Kathmandu, March 20, 2017: Stakeholders from the Industry, Academia, and Government sectors have mentioned that collaboration between all the three parties is necessary to bridge the gap between academia and industry and develop the human resources needed for a better tomorrow.
Interacting on the ‘Industry-Academia-Government Collaborative Roundtable’ recently organized in Kathmandu by Glocal After School, a venture of Glocal Pvt. Ltd., the experts shared their ideas on making a much-needed connection between industry and students, and enhance education at universities/colleges and other institutions in order to meet needs for human resources in the industrial world.
They highlighted that the proper curriculum for university internship is lacking, and most of the students have a mindset to leave for abroad after completing their education, while only 10% stay in Nepal. “To overcome this problem, more industries should be established in the country to create opportunities. People will stay in Nepal only when industries grow up,” they mentioned. It was also pointed out on the occasion that there is still no proper corporate culture in Nepal, and even no career plan in students.
Similarly, the low pay hire as fresher was also discussed on the occasion. “The provision of internship for a period of only 3 months (that too doesn’t count more than 45 days) is just useless. They should work for at least a year to gain the necessary work skills and develop the corporate-work skills,” shared a banker on how can internships be made more effective.
Similarly, the industry leaders present in the session shared their accounts of challenges of getting passionate and patient people to work. They also criticized that colleges are still feeling pride on making students to pass the exam with distinction marks. “The colleges should now shift the focus on how many of their graduates will be employed and placed in the industry,” they mentioned.
They also pointed out the necessity to design the courses to fit the market, providing non-credited courses, as the university syllabus alone isn’t sufficient to make a student industry-ready.
On a high note, it was mentioned that as industry and academia are currently going in two different directions, the collaboration between these two sectors is very essential to develop the human resources required for tomorrow’s Nepal.
