Indian College Students Face Bleak Prospects

The New York Times has a piece on the lackluster prospects facing the great majority of Indian college graduates. Most of the 11 million students in India's 18,000 colleges and universities receive starkly inferior training, according to the article, heavy on obedience and rote memorization and light on useful job skills. From the article: "In the 2001 census, [Indian] college graduates had higher unemployment — 17 percent — than middle or high school graduates... [At a middle-tier college] dozens of students swarmed around a reporter to complain about their education. 'What the market wants and what the school provides are totally different,' a commerce student said.... [A] final-year student who expects next year to make $2 to $4 a day hawking credit cards, was dejected. 'The opportunities we get at this stage are sad,' she said. 'We might as well not have studied.'"

Comments

Well then, outsource!

[Tackhead]

> But as graduates complain about a lack of jobs, companies across India see a lack of skilled applicants. The contradiction is explained, experts say, by the poor quality of undergraduate education. India's thousands of colleges are swallowing millions of new students every year, only to turn out degree holders whom no one wants to hire.

Well, Indian companies, if your universities are turning out graduates of sub-par, and you're no longer pleased to being able to bringing products to markets in a timely manner, please to be introducing you a land where you can be outsourcing your business products and services. This land is being called America! And you can be outsourcing your technical business to it!

(We are apologizing for the quality of the technical support and code we send back. We are knowing that "Howdy Y'all! My name is Jethro! How can ah help y'all with yer blinkinlights?" and "Segmentation pwnage, core dumped, dude" isn't quite what you're used to receiving, but remember... you do get what you pay for.)

The Guru

[Ice Wewe]

"Name one indian here that doesn't drive a taxi"

"That guy on the Simpsons!"

... "He is a cartoon!"

Re:Use college funds for I'net for ideas, skills

[bebing]

You might want to avoid calling them cells though...

Re:So...

[scheming daemons]

Is that really different from the US? Most CS graduates can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

I know *I* can't. Damn proprietary hardware. Anyone ever seen an API for paper bags, specifically wet ones? Damn hard to find one.

Now... *plastic* bags, that's another thing. I can code my way out of all kinds of plastic bags. But hey... who can't?

Wait one minute...

[WickedLogic]

Wait one minute... you mean we aren't all going to be well paid and rich? This sounds like that dot com thing that I heard about. I'm going to go back to my true plan, selling Amway products. Nutri-lite anyone?

Re:Let me just be the first to ask:

[yali]

What's annoying about the Indians taking the calls is that they pretend to understand when you use words or phrases they don't get, and it quickly becomes apparent as they struggle to troubleshoot a problem they never comprehended in the first place.

And this is different from American customer service how?

Re:Prospects

[Peldor]

You missed a spot.

Re:Let me just be the first to ask:

[computational super]

I think the underlying hate comes from the people who have to call tech support at a placed based in India, and then can't understand or communicate with the person on the other end of the line

I recently had to call a tech support line for a company which I knew outsourced it's call center support to India. The girl on the other end of the line called herself "Irene" and talked like a California Valley Girl (if I hadn't known that the call center was in India, I would have been fooled). It was kind of a turn-on knowing that she was working so hard to fulfill my fantasy that I was talking to an American girl. It made me wonder if I could convince her to wear a cheerleader outfit or a french maid uniform or something.

Re:Let me just be the first to ask:

[Warg! The Orcs!!]

I think you're calling the wrong sort of "support" line...