Role of Skill Development in Sustainable Employment

1. This was presented at a seminar on “Role of Skill Development
on Sustainable Employment” held at Science City Auditorium,
Kolkata Organized by CET(I), Kolkata

2. Skills Needed to Sustain a Job in
Electronics and Communication Sector
by
Sanjay Dhar Roy
Assistant Professor
s_dharroy@yahoo.com
ECE Department
National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India

3. Outline of the presentation
How did I start my career?
Options for off-campus job and Skills
Required skills and options after B. Tech.
Technical skills required to get a good placement
Skills building for a good employment
“5 Tips to Engineer Your Career”
Critical skills for sustainable employment
Skills and their resources for sustainable employment
Future role of educator
Business Trends and Skill Development
References

4. How did I start my career?
- June 1997: joined UshaFone, a group usha company
- Selected through a technical interview during campus interview
- Started preparation during 3rd yr. via reading aptitude books, personal
interview preparation book. Mainly concentrated on core curricula
subjects.
What skills should an EC student have for a job? (during college days)
-Aptitude skills
- Personality development (coaching class/ books)
-Most important: Study all core/ elective subjects related to EC courses

5. Options for off-campus jobs and Skills
Those skills will be useful to get a job from off campus. After completing course
work, an EC student has the following options:
The student may be absorbed in Govt. organization, public sector or private
sector company.
-Join a core company like DRDO, ISRO, Ericsson, Reliance Infocom, Airtel, C-
DoT
-Join a software company and become a software professional!
-Prepare for Indian Engg. Service (IES) (mainly administrative job with required
technical knowledge) or other Govt. / Public sector job
-Prepare for jobs other than in engineering line; for e.g. IAS, WBCS, Banking etc.
(I don’t prefer…)
-Prepare for GATE: with a good Gate score, you have a number of options.

6. Skills required and options after B. Tech.(contd.)
-While preparing for Gate, you are also preparing for other competitive
exams for technical organizations (BEL, BHEL, NTPC etc.). You can
easily get through technical round of companies (both private/ public).
After technical round you’ll face HR section for personality test. Join a
course on that if you feel important.
-Go for higher study (Masters at IITs / NITs/ others) and then join an
institution as researcher/ professor after completing higher study
-Or join a R&D organization after finishing Masters/ PhD from a reputed
Institution.
-After completing B. Tech., a number of students are leaving for US/ UK/
Germany/ and other developed countries to do Masters and PhD. Some
students opt for CAT and other management exams. Skills acquired after
MBA help the candidate to be a good manager in an organization.

7. Technical skills required to get a good placement
-For a communication company:
Skills required—sound knowledge on the basics of communication theory, antenna
and digital communication; develop skills for one of the following telecom sector [7]
(a) hardware equipment supplier, (b) fixed network carriers and organizations
supporting these, (c) specialist service provider, (d) mobile telephony
-For an electronics company:
Skills required– basics of all subjects, digital electronics, assembly language, analog
electronics (Thevenin theorem, Norton theorem, opamps), DSP, programming
MATLAB, C
Skills required for a VLSI company– hardware languages like VHDL, Verilog;
concepts of DFT, FFT ; Analog IC design, Digital IC design, etc. We, at NIT Durgapur,
provide these courses at PG level. For UG, we only offer VLSI technology and
computer architecture in our curricula so far.
Note: Getting a R & D job at a VLSI company after UG degree is very tough. Students
should develop these additional to regular course. Good students should develop
skills in HDL tools and do relevant projects to have extra edge[1].

8. Skills building for a good employment
-Clear your concept on fundamental subjects like digital electronics,
communication theory, microprocessor, digital communication etc.
-Develop innovative projects and deal with projects (may not be a novel
one)
-Don’t neglect marks but marks should be obtained only through proper
means (good grades always pay). This year only TOP TWO students of ECE,
NIT DGP are taken by C-DOT directly!
-A research paper with some contributions from your end (difficult for an
UG student but not impossible)
-Attend workshops related to your area
When an Educator becomes an employer:
-Recruit a faculty of an Institute
-Recruit a RS for a project; selection of PG students / regular RSs

9. 5 Tips to Engineer Your Career [2]
1. Pay attention to basics-
2. Get trained to have an extra edge- with good foundation of the basics of electronics &
communication, one should gain thorough knowledge in one of the important subjects like
communication, digital, microprocessor etc.
In addition, develop problem solving skills, decision making and english communication skills.
3. Exploit your internship- not just going to office and earning a certificate; internship provide
technical and business soft skills. Attend seminar, workshop related to recent trends.
4. Know the industry trend -reexamine and realign your goal following industry trend. Take
elective course that suits present trend. Become a member of professional society like IEEE,
CET etc. And take active part in seminars and workshops arranged by them for keeping track of
latest developments in ECE.
5. Understand your aptitude- Job options in defense, infrastructure, biomedical, consumer
appliances, power sector, automative, mobile communication, IT. A student should find the
appropriate area of interest and develop skills for that to have sustainable employment and
development.

10. Critical Skills for Sustainable Employment [3]
-Adaptibilty, flexibility
-Critical thinking, problem solving
-Leadership
-Teamwork and collaboration
-Written communication and oral communication (english)
-Lifelong learning pursuit
-Information technology application
-Professionalism/ work ethic
-Understanding of globalisation
-Civic/ community participation
-Mathematics

11. Skills and their resources for sustainable employment [5]
-Don’t leave a job before getting a new job: recruiters think seriously on this
issue ( [6] “Bridging the Break,” C. Mukherjee, Business Today, June, 2013)
-On the job training [3]
-Instructor led workshop/ courses, continuing education programme
-Online tutorials/ guided programme
-University/ college courses
- Printed materials
-Distance learning
-Job seeking web sites, industry specific web site
-Career advice section of news
-- Scientific journals

12. Future role of Educator
-Getting the basic right
-To focus towards improving employability and supplying economically
valuable skills
-Pursuit of excellence, revised approach to quality improvement and
development of specialists [4]
-Motivate students to opt for electives that suits job hunting
-Arrange workshops, short courses and seminars on emerging topics to
help building skills in students for better job opportunity. We, at ECE, NIT
Dgp, are arranging workshops, seminars on advanced wireless comm,
VLSI, antennas, soft computing etc.
-Industry Institute interaction and collaboration with foreign universities
for overall quality improvement.

13. Business Trends and Skill Development [8]
-Pervasive nature of electronics; Rapid technological changes; Convergence of
software and hardware technologies; Globalization of the supply chain; Competition
Response to business trends:
-searching for added value: more focus on higher value of design, more complex
goods and working closely with customers and offering higher level of service.
Automation of production.
No. of jobs will be lesser whereas skilled people will be necessary.
Crucial Skills
Technical Skills-
-Understanding of design packages, computer science, RF circuits and frequencies
-Diagonostic skills, understanding of design languages
Generic Skills-
Communication skills, commercial awareness, project management, customer
service, ability to work independently, creativity, solution oriented.

14. A. Companies recruitment policy [8]
(i)Recruiting experienced staff-Job hopping, companies poach staff from rival
company, recruiting people with transferrable skills from related sectors (DRDO-
Cadence), (ii)Graduate recruitment- mainly larger employers recruit graduates to
make them experienced.
B. Problems in recruiting:
(a) Lack of quantity- skilled peoples are less in number in testing and quality
control, analog IC design, RF design
(b) Lack of quality-(i) inconsistent standards-variability in the qualities of the
degrees; (ii) technical deficiencies-lack of specialist knowledge (analog electronics
design, RF design, etc); (iii) inability to apply academic knowledge in practical
environment; (iv) lack of generic skill- problem solving skill, communication skill,
commercial awareness
C. Soln. to B
- (i) Develop stronger links between companies and higher education dept. to
improve relevance and structure of curricula; (ii)introduce modular degree: two
year foundation course and two year work based linked specialization, (iii)
introduce short courses and certificate courses

15. References
1. www.Quora.com
2. Sudeshna Das, “5 Tips to Engineer Your Career,” Electronics for You, 2013.
3. Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Worksforce, The Wall
Street Journal, June 2008.
4. Employers’ perspectives on Improving skills for employment, Report by the
controller and auditor general, National Audit Office, Dec., 2005
5. A. Brown, “Higher Skills Development at Work, a commentary by teaching and
learning research programme,” The Institute for Employment Research,
University of Warwick, London, 2009.
6. C. Mukherjee, “Bridging the Break,” Business Today, June 2013.
7. C. Hendry et. Al., “Employers Skill Survey: Case study- Telecommunication
sector,” City University Business School, Sep., 2000.
8. Hillage J, Cummings J, Lain D, Jagger N, “Skill Needs in Electronics,” The
National Training Organization for Engineering Manufacturing, ISBN: 978-1-
84019-147-9, 2002

16. Thank You