Professor S Vaidyasubramaniam is the Dean, Planning and Management of the Sastra University in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu. It is an autonomous university that is accredited as an 'A' grade institution by NAAC.
The dean has recently written to the president of the National Association of Software Services Companies (Nasscom) suggesting that on-campus recruitment by companies be done in the seventh semester rather than in the last of the final year, as is the current norm.
According to the guidelines issued by Nasscom regarding campus recruitment, companies can approach students only in the final semester on the reasoning that students' attitude towards their studies might suffer once they have been recruited.
The dean however disagrees. He argues that this was not possible given the fact that a student knew s/he had to complete her/his graduation in order to take up the internship. By giving them simultaneous training, students were simply better equipped to join the workforce.
Speaking to rediff.com he said, "When the recruitment happens in the 7th semester, we can add the required training for the job to the curriculum of the 8th semester. By doing this the company does not need to waste time training them [recruits] after they join."
The university tried this successfully two years back. At that time the concerned company had sent their own staff to coach the recruited students. Subsequently the company trained university staff and the university is now equipped to train recruited students themselves.
Such an activity was possible for Sastra University since they were autonomous, but affiliated colleges could also do this with a little effort, said Prof Vaidyasubramaniam.
He added that during the 8th and final semester a lot of students went for internships (some abroad) and thus missed out on the recruitment process.
All that companies needed to do is plan their HR needs a little earlier, he said.
