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Training Sector Seeing Rising Demand for New Subjects

statement of purpose. Engineering graduates too can opt for specialised courses at train-ing institutes to supercharge their skills and land up with the right job profile, depending on their area of interest.

With the aim to achieve the best possible results from employees, companies also of-fer training in newer areas to their existing workforce, to help them boost their skills, eventually leading to the company’s growth.

Let us take a look at the current demand trends in training courses for professionals and graduates, with respect to the electron-ics industry. We also emphasise on some emerging business models, new courses and geographic trends, while highlighting the scenario in the training field.

Changing trends and new courses Technology is constantly changing. Hence, it is important for professionals and graduates to expand and upgrade their existing skills. To meet and keep up to date with demand, training institutes also look to revise the cur-riculum of their courses on a regular basis.

The trend is to make programs specific to the demand of the industry. Jayant Singh Kaintura, head - learning and development, Tevatron Technologies, says, “We focus on introducing courses based on the current scenario of the industry.” He adds, “This year, we have introduced specialised train-ing [courses] on drone surveillance systems, STM 32-bit ARM processors, system verilog certificate course in functional verification, Internet of Things (IoT) and computer-aided design (CAD).”

Venkatesh Prasad, CEO, RV-VLSI, says, “The change in demand, from our perspec-tive, is that, we are starting to see a lot of interest in the industry for back-end courses. By back-end I mean full-custom physi-cal intellectual property (IP) development such as standard cells, memory layout and

Market Survey:

Abhishek A. Mutha is a senior technical correspondent at EFY

With ever-changing technologies and expectations of a smarter work force for best results,

training is viewed as a skill accelerator tool rather than an additional expense incurred. Aspirants looking to study abroad to pur-sue a masters degree are also enrolling in training institutes to specialise in their area of interest. Industry experts feel that this will help them in selecting the right cours-es and modules, and screen universities. It will also help them in preparing a good

Importance of tying up with industry“We have partnered with companies like Freescale, ARM and STMicroelectronics, and are also a member of India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA). This helps us in staying in sync with current trends and demands in the industry. It also helps us design our curriculum accordingly.”

—Jayant Kaintura, head - learning and development, Tevatron Technologies“It is very important for a training institute to tie up with semiconductor and electronics companies. It gives the training institute brand recognition in society. It also helps us to stay in touch with current happenings in the industry and make sure courses never become outdated and meet the requirements of the industry as well.”

—Venkatesh Prasad, CEO, RV-VLSI

Point of view: The training products sector Latest demand trends. We cater to all engineering colleges, polytechnics and defence training establishments across the country. Army, Navy and Air Force have their own training centres.

In defence training establishments, there is demand for simulators. Air Force requires different parts of an aircraft to be supplied as simulators, such as landing gear system simulator or cockpit simulator, so that trainees can have first-hand training before they move on to the real aircraft.

In engineering colleges, demand of training mostly depends on the syllabus. Whenever there is a revision in the syllabus of the university, upgraded training products are accordingly provided. For instance, this year some engineering colleges have introduced DSP training kits and microcontroller projects.

New product segments. Only a revision in syllabus will give rise to new products and segments. If we develop a training product out of an educational university’s syllabus, it is difficult for us to supply. Only a handful of engineering colleges demand for products that are not necessarily part of their syllabus; probably for high-level projects.

Made in India. From basic concept development to circuit design, fabrication and testing, all training products that we supply are made in-house. At the component level, we do import some of these.

—K. Vijayasree, general manager, Lab Electronics

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input/output (I/O) layout designs.” He adds, “We are also seeing a lot of traction for application-specific inte-grated circuit (ASIC) physical design implementation at block level.”

Observing a rising demand for verification training, Deepa J., man-ager - training, Sandeepani School of VLSI and Embedded Systems Design, says, “New verification method-ologies have been introduced lately, which are slowly being adopted by companies. Earlier, we were much more into training for IP verification. Now, there is a lot more activity in the systems on chip (SoC) verifica-tion space and we will be introducing a course on SoC verification in the near future.”

She adds, “Field programmable gate array (FPGA) applications are more prevalent now. Many embedded applications use FPGAs. So, there is a lot of demand for FPGA based train-ing too.”

