ABSTRACT

• The current education system doesn’t equip

youngsters with the desired knowledge and
skill sets needed to excel in the practical
professional life. 
• At present, the fresh pass out students
hired by industries are given training at the
level of their induction either through
product-oriented training programme or
through in-house training programme
organized by a few industries. In-house
training is limited to a basic orientation,
because vendor-based training is expensive
and equipment specific.
• Finishing School is a new concept in
which curriculum is developed for
students to prepare them for
requirements of industries. The
finishing school aims to provide skills
both technical and soft skills to
people to facilitate their
employability and play a part in the
supply side issues (of talent) of the
industry.
• 1996 Review of Engineering Education,
Australia-It stated that engineering graduates,
while needing a “sound base of mathematics
and engineering technology” also must be
equipped as communicators, with a broad
understanding of, and ability to interact in the
broader society in which their profession
operates.
• AC Nielsen’s report (2000) - Employer
Satisfaction with Graduate Skills, in particular
notes the following “skill deficiencies in new
graduates: Creativity and flair, oral business
communication and problem solving.” The
report also cites employers’ dissatisfaction
with graduates’ “communication skills,
• Survey- Outlook 2005 in US- Top qualities employer
want from engineer communication skills (written and
verbal), interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, analytical
skills, presentation skills. Employers say new
graduates lack: Communication skills, business
etiquette, work ethics etc.
• An independent study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford
Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in the US-In
this study found that long-term job success depends
75 percent on people skills and only 25 percent on
technical knowledge.
• Study done by Harvard University- Another study done
by Harvard University had even more startling results
— 85 percent of jobs and promotions happened
because of the candidate’s attitude and only 15
percent due to the facts and figures he packed under
his belt.
• KPMG study on ‘Global Skills for Graduates in
Financial Services’ - KPMG’s recent study has
found that financial services firms in both the
UK and India are experiencing difficulties in
recruiting the right people with the right skills,
and that a “soft skills gap” is making itself
increasingly apparent. This report attempts to
highlight the gaps and provide direction for
employers and educators looking to bridge this
gap between the expectations of the financial
sector and the current talent availability.
• MeritTrac study- According to the MeritTrac
report, only 23% of all MBAs from Tier 2 and
Tier 3 institutes are employable.
• AC Nielsen Survey - More and more IITians are
now turning towards Management consultancy
• Understanding of Private Higher Education
in India: A FICCI Survey-The survey reveals
that students of private HEIs are less
satisfied with the course curricula than the
students of public HEIs. The employability is
a greater concern for today students.
• Mckinsey&Company survey: Universities
and colleges in the region graduate roughly
25,000 engineers a year, of whom about 25
percent are likely to be suitable for work in
multinationals. That will not be enough to
meet demand for engineers at current
growth rates. Demand for engineers will
surpass suitable local supply as early as
2006 and reach 138 percent of supply by
• India Vision 2020, Planning Commission 2002-
Currently only 5 per cent of the country’s labour
force in the 20-24 age category have
undergone formal vocational training,
compared with 28 per cent in Mexico, 60 to 80
per cent in most industrialized nations, and as
much as 96 per cent in Korea.

The urgency of the need for inculcating good

soft skills can be understood from various
surveys conducted recently which concluded
that presently only 15 to 20 percent of
engineering and other graduates being churned
out every year in India were employable in the
IT industry. Sadly, of the large number most are
unsuitable because of lack of soft skills.
The concept of Finishing School programme is a
pre-employment training programmes for
graduating
students from Engineering/ Polytechnic Colleges
offering different specializations to cater to the
needs
of different industries.
Finishing School is a supplementary training
school that
attempts to make-up for deficiencies of
students providing
• The Finishing School aims to provide
skills both in technical and soft
skills to students to facilitate their
employability and play a part in the
supply side issues of the industry.
• The aim is to "sharpen some of the
social, presentation and communication
skills in which many Indian engineers
are found wanting when they interact
with clients and colleagues from other
cultures," Kiran Karnik, president of
National Association of Software and
Service Companies (NASSCOM).
• Finishing School is needed to bridge
the gap that existing between the
needs of the industry and the
academic curricula.
• Through Finishing School, the
students will get an opportunity to
acquire and reinforce industry-
specific knowledge, skills and
competencies delivered by trained
faculty and practicing managers from
 OBJECTIVES
• To enhance the employability of engineering students.
• To enhance the standard of fresh engineering graduates so that
they become acceptable to the industry.
• To cater to the needs of the industry.
• To create a platform where the students can work towards
accessing the skills required to get into industry.
• To bridge the gap between industry and educational institutions.
• To provide both technical and soft skill to people to facilitate their
employability.
• To meet the needs of unemployed and non-employable
engineering graduates and to improve their communication as
well as I.T. skills.
• To reinforce the students skills and acquire industry–specific
knowledge from trained faculty and experts from industries.
• To offer suitable candidates to different industries.
• To help young graduates to find jobs through appropriate training.
• The Human Resource Development
Ministry, in consultation with AICTE,
Department of Information
Technology, seven NITs/IIT Roorkee
and NASSCOM has taken up of
offering Finishing School for from
May 2007.
• Finishing School programmes are
conducted as per the directives of
HRD in NITs at Kozhikode, Durgapur,
Kurushetra, Jaipur, Surat and
• The popular ones in the I.T. domain are
the Mysore based Raman International
Institute of Information Technology, a
division of Raman Computers and
Bangalore based Purple Leap. These
schools cover technical skills as well as
communication and problem solving
skills. Other Finishing Schools attempt
to make up for the deficiencies in the
secondary education system with
regard to maths and science education
and bring the student up to the level
necessary for attending University and
gaining admission.
• All NIIT inductees come down to the School
of Employee Education and Development
(SEED), in Delhi, during their induction
programme when certain generic skills for
people across all divisions are taught.
• A wing of TVS Group of Companies, in
association with Indian Institute of
engineering graduates, from the next
academic year. Engineering graduate
students will have an opportunity to equip
themselves with skills that are relevant to
modern engineering practices in leading
industries nationwide and worldwide.
• Global software and outsourcing giant
Accenture has joined forces with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to train
its employees.

• Dale Carnegie Walchand Finishing School has

been started in October, 2007 in Ramnagar,
around 20 kilometres from Bangalore; it aims at
making candidates industry-ready.

