Aptech introduces specialized courses to increase employability of Indian Engineers

Aptech Computer Education, the flagship brand of Global Learning Solutions major - Aptech Limited, today announced the launch of 'Aptech for Engineers’, a series of specialized IT courses for the engineering students. ‘Aptech for Engineers’ is an extension of Aptech’s portfolio of courses and is one of the most exclusive offerings dedicated to enhance engineering skills. The courses are designed to primarily suit the requirements of students undergoing B.Tech. / BE/ other engineering degree or diploma courses.

Announcing the launch of this new series, Mr. Anuj Kacker, Global Head, Aptech Computer Education said “While India seems to have large number of engineering graduates, not all are rightly trained or employable. ‘Aptech for Engineers’ promises specialized training that will turn these engineering students into confident industry-ready professionals. This new initiative of packaging our IT curriculum into the learning offered to India's engineering graduates, while they are still at college, will greatly enhance their employability.”

Aptech for Engineers offers specialization options in popular application development frameworks like Sun Java & .NET (Oracle to be introduced shortly). The primary objective of ‘Aptech for Engineers’ is to make the nations’ engineers more employable and give them an edge above others. Aptech aims to provide essential career guidance to students / engineers, while helping them to make their mark in today’s competitive IT industry. Besides this course, Aptech has also introduced another comprehensive course for engineers called the'Aptech Certified Technology Specialist'.

Aptech has an alliance with Prometric to enable certification exams. Aptech will also be forging alliances with engineering colleges to offer Java courses & certification exam facility on the campus itself.

NASSCOM estimates that with a turnout of about 5 lakh plus engineers a year; only 25 percent are considered employable. Relevant IT knowledge, skill quotient and employability remain a serious concern. While today the curriculum that is followed in most universities is inflexible, Aptech regularly upgrades the curriculum of courses in its portfolio to meet the requirements of the industry. 'Aptech for Engineers' comprehensively addresses most critical areas for engineering students with curriculum support, global certification and placement assistance.

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Recession, Delhi 6 and me.. I am not participating…

With all the talk about recession, things are bound to get gloomy, right? Wrong! In a recent survey conducted across 17 nations, India topped the list as the most optimistic country despite the present economic crisis, beating wealthier nations like Japan, UK and France.

Certainly.. i wouldn’t participate in recession.. simply because i would keep my optimism alive. Logically, I am optimistic simply because this is a cyclical event. The recession can't last forever, more over it up to use to consider it to be an opportunity or a hurdle.

Last week i was watching the movie “Delhi 6”, good one. It has a imaginary “black monkey” that everyone blames their misdeeds or problems to.

Recession is like this black monkey.. every where i hear, “it because of recession, we took this action”, its because of recession , this year we are not participating…

Corporate lords , have taken this opportunity to trim businesses, reduce salaries, cut manpower, and moreover create a panic situation in the organisation… great .. but its seems like the “black monkey”.

In any case, what is recession proof… kids will always go to school, you will always take bath and use you favourite soap, you would eat the same food, you will take the same medicines, you will do the same for entertainment, you will see the same rush at the malls , you will buy the same clothes,You will use the same vehicle to go to office.. the demand in the markets will remain.. then why press the panic button.

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Moral Police .. who???

 

I kolkata, decided to go for an exercise evening walk, was near Subhash Sarovar near salt lake. was arong 7 PM, the area was dark and dimly lit. Decided to walk around the lake which has a circumference or 2.2 KM.  Many people , young and old sitting on the banks relieving them of the hot sultry weather of Kolkata. Suddenly saw a caged Van, and few Police (regular, not the moral police) coming outh there, picking up couples who were sitting out there and pushing them into the van. (There were no lady police in the squad).. I wondered.. what's this. Asked the police , they said, they are not allowed to sit there. Who decided this???… you called Mutalik a great moral police.. who are they.. the people who were around said.. kuch nahi saab.. paisa leke unko chod dhenge???

What are we talking about.. we see the policing (moral policing) been done by several people, the politicians, the police and the administration..?? then why blame only mutalik and his team. I am not saying who is right or wrong, i am not saying what needs to be done..or what is the right way???  What behavioural and societal  norms fall in the “acceptable and “the justified” category… could the media and the learned explain??

Anand Desai

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Early morning on the Ghats of Banaras..

   Just an amazing feeling to be on the Ghats of Banaras early morning at 4.30 Am, the "Ganga snan" people bathing pilgrims and daily bathers alike.

 

 

 

The business of vendors begins early.... its about the faith people have when they float a lamp with flowers in Ganga..

