Chennai: It's a world of apps and plenty of opportunities for innovations too. And the catchword that could serve as launch pad to be better employed is innovation and entrepreneurial skills, says state Tamil official language and culture minister K. Pandiarajan. So, the imperative need for students, especially those in the engineering streams, is to "re-perspect” themselves in a tech-driven changing world, rather than depend merely on “re-skilling.”
This, he said would not only transform their lives but also give a new identify to their chosen profession. “Poet Bharatiyar said my profession is writing poems. And my profession is to provide employment. And since the last 20 years I have helped to provide employment to over 4.5 lakh persons through Ma Foi. This is my basic identity,” the Minister said. More than education, a clear perspective and right attitude would help one to gain an upper hand, he said and added “the nature of jobs and also the skills and perspective are changing.”
He was speaking at a conference on “How to gain from India's demographic dividend - the way forward” held under the aegis of Rajalakshmi Engineering College (autonomous), Thandalam here on Saturday to commemorate the institution's 20 years of academic excellence.
The biggest challenge in engineering education, the Minister said, is to meet the aspirations of the job profile which is becoming more creative, requiring entrepreneurship skills. “Industries tells us to recruit candidates with right attitude, as they are willing to impart the skills,” Mr Pandiarajan said and claimed that analytics too played a key role. As per the recent study by the London Business School conducted in 238 countries, Creative and cultural industries sector topped ten clusters of industries in providing more employment opportunities.
“SMACI - Social media, analytics, cloud and internet of things, is changing the world, students need to hone their skills in SMACI.. everyone says IT provides employment, I say creative and cultural industries too provides more opportunities,” he said and added that he started manpower recruitment firm - Ma Foi through cloud funding from his friends. To drive home the message, he sang a couple of lines from Tamil film poet Kannadasan's Ninaipathellam (from Nenjil or aalayam) “Enge vazhkkai thodangum athu enge evvitham mudiyum, idhuthaan paathai idhuthaan payanam...” and said “your path, journey you undertake should shape your perspective. So, re-perspect yourself rather than re-skilling, because organised sector employment is declining due to social media and internet of things.”
