Source: indiatoday.in
The coronavirus outbreak has profoundly altered our daily lives. In a matter of weeks, industries across sectors essentially ground to a halt. Prevention and containment strategies pursued by the government witnessed people shifting to remote working and learning, embracing the new normal.
Amidst companies downsizing operations, lay-offs, and an economic crisis, a sense of fear and uncertainty is palpable across the Class of 2021.
As the newest cohort of graduates embark on their journey of entering the workforce, they will have to cope with a market hit by a pandemic and an unstable global economy. Companies are looking to hire people who can hit the ground running. Their success depends on how quickly and effectively they can address a business challenge.
And for that, companies seek candidates who need little hand holding.
Skill-gap isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been one of the gravest concerns in the Indian education system. The inability of equipping students with future-ready skills can be attributed to the dated curricula, poorly trained faculty, and flawed teaching and learning pedagogy.
While overhauling a curriculum won’t happen overnight, institutes can consider updating their elective courses to bridge the gap. Numerous colleges do offer MOOC-based learning; however, it has not ended up being viable with studies indicating the dropout rate for these courses to be as high as 95 per cent.
The process will enhance their capability, and a hands-on approach and practical experience will give them an added advantage in the job market.
With businesses moving to the Cloud and the ever-increasing dependence on data, demand for professionals with skills in Cloud computing, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has witnessed a significant surge.
ement: Risk management plays a crucial role to address ambiguities during a pandemic. The art of judging a risk even before it arises, and analysing and predicting its consequences has been gaining importance in the past three months. It is one of the most critical skills required in the post-Covid-19 world, evaluating and anticipating consequences and equipping for the impact.
3. Data Analytics: An analytics engineer works on transforming, testing, deploying, and documenting data. It’s one of the most important skills that companies look for in their recruits. The industry is always on the lookout for professionals who can study and determine trends in data and develop algorithms to make raw data more useful to enterprises.
4. Business Analytics: Businesses require professionals to create and actualise all-inclusive tools and strategies that permit raw data to be changed into business knowledge. These bits of knowledge are regularly utilised for making decisions and dynamic planning across companies. Organisations are ready to pay higher than average salaries to business analysts that help them stay ahead of the curve.
5. Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI centers around the production of smart machines that mirror human intelligence. Machine Learning is the process of utilising software engineering principles, and analytical and data science knowledge, and blending both to make it accessible for use by the product or customers.
Students with skills to feed data into models defined by data scientists and build models using algorithms which can be used to make business decisions will draw more attention.
6. Sales Effectiveness: In a competitive world, where consumers and businesses have several options to choose from, sales becomes a crucial skill to hone. Connecting with the consumer and providing a differentiated and consistent customer experience gives companies the competitive edge required to secure a sale.
Candidates with knowledge of which factors and behaviors impact sales effectiveness, who can leverage value selling over product selling and win every round of negotiation have the potential to turn a business around.
Future graduates must attain a fine blend of theoretical and practical knowledge of relevant skills that the industry demands.
Apart from the traditional curriculum, elective courses in emerging technologies delivered by industry experts enable students to graduate with significant job-ready skills, greater salaries, robust alumni status, and a lifelong learning culture.