 

 

 

 

The Ganga Aarti...full of dedication ..  , was watching this person, the duration of the aarti was more than 15 minutes.. this person performed with great dedication. I asked another regular there, was it that this person is new here so he has a display of dedication( My dirty mind), he answered.. these people take pride in performing the Ganga aarti…

 

 

There are people who come everyday to bathe in ganga.. a ritual performed every day early in the morning..

 

 

 

 

Whatever it was, was a pleasant  experience.

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By the Ganges..need for action.. Mission Clean Banaras - (CITY OF GODS)

 

An amazing feeling to be on the banks of Ganges. Walked from the assi ghat towards the main dasashwamedh ghat.. while i walked on the right was the ever serene and peaceful Ganga. The vastness of Ganga itself would make you feel at peace.  The environment early morning is awesome. People bathing in the ganges, sadhus praying. When you enter the Gallis of the ganges.life's different there. I wonder why is Banaras so unclean, yet i love this place. need to do something about it.

Here is an action plan; The population of Varanasi  is 13.71 Lakhs(1.3 million) as per the census of 2001. Even if its increased to 18 Lakhs(1.8 million )  only 30% of this 18 million would be living on the banks of the Ganga. So we need to createe awareness  for action in approximately 600  thousand.people. Hence we need 600 volunteers, who will meet 10 people per day and train them on cleanliness. in 200 days we would have covered the entire Banaras.

 

 

The actions we would like to take...

1. get every government agency involved
2. Get every school and college involved
3. Get every university involved( we have 3 universities here)
4. Get sadhu muth involved
5. Get every bhajan community involved
6. Get the tourists invloved.

Collecting 600 volunteers  with enough passion wouldn't be difficult. Then the action begins. The cleanliness drive.

NO ONE THROWS GARBAGE IN THE OPEN IN THE CITY OF GODS 

EVERY ONE USES GARBAGE BINS AND DUMPS THE GARBAGE IN THE DESIGNATED PLACE IN THE CITY OF GODS

EVERYONE USES TOILETS AND DOESNT CREATE THE CITY OF GODS INTO A LARGE TOILET.

The Campaign begins..

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The Challenge...my first large scale social initiative at Rajur, Dist Ahmednagar

At Rajur..150+ Km from Pune, a group of 4000+ tribal and youth waiting for an opportunity of life. As i thought when i went to Rajur for the first time, it was with an idea that we would do a career development program in a beautiful tribal school.But later realised its not about career development at all. Building Careers is just far from our imagination and its about un employable youth. The problem of un-employability is far deeper than what it looks like from outside.

The tribal and the local kids learn in the local Ashram School, highly subsidised, fully residential. After the tenth grade they are supposed to leave a protected Ashram school to fetch higher education for themselves. Now it really a test of their sustainability.. on one side the pressure to earn their living and the other to study. Invariably each one of them lands into a college to do Arts, after few days unable to pay up 50% drop out. and lack of confidence and opportunity leaves them with menial job or no jobs...

Decided to do some thing...something that would make an impact. Went back to Pune, worked on a program and returned with a unique program to develop these young people.

The belief was they had enough potential...they had enough intelligence, what they did not have is confidence.. decided to test my beliefs..

We conducted the culture fair ravens intelligence test on the pilot batch of 140 students and to our surprise we found 24 students above the 75 percentile.

38 between 60 to 75 percentile. and the rest below 60 percentile. Said need to work on them, and then the pilot batch was launched. We said its the SEVEN steps to being employable...

ITS NOT THAT THE SHORTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES.. ITS THE BIG IRON SCREEN OF THE JOB MARKET THAT DEMANDS SOFT SKILLS MORE THAN THE ACADEMIC AND PROCESS SKILLS TO GET EMPLOYED...We are focusing on this challenge..and hence the design of the program.

Anand Desai

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Bararas Hindu University..

Dheya Youth Initiatives(www.dheya.com)  made inroads into the BHU. With proposal to work with the faculty of Management studies, the students would be able to plan and manage their careers in a much better way. Its all to do with a fulfilling career  success in this competitive world.

 

Anand Desai

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Employability in India: Dheya gives a solution

1. An operational definition of being employed means having a job, and employable means having the qualities to maintain employment, progress in work place and able to be employed in different work place. From the point of view of the individual, employability skills are the career capital or the learned assets that a person needs to get a job and acquire job specific skills, while on the job. From the point of view of the employers, employability skills are the generic skills, attitudes and behaviours that they require in all their employees. Hence, the employability skills in the point of view of the employer define the requirements to satisfy screening process in the job market.

