“Education is the one sector that will also boom during the recession” says experts at byteXL Webinar

Hyderabad, December 27, 2022: byteXL, one of the leading experiential learning platforms for IT career aspirants, held its inaugural webinar with eminent industry experts. The maiden webinar addressed the key issue of how engineering institutes can cater to changing tech demands. The distinguished panel included Mr. Karun Tadepalli, co-founder and CEO of byteXL, who was joined by Ms. Rajita Singh, Chief People Officer of Kyndryl, a US-based, leading IT Infrastructure Provider and Mr. Santhosh Nair, MD (Global) of Industry Collaborations & Academic Strategies at Parul University. The hour-long intriguing discussion was attended by educators, institute management, and young engineering students.
The one-hour discussion centered on the current hiring environment in tech. It also touched upon how institutes can best facilitate students and resources they can best leverage amidst talks of an incoming hiring winter and looming recession. The panelists deliberated on education being one sector that will boom during a recession since people will be thinking of gaining additional skillsets and knowledge. While it doesn’t affect the education system, the recession does affect placements to a certain extent. It particularly affects those campuses with a limited number of placement companies.
While sharing his views, Mr. Santhosh Nair, MD (Global) of Industry Collaborations & Academic Strategies at Parul University said, “Primarily when we talk about academics, it embodies three pillars – Innovation, Research, and Employability. But in India, the majority of the emphasis by private players is only given to employability. It is imperative to not only improve students’ skill sets but also their mindsets to get students into research and innovation. Technology is also changing in this industry, which is very dynamic. Not all faculty are trained in trending technologies like AI and ML. This is where players like byteXL contribute and add substantial learning.”
“The role of universities is primarily to provide a conducive environment for students. Bringing advanced technologies and constantly updating students won’t make them more advanced or efficient at those technologies. Because not all students are of the same caliber and not all students have the same ambitions and aspirations,” he added.In his address, Mr. Karun Tadepalli, co-founder and CEO of byteXL, said, “The industry is always striving to be ten steps ahead of the world with so much R&D happening. Due to the gap between the industry and the education system, Edtech companies come into play in this scenario as they understand both. Up to 70% of the courses are focused on empowering students, while the remaining 30% are geared toward preparing them for employment. The curriculum should be designed in tandem with the academic world as well as how the industry is moving. Research is always done on the back burner but that’s where the world will move forward.”
“Recession will have more of an impact on people who are already in the job than on freshers who are getting into the job. However, simply teaching people Java, Python, AI, and ML won’t make them industry-ready. Instead, it’s about fostering their capabilities to keep learning,” Mr. Tadepalli further stressed.”A distinct generation emerges every 5-10 years. While at Career 1.0, the mantra was Learn – earn – retire, Career 2.0 gravitated more towards a non-linear career path with multiple fields emerging and careers more aligned to passion. We are currently at Career 3.0 where we need proficiency in multiple areas, and it comprises various sources of income. We fancifully call it moonlighting but it’s not a new concept, but people today are becoming more accepting of it. Soft skills outweigh hard skills. Today, many institutes have incorporated this and the emphasis on students now is to develop their personalities in a 360 manner, explained Ms. Rajita Singh, Chief People Officer of Kyndryl on where the career revolution is going. Commenting on the teaching scenario, Ms. Singh further said, “College lecturers can’t teach students what they themselves don’t know (when it comes to in-demand skills) Some companies have started teaching academia what they want and are trying to bridge the gap by bringing them into the industry and training them. Access to information has become so easy that the desire to invest in oneself has come down a great deal. For example, grid computing has existed for decades, but it is now being brought back as a new concept. Problem-solving and attitude are going to make the difference in tech moving forward.”