Its All About Oracle
The Information Technology (IT) industry in India is poised for further growth, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Delivery Manager, Core Technology, Oracle University, India, said here on Saturday.At Sankara College to brief students about Oracle and the career prospects for an Oracle-certified professional, he said the growth of the industry had been steady in the country.Even though it suffered a slight setback with the unrest in the U.S. economy, it was all set to regain its pace, he added.
India was still the most preferred option for the U.S. though the country had other emerging markets in Europe, Australia, and China. However, China was India’s main competitor. “Though we have an advantage over the Chinese in terms of our command over the English language, they are catching up fast,” Mr. Chakravarthy said. Students needed to develop soft skills along with technical knowledge in order to make use of the opportunities open to them in the IT industry. The key skills required by the industry were knowledge of the products, communication skills and the right attitude.
Team work was also an essential component, said John Edison, of Cognizant Academy, Coimbatore. “They should know how to work in teams,” he added. It was not enough if the students were technically sound. They needed to pick up the right skills required by the industry. Though Coimbatore region had immense potential for supplying manpower to the industry, the students lacked communication skills. “English is learnt as a subject here. Unless it is understood and accepted as a language, communication skills will not improve,” he said. The colleges should ensure that the students were trained in soft skills, he observed.
Though the industry had managed a consistent growth rate of eight to nine per cent even in the face of inflation, the challenges it faced in terms of attracting talent and retention of manpower continued to exist. Sankaram Infotech, an authorised education centre for Oracle, started by Sankara College about four months ago, gives training in the Oracle database product to students who have completed engineering or computer applications courses. The course improved their employability to a large extent as most of the software companies in India and across the world used this product, Mr.Chakravarthy said.