2. Considering the measures that allow us to check whether a person is employable, there is a general agreement that three types of qualities are important while assessing the employability performance. These are:

a. Key technical and academic skills specific to the job, to great extent academic curriculum prepares the students to gain them. These skills include reading, language/linguistics, and numerical ability, written expression and comprehension and analysis.

b. Process skills: Unlike the key technical and academic skills, process skills need to be demonstrated on the work. These are problem solving ability, creativity, decision making, technological readiness (IT literacy), business understanding, skills that make one employable etc.

c. Life Skills: In addition to the ability to carry out the task, an employer looks for the qualities of self-confidence, communication skills, self-control, self- esteem, social skills, basic values, adaptability, flexibility, willingness to learn, emotional intelligence, stress tolerance, punctuality, efficiency and effectiveness. These qualities are very much embedded with the personality type of the individual.

3. There are either no strategies/actions or limited strategies/actions to address the issue of LIFE SKILLS which has lead to higher rate un-employability. Unfortunately life skill services remain poorly developed and accessible only to very limited numbers of young people in India. Moreover life skill development initiatives have been focused towards the existing work force, those who have left the education system than upon the student population in the education system or the drop-outs.

Dheya give a solution ....

Our objective is to get the un-employable educated rural / tribal youth improve their employability. The lack of self-confidence, self esteem and communicative skills along with certain process skills have been the major drawbacks leading to un-employability. We work with rural / tribal youth and build process skills and life skills to enhance their employability.

The whole process is in a form of a psychological assessment of individual abilities, and behavioural pattern using validated tools to define a capability profile of the individual and assigning a program that would help the individual become employable.

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Employability in India:

Introduction: Employability in India:

1. An operational definition of being employed means having a job, and employable means having the qualities to maintain employment, progress in work place and able to be employed in different work place. From the point of view of the individual, employability skills are the career capital or the learned assets that a person needs to get a job and acquire job specific skills, while on the job. From the point of view of the employers, employability skills are the generic skills, attitudes and behaviours that they require in all their employees. Hence, the employability skills in the point of view of the employer define the requirements to satisfy screening process in the job market.

2. Considering the measures that allow us to check whether a person is employable, there is a general agreement that three types of qualities are important while assessing the employability performance. These are:

a. Key technical and academic skills specific to the job, to great extent academic curriculum prepares the students to gain them. These skills include reading, language/linguistics, and numerical ability, written expression and comprehension and analysis.

b. Process skills: Unlike the key technical and academic skills, process skills need to be demonstrated on the work. These are problem solving ability, creativity, decision making, technological readiness (IT literacy), business understanding, skills that make one employable etc.

c. Life Skills: In addition to the ability to carry out the task, an employer looks for the qualities of self-confidence, communication skills, self-control, self- esteem, social skills, basic values, adaptability, flexibility, willingness to learn, emotional intelligence, stress tolerance, punctuality, efficiency and effectiveness. These qualities are very much embedded with the personality type of the individual.

3. There are either no strategies/actions or limited strategies/actions to address the issue of LIFE SKILLS which has lead to higher rate un-employability. Unfortunately life skill services remain poorly developed and accessible only to very limited numbers of young people in India. Moreover life skill development initiatives have been focused towards the existing work force, those who have left the education system than upon the student population in the education system or the drop-outs.

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Passion makes all the difference

Today, in Banaras, after a wonderful meeting at BHU, happened to be at AUM cafe, near Aassi ghat, in the mid's of cow dung laden gallis, a unhygienic surrounding, saw AUM cafe, a place recommended by a friend of mine, Dr. Umesh Singh.

As we entered saw few foreign tourists sitting there. absolutely clean, neatly kept and absolutely positive environment. Everything there gave a positive vibe. Everything in AUM cafe, was made with lots of care and passion. The smallest of the things like the frame of the mirror were decorated with coloured stones. the wired that hung the lamps had been covered with coloured beads. Just to look good! Each and everything was made with great thought.

the food, awesome !!, every recipe well thought and made. And on top , a wireless internet.... just a great experience. Ram wo was serving us was just excellent. All smiles..

While we were leaving there came a lady, a foreign national, settled in Banaras, Shivani, greeted us with "Aum namah shivaya" and asked us how was the experience... it was just wornderful.. found that she has a lot of passion, positive energy and a purpose... have decided to visit the cafe tomorrow morning for breakfast...

Thanks Shivani..for a wonderful experience...

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