Cultivating a skilled workforce becomes a rock solid pillar for the country’s progressive economy. In this fast-pacing competitive world, fresh young minds, ready to enter the industry, should be trained for the future, i.e., instilling creative thinking in sync with academic knowledge. As we are preparing for the future, this is where we should increasingly leverage research advances along with technical expertise.
Hence, academic-industry collaboration is fast becoming a rage all across the globe, especially in developing economies like India, as the gap between education system and industries’ expectations has widened in the last few decades. Unmindful of what industries needed or the existing trends were, academics rather focused on just providing education, whether it is science, humanities, technical, professional and others. This is the reason why successive market research on technical and professional education by industry bodies like ASSOCHAM paint a grim and gloomy picture of what is being provided to the students in the name of technical and professional education.
Now it is increasingly recognized across the globe that close interface between academia and industry not only prepares students as per the changing needs and aspirations of the industry, but also promotes innovation and growth. A partnership between educational institutions and industry prove to be instrumental in advancing research and development, besides creating a skilled workforce which companies need.
Most of the time, industry is prone to innovating new ways, processes and technologies to reap rich benefits and broaden economic horizons and activities, however majority of the institutions get accustomed to working on a set pattern, which keep them away from the fast changing realities of the industry. The western world recognized this fact very early that the task of commercializing creative ideas lies with the industry and it is possible only when academia has close collaboration with the economic activities going on in the market.
In the present times of knowledge economy, it is a critical requirement to have such an interface. Close interactions among universities, research institutions and private companies also help prepare the students for the required work, which also saves precious time spent on training the new recruits upon joining a company or industry.
The constantly changing paradigms and complexities of the industry, business, technical processes and people, necessitate that these two come closer for greater benefit of both. A productive collaboration between these two is critical for the knowledge economy and, for that, the curriculum for schools, colleges, universities and all technical and professional courses should also be designed in such a way that ensures that the education imparted should lead to creation of expertise and skills that the industry needs. And fortunately, the New Education Policy (NEP) is set to help in this direction.
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