimbatore.  World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand unveiled the programs, which aim to make students industry ready by the time they graduate. Also present on the occasion were Mr. C. Soundararaj, Managing Trustee, Mr. R. Vijayakumhar, Joint Managing Trustee of SNR Sons Charitable Trust; Dr. A. Ebenezer Jeyakumar, Director (Academics), Dr. R. Radhakrishnan, Principal, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College and Dr. R. Joseph Xavier, Principal, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology, besides Mr. G. Raghavan, Chief Executive, Career Building Solutions, NIIT Limited.

NIIT’s Careers@Campus is an initiative to offer employability enhancing programs to undergraduates students in their own college campus.  These programs, mapped to the college calendar, will be delivered through innovative in-campus training modules.

In the fast evolving Indian economy, several sectors are increasingly facing the need of inducting talent through entry-level and lateral-level recruitments. According to a BCG report, by 2020, world would need 46 million workforce, whereas India will have a surplus 57 million.

Despite the huge opportunities available, India faces an acute shortage of skilled, employable talent. This skill gap is a combination of lack of technical skills as well as professional life skills. According to studies, only 25 percent of fresh engineers are employable due to lack of technical and communication skills. A joint survey by FICCI and the World Bank states that 64% of surveyed employers are dissatisfied with engineering graduates’ skills. It has therefore become a necessity to equip the graduates with employable skill sets, for meeting the industry requirements.

Commenting on the launch, World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand said, “I am pleased to launch NIIT Careers@Campus at Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College and Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology. I am sure these programmes will equip the students with adequate skills required for embarking on a successful professional journey.”

NIIT’s continuous engagements and placement alliances with the employer organizations contribute to ensuring that the programs offered under NIIT’s Careers@Campus programs are aligned to industry requirements.  Students would be imparted specialised functional skills and critical communication and personality skills, essential to building a successful career. The overall curriculum is specifically designed keeping both industry expectations and career aspirations of the students in mind.

Mr. C. Soundararaj, Managing Trustee, of SNR Sons Charitable Trust said, “This is yet another unique commitment by our trust to impart education with cutting edge technology”.

For students pursuing diploma programmes, NIIT will offer placement assistance on successful completion of the programme. All students of Employability Enhancement Programmes will be offered Placement Assistance wherein they will be provided opportunities to appear in interviews via participation in Campus interviews, Job fairs etc.

Mr. G. Raghavan, Chief Executive, Career Building Solutions, NIIT Ltd. said “Careers@Campus is an initiative by NIIT to bring employability enhancing skill sets to the doorsteps of college students in campuses, to make them job-ready professionals. I am very pleased at the opportunity of bringing across these programs, to the students of great institutions under the SNR Sons Charitable Trust”.

The Employability Enhancement programmes, mapped to industry requirements, are aimed at bridging the gap between academic education and industry needs. Students undertaking the programme will undergo training in critical soft skills like Communication skills, Personal development, Presentation skills etc.

About Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College

Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, established in 1994, is affiliated to Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore and approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi and Government of Tamil Nadu.

It is an autonomous institution, offering eight UG and seven PG programs. SREC is the first self financing engineering college in this zone to get autonomy from the UGC.

About Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology

Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology was established in 2002. It offers 6 Bachelor degree programmes and 2 Master degree programmes. The institute has a strength of over 2,000 students and 138 staff members.

About NIIT Careers@Campus

NIIT’s Careers@Campus is an initiative based on feedback from industry to help students bridge the gap between education and employability.

Today, though most of the universities impart great conceptual grounding, there keeps emerging a need for employability enhancement through skill upgradation on new technologies as well as communication skills and personality development.

To help bridge the skill gap between education and employability, NIIT has taken the lead to design courses that prepare first-day, first-hour ready professionals required by the industry. Careers@Campus programs have been developed by active industry engagement. A set of special courses that deal with typical environments that students will face at their first jobs, Industry experts as guest lecturers, industry endorsed curriculum and pedagogy, are the hallmarks of these programmes.

These programmes will be delivered using a synchronous learning platform through a combination of live expert faculty, on-the-ground trainers and online learning. To deliver training, there will be an NIIT designated Industry expert faculty in the studio. Additionally there will be NIIT facilitators in the classroom who will assist in maximizing student interaction by helping students in raising queries and encouraging them to engage in discussion.