More on IT Finishing Schools

Associated blog post date: 19th Oct. 2011, last updated on 4th Sept. 2014, link: http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-on-it-finishing-schools.html , short link: http://bit.ly/more-on-it

[Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20110211052850/http://www.careers360.com/news/3716-Job-hunting-The-truth-about-finishing-schools (short link: http://bit.ly/38Nbqzw ) for following broken link]  http://www.careers360.com/news/3716-Job-hunting-The-truth-about-finishing-schools: A very interesting article in Dec. 2009. Some notes from the article:

Dr K R V 'Raja' Subramanian, CEO of Radix Learning, a finishing school with a focus on IT and a former BITS Computer Science professor says 'We need outcome-based learning,' as that translates to 'job-ready' students

...

It is important for students to know their "unemployability quotient" and then (if that is high) focus on doing something about it.

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Here is a BBC article in March 2010, "Finishing school for Indian IT graduates": http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8547327.stm.

Jul, 2009, Education Plus, Hindu article, "Applications invited for IT Finishing School": (20th Feb. 2020 update: seems to be either broken now or behind a paywall) http://www.hindu.com/edu/2009/07/13/stories/2009071350710800.htm.

Here is the IT Finishing school mentioned in above article: [archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20110807202244/http://teknoturf.biz/it_finishing_school.php (short link: http://bit.ly/3bSwZQR ) for following broken link] http://teknoturf.biz/it_finishing_school.php.

[Archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20110716015317/http://www.3edge.in/IT%20Finishing%20School.htm (short link: http://bit.ly/2HSyNMh ) for broken link] http://www.3edge.in/IT%20Finishing%20School.htm Claims, "The concept of IT finishing school was pioneered in India by 3Edge in 2006."

http://www.smartguruji.com/it-finishing-school.php E-learning (online) course:

Mode : eLearning

Duration : 3 Months

Eligibility : Graduate/PG (Eg: BE/B.Tech/M.Tech, BCA, B.Sc., MCA, M.Sc. etc)

Fee : 4500 + Free TechnoFIRST Career Magazine (6 Months)

Syllabus:

    * Programming Fundamentals

    * User Interface Design

    * C Programming

    * HTML Basics

    * LINUX OS Concepts

    * Software Testing Basics

    * Basics of UNIX

    * OOPS Concepts

    * Database Concepts (RDBMS, MS SQL Basics)

Placements: We have a 100% placement assistance program and you will also become a part of our extensive recruitment database after undergoing our 6 months industrial training.

....

Eklavya Sai (Ravi S. Iyer): Sounds like a pretty good deal. Wonder how good their placement record is? May not be great - sounds too good to be true.

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Well, the IT Finishing School concept seems to have become quite established in India. So looks like the division of labour is that AICTE/UGC governed CS & IT departments focus on the theory & research stuff and also impart some weak programming skill set, and the market-forces-created private "IT Finishing Schools" step in the "gap" to provide "job oriented skills" to those CS & IT graduates who could not land a job. Of course, some of these finishing schools are open to all graduates not just CS & IT graduates - but clearly many CS & IT graduates are not able to land a job without the help of such "IT Finishing Schools" or private training institutes.