• In Wipro, weekly communication workshops on

vision and business plans, continuous
communication and Web training to new
recruits, extensive verbal and documented
communication to line managers and
intensifying efforts to add to the current
• Indian Institure of Information
Technology (IIIT), Allahabad finishing
school - the objective of school is to
meet the immediate trained human
resource requirements of the IT
industries, to improve the quality of
engineering graduates to enhance their
employability, to impart knowledge and
skills as required by the industry for
matching of jobs. The finishing school
shall provide an opportunity to
graduate students of different
engineering colleges to develop soft,
managerial and communication skills in
• The Government of Kerala has taken the first step
towards this by way of setting up the Model Finishing
School in the capital city of Trivandrum. The Model
Finishing School is a joint initiative of IT Department,
Government of Kerala and Institute of Human
Resources Development (IHRD), with the support of
Infosys. This school for the kerela students, who in
spite of academic and technical brilliance are not able
to get employment in adequate numbers,
commensurate with their skills.
• Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Finishing
school at Ernakulum, Kerala a joint venture of Kerala
State IT Mission and C-DIT. The need of the school is
to reduce the gap between the non availability of
FOSS based software tools and trained manpower in
FOSS. The Development Centre cum Finishing School
in FOSS becomes a reality in the end of November
2008
• The recent boom in the Indian Economy has enhanced
the need for such Finishing Schools.
• The Commissioner of Technical Education has stated
that it is hoped that the offering of Finishing School
initiative would help in bridging the manpower supply-
demand gap by atleast 30 to 40%. Offering different
technical courses along with soft skills through the
Finishing Schools will definitely increase the
employable working population by 40%. The
graduates securing jobs in vain due to lack of
employability, communication skills and
entrepreneurship quality will be over come by offering
Finishing Schools. With complexities of business
increasing with time, the need for trained IT related
professionals along with soft skills is growing. With
computers and internet becoming a way of life, there
has been a manifold increase in the development of
networking components and technologies, thus
resulted in a need for Finishing School Programmes to
• The finishing school programme will enhance the
employability of 20,000 students per year and to train
students to better fit in to the industry and enhance
students technical skills as well as soft skills and
request the Government to pass orders on the
proposal to establish the “Finishing School”
programme in Government, Government Aided and
Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges from May 2008
onwards.
• The Government permit the Commissioner of
Technical Education to establish Finishing School
programme in Government, Government Aided and
Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges from May-June
2008 onwards with a minimum strength of 50 students
and maximum of 100 and above in each institution for
a period of 5 weeks every year, without any additional
expenditure to Government.
• According to experts in the IT sector, the need for the
finishing schools is immense. The IT industry which saw a
Rs 6,750 crore turnover last year, has around 25,000
direct vacancies at present. However, the need of the hour
is a trained professional, a product experts feel only an IT
finishing school will be able to turn out. There are 4,00,000
engineers graduating in the country every year, but only
one in four is employable in the IT sector. The finishing
schools are the need of the hour -- a recent survey showed
that nearly 30 percent of the engineering graduates
aspiring to enter the IT sector are not in employable
positions, as they need to upgrade their skills.
• The growth of IT industries is highly dependent on the
supply of the talent pool. The academic institutions of the
state have a tradition of producing quality talents which are
necessary for IT industries to grow. In view of the huge
manpower required to cope with the IT/ITeS growth
projection in the State during next four years’ time, we
need to set up more finishing schools in India to fulfil the
future needs of efficient quality professional.
• Government of India, Ministry of human
resource Development in 8th editors’
Conference on social sector issues (ECSSI –
2008), New Delhi has recommended to
repeat the Finishing Schools programme for
Engineering Graduates in the summer of
2008, and other centrally funded technical
institutions are also being advised to start it
from this year, that were conducted on pilot
basis during May-July, 2007, in seven
central technical institutions (one IIT and six
NITs). The aim of the programme was to
enhance the employability of engineering
graduates through appropriate training so
as to make suitable candidates available to
IT industry.
1. The Commissioner of Technical Education, Chennai 25,
LetterNo.5294/ Y3/SO(CDC)/2008, dated 12.2.2008. –
Establishment of “Finishing School” in Government,
Govt. Aided and Self-financing Polytechnic Colleges.
2. KPMG study on ‘Global Skills for Graduates in Financial
Services’
3. MeritTrac study on employability of MBAs from Tier 2
and Tier 3 institutes.
4. FICCI Survey on emerging skill shortages in the Indian
industry.
5. Understanding of Private Higher Education in India: A
FICCI Survey.
6. 1996 Review of Engineering Education, Australia,
engineering graduates skills.
7. AC Nielsen’s report (2000) on “skill deficiencies in new
9. An independent study conducted on CEOs, by
Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in
the US on job success skills in the workplaces.
10. Study done by Harvard University on factors for the
promotion in the workplaces.
11. Mckinsey& Company survey done on demand for
graduate engineers in India.
12. India Vision 2020, Planning Commission 2002 report
on labour force undergone Vocational training in
India.
• National Association of Software and Service
Companies(NASSCOM) Assessment of Competence –
Technology (NAC-Tech) for IT / Engineering
candidates.
• Government of India, Ministry of human resource
Development in 8th editors’ Conference on social
sector issues (ECSSI – 2008), New Delhi(6.3)
THANK YOU ALL.