Plan to enhance employability among students
	CHENNAI:Recruiters from top industries in the Chennai region have come forward to work together for enhancing the employability of students through pro-active intervention in colleges. Participants from leading industries, including information technology firms, clinched a plan to achieve the goal at the end of a brainstorming session on `Enhancing Employability Skills,' organised by Anna University on Wednesday. The plan includes getting industry trainers to address colleges, creating a Web application to help students assess their employability skills and an industry audit of soft skills training in colleges. A section of the participants have formed a committee to follow up on the suggestions. State Information Technology Secretary C. Chandramouli, ELCOT managing director C. Umashankar and Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan participated in the discussions moderated by NASSCOM regional director Sheila Gandhi. Common Aptitude Test Almost all participants, including the representatives of Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, L&T and HCL, agreed it would be better to have a common aptitude test that would rank students on the skill sets required for the industry. Information technology companies pointed out that they invested on 60-day and 90-day training programmes for new recruits. It was required because the present curriculum lagged the industry requirements. They suggested that the curriculum be changed to test the skills of students rather than their memory. Responding to an admission by one of the recruiters that several I.T. companies were dissipating their energies by training their recruits, Mr. Chandramouli suggested that the companies join hands and institutionalise their training modules to reach out to the students even before they passed out. Anna University invited industry trainers to create educational videos — in subjects like soft skill training — that could be aired to all colleges through the EDUSAT. Even while the information technology companies placed their demands before the Government and the university, a section of representatives of heavy industries, including BHEL, said they hoped for a situation in which the core engineering graduates — such as structural or civil engineering — would prefer them to the IT sector.