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IT education losing shine

October 3rd, 2008

CHENNAI: As tech companies go slow on hiring this fiscal, manpower training and placement firms are witnessing a shift in demand for skill-based training from IT to non-IT sectors.

These institutes, which offer courses in technical subjects as well as soft skills also have placement tie-ups with public and private companies, across verticals. So far, nearly 80 per cent of the students from these institutes have found jobs in IT/ITeS companies.

But with the economic slowdown in the US causing Indian IT firms to ‘hire cautiously’ this fiscal, there has been a perceptible decline in IT recruitment and training this year. A W George, business head, Hero Mindmine Institute avers that the rate of IT recruitment has “come down by about 30-40 per cent” when compared to last year.

“Domestic and MNC tech firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL, Patni, IBM, HP and Dell are all said to have embarked on a conscious cost-cutting mode,” he says. George predicts a “definite rise in training in non IT sectors” in the coming months.

R Kannan, managing director and chief executive officer of AssessPeople says, “We have been witnessing growth in hiring trends in companies in the retail, telecom, infrastructure, and manufacturing sectors for the last few months.”

This trend, he adds, “Is likely to continue and may even accelerate due to the slowdown in sectors that are affected by the current financial crisis and the consequent availability of manpower.”

Courses in retail, manufacturing , hospitality, healthcare and telecom are in demand now. However, the skill requirements for these sectors will be different from that of IT. “The intensity and rigor of re-skilling will need to be high,” says Kannan.

But not everyone is as optimistic about the placement situation improving in the near future. Ajit Mathai of Hewitt Associates (India), a Human Resources outsourcing and consultancy firm, believes that the overall drop in consumption due to inflation and the ongoing financial crisis will soon impact the retail sector too.

“New entrants may not consider training in retail as not all companies in that sector are hiring aggressively. There is a drop in consumption across the country and many stores are closing down,” he says. Perhaps, he adds wryly, “The good old PSUs can attract more talent now.”
Source: The Times of India

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