By Andy McCue, 18 March 2008 11:49
NEWS
Western economies such as the UK and US are "seriously underestimating" the scale of the technology skills shortage they face, according to one of India's most influential IT leaders.
Azim Premji, chairman of Bangalore-based Wipro, said poor maths education from primary school onwards is one of the fundamental causes of the shortage of science and engineering graduates in Western countries.
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Speaking at Wipro's global media event in Bangalore this week, Premji said: "A serious shortage is building up of science and engineering graduates in the Western world and we are completely underestimating how serious this shortage is. The reasons for it are fundamental. Young boys and young girls are not enjoying maths in school and they are not making careers in science and engineering."
India produces slightly more than half a million engineering graduates a year - compared to 75,000 in the US - and Premji said this is because there is still a huge amount of parental influence on Indian children to focus on maths, which is a solid foundation for a science or engineering career.
He said: "It is completely contrary to the trends happening in the Western world. The students [there] are just not interested in maths and do not perform well in maths because they are not taught well - the maths teachers are not good and the students are not excited and the students think there are so many other careers available to them, including being sports therapists."
As well as government intervention in primary education to train better maths teachers and get children interested in the subject, Premji said western countries should follow India's lead where there has been closer academic involvement by the IT industry in university education.
Recently Wipro launched a programme, called Mission 10x, which aims to train 10,000 engineering professors in India's second- and third-tier engineering schools within three years by educating them and overhauling their curriculum to be more state of the art and include emerging technologies and their practical use by industry.
But India has been forced to defend itself against claims of tech skills shortages and rising salaries that threaten to erode its cost advantage over other offshore locations. China, for example, will have almost 750,000 engineering graduates this year.
But Premji claims India will still maintain its dominant offshore position. "The difference is our engineers can learn English easily or they speak English. Chinese engineers do not speak English, or they find it difficult because of the phonetics of the language.
In response to domestic salaries for Indian software engineers rising at between 11 and 13 per cent per year - currently around $750 per month - Premji said Wipro is now exploiting the vast pool of Indian science graduates and putting them through intensive training to get them skilled up to the same level as an engineer.
India produces one million science graduates per year and Wipro will hire 4,000 of them this year.
Premji said: "Most of these boys and girls are able, within one year, to perform on the job as effectively as an engineer. They are significantly lower cost compared to engineers."
Comments
There are 8 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
This article is a master class in PR.
The message:
1) Nobody in the western world understands mathematics.
2) Indian has the best education system in world.
2) The Chinese cannot speak English
Yes the last point should be 3 but I don't understand numbers.
2. anonymous
I abandoned IT when it became uneconomic as PC desktops got too cheap! I was doing desktop and comms network support for SMEs and the tight so-and-so s seemed to think that £70 per hour was FAR too expensive. Trouble is, you can't run a viable business on less!
Instead of that I am now a CORGI heating engineer and can't get trainees / apprentices worth having, at any sensible price. And the maths (and written / read English) of those that DO front up is hopeless.
Because of Government 'Degrees for All' policy, even the dumbest, most unpromising students get rubbish degrees which they then believe entitles them to a cushy job in a nice warm office, with clean finger-nails. Whoever are left to become plumbers etc. tend to be long on ignorance and short on motivation!
3. Matt H
India, you are not indespensible, look at the UK work force for further proof! Those call centre and IT jobs originated in the UK!!
4. Richard
What crisis?
My area used to be famous for its hi-tech design and manufacturing companies. In recent years, most of these have closed "releasing" a wealth of highly-skilled talent which no other local employers seem to want. No firms have move into the area to tap this skills pool or to use the redundant industrial sites. Instead, yet more houses are being built on the former industrial estates.
So people are having to commute further and further; at higher and higher cost to themselves, their family lives and to the environment.
According to the latest official structure plan, the local council is planning a fancy aquarium (jobs for ticket sales & car-parking), an indoor holiday camp (jobs for cleaning & catering staff), a mountain-bike track, a canal and rowing-lake (in place of a much needed East-West railway); and of course, a bigger council office!
So, with such limited scope for hi-tech careers around here, why would youngsters bother to learn the "hard" subjects?
5. Karen Challinor
try "seriously underestimating" ageism
6. anonymous
But most foreign students in top western universities are from China not from India. China potentially going to be not only
the economic powerhouse but R&D power house as well in near future.
‘Quality’ ‘engineers’ after one (can we count ?) year of training - ? I missed a joke.
7. Steven Thompson
People underestimate the degree of ageism in the industry.
Now that I'm in the 35+ age bracket, I'm finding it almost impossible to get interviews, despite having over 12 years experience as an AP.
These days, companies are more interested in young kids who will work overtime without pay on a low rate.
8. Joe
This man is claiming a lack of education is the cause of a crisis in I.T.
Not from my experience of Indian off-shore workers. Their skill level is best described as trainee level, lacking the basic skills of a standard graduate trainee.
And he claims the educational achievements of Indian graduates qualifies them for I.T work more so than U.K workers.
Sorry. You are dreaming.
The reality is cost only. Companies are extending risk across their portfolio applications for the savings of a pound or a dollar.