N. Arulselvan, director, Nettur Technical Training Foundation, is seeing an increasing demand in the embedded system design. He says, “There is an increased demand from companies looking for electronics graduates with software skills in em-bedded system design.”

He adds, “We have introduced mechatronics in a big way. It is becoming a popular choice among people coming for training as com-pared to a course in electronics.” It is a multi-disciplinary program with electronics and mechanical aspects

mixed in the right proportion. “This course is very useful for professionals from sectors into machine tool build-ing such as CNC machines, automo-bile as well as electronic products,” he adds.

Tevatron Technologies too has increased focus on providing training on mechatronics. Kaintura informs, “The course on mechatronics focuses on CAD designing, electronic control and PCB designing.” He adds, “We provide mentorship to students work-ing on projects not only through our internal staff but also from highly-skilled engineers working in our partner organisation. We are training students on STM32 ARM processors and helping them build projects around these.”

There is a rise in professionals working in non-core areas such as the IT industry, looking to switch over to the core sector. To address this demand, Prasad says, “We have

Notable players dealing in training productsAnshuman Tech Pvt LtdDynalog (India) LtdEdkits ElectronicsKits‘n’SparesLab ElectronicsPhi Education Solutions Pvt LtdRhydo Technologies Pvt LtdRomtek India Scientech Technologies Pvt LtdVi Microsystems Pvt Ltd

Point of view: Why e-training ecosystem is importantTechnology is advancing at lightning speed. First, it was the rise of robotics, then mechatronics and now the Internet of Things (IoT). This diverse growth and amalgamation of technologies has left the engineers in a very difficult scenario; upgradation of skill set is required at a similar pace, which is not possible with the curriculum academia provides or the bird’s-eye view of the overall technology provided by academic organisations.

As far as India is concerned, the outcome of being a software-servicing Mecca of the world is that, majority of engineers hardly get the right exposure to underlying system designs, which prohibits India from further developing skilled manpower. Solving this problem requires particular hands-on skills catered by vocational training institutes with their brick and mortar system, who are already witnessing their own set of limitations. With the ever-expanding Internet, people want to upgrade themselves on-the-go, and this need is driving the e-learning ecosystem.

—Pranay Kishore, CEO and founder, Phi Education Solutions Pvt Ltd (A Phi Robotics Research Enterprise)

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started weekend programmes for such professionals. They get trained on core aspects of VLSI design.”

Seeing the rising demand from the industry for professionals trained in embedded electronics, RV-VLSI has also launched an embedded programme keeping in mind the requirements of the industry. “Our embedded courses are designed to make people specialists in areas of firmware development, network stack engineering, board support package and Linux device driver develop-ment,” Prasad adds.

Steady growth, business-wiseMost engineering colleges and, to some extent, polytechnic colleges

across the country have not con-nected students to the right kind of job profile in the last three to four years, feels Arulselvan. There is no big growth in electronics-related training as potential candidates are getting diverted towards other job profiles. He says, “There is a big per-centage of electronic graduates who are working in various industries like IT and banking, except electronics.”

“There is lack of core engineering jobs, which has a telling effect on the admission for electronics-related training courses,” he adds.

“NTTF is maintaining steady business, although we are not see-ing a big jump. We have not moved away from our basic principle, which is training for employability and connecting them to the industry,” informs Arulselvan.

Satish B.K., senior manager - training services, Sandeepani School of VLSI and Embedded Systems De-sign, says, “As a training institute, we have definitely seen steady growth in business.”

Business modelsTalking about an emerging model at Sandeepani School of VLSI and Em-bedded Systems Design, Satish says,

“We are focusing on blended learning, which is a combination of instructor-led training (ILT) and supporting students with learning management systems (LMSes). This aims at provid-ing trainees an out-of-the-classroom kind of training experience, focusing on self-paced learning (SPL).”

He adds, “Basically, it is a mix of online and instructor training includ-ing hands-on, practical lab sessions. We are trying to reach out to educa-tional institutions and conduct training courses in colleges as well to bridge the industry-academia gap.”

Arulselvan identifies that the most simple business model is to tie up with the industry. He says, “We have tied up with nearly 150 companies, which regularly visit NTTF for recruitment.”

NTTF recently worked on a model called Earn and Learn programme with many companies. Based on Germany’s dual education system, it allows people to develop practical skills while work-ing. “Students spend close to five days a week in the industry, focusing on manufacturing-related activities of the company, and one to one-and-a-half day is spent on training at our institute. At the end of this four-year programme, they get good industrial exposure and a diploma certificate,” says Arulselvan. He adds, “This programme is free of cost and trainees are paid a stipend. It has picked up very well in the last few years.”

According to Prasad, the only busi-ness model which has survived the test of time is setting up an industry-like atmosphere and working in part-nership with colleges and universities. He says, “RV-VLSI was set up in a similar way. R.V. TRUST provided the land and infrastructure, whereas the technical expertise came from a company of my own, Nanochip Solu-

Point of view: Major consumers and demand trends in educational training products industryTechnical training institutes are the largest contributors for growth in this segment. IITs, NITs, private engineering under-graduate and post-graduate colleges, diploma colleges, vocational training institutes and other universities are the main consumers. Private training institutes also contribute to the consumption. Hobbyists are also contributing to consumption.

Presently, training systems around embedded systems (FPGAs, ARMs, VLSI, DSPs), instrumentation, process-control, mechatronics and advanced communication are in great demand. There is a steady demand for conventional technologies like microprocessor and microcontroller products. These demands are market-driven since the industry is looking for workforce trained with one of the above technologies to cut-short their in-company training requirements.

—Rajesh Suresh Joshi, director, Dynalog Didactic Solutions Pvt Ltd

Find the right training institute with EFY’s Training Institute FinderWith the capability to search for training institutes city-wise, course-wise and name-wise, Training Institute Finder was created to make it easy for aspirants looking to enrol in an electronics-related course. Currently in its beta version, it provides a comprehensive listing of 550 institutes in India. This facility can be found at www.electronicsforu.com under Finder tab.

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from northern and southern parts of the country. Kaintura says, “Apart from north and south India, this year we are also seeing interest from the north-eastern states. Outside India, we have started getting re-sponses from Greece, Sri Lanka and Brazil.”

Satish says, “We see a lot of stu-dents coming from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We also have con-siderable students from north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.”

Prasad notes, “We are seeing many students from Andhra Pradesh and Delhi-NCR region showing a lot of interest in our courses. Generally, about 60 per cent of our students are from out of Bengaluru.”

Training for professionalsIndustry experts feel that corporate training is on the right track. “NTTF is doing a lot of training for major companies into services and manu-facturing. Due to continuous tech-nology upgradation, there is always demand from corporates for training their existing employees,” informs Arulselvan.

Satish too observes a rise in demand for professional training. He says, “Public and private sector companies are looking to train their employees to bridge the gap created by changes in technology.”

Professionals are always looking to upgrade their skills in this indus-try, notes Kaintura. He says, “For instance, if an engineer is working on 8-bit or 16-bit MCUs, he or she would

want to extend pro-ficiency to 32-bit controllers, which is the latest in the industry.”

With respec t to training for stu-dents, as mentioned earlier, there is a high demand for me-chatronics, as there is a wider scope for

employment and the starting sal-ary is very good. Arulselvan says, “A student, who has completed three years of diploma in mechatron-ics after his tenth grade, can earn anywhere between ` 22,000 and ` 28,000 per month at an entry- level.” Students looking to pursue their masters abroad are also enrolling for professional development courses.

Need for quality institutesIndustry experts feel that the market size is huge in India in terms of stu-dents and professionals, but there are very few good quality training institu-tions here. Many institutions do not provide relevant training. Experts feel that some institutes provide irrelevant training and there is no connection between the training and industry requirement.

The focus should be on taking the electronics industry to a new level by imparting training on latest concepts, to students and professionals, keep-ing in mind industry trends. Kaintura says, “Students tend to think that there is a lack of job opportunities in the electronics industry. But if the right kind of mentorship can be pro-vided to them, it would be possible to connect them to the right job profile.”

Looking into the future, e-learning will emerge as a strong training methodology, believes Rajesh Suresh Joshi, director, Dynalog Didactic So-lutions Pvt Ltd. He says, “Tax relief to the industry providing educational training systems would also help in effective cost control, resulting in large-scale adoption of newer tech-nologies.”

tions. Consequently, this allowed us to minimise our cost of operation and offer quality programmes with the best infrastructure, keeping the cost of the courses competitive.”

He adds, “Most of the money is spent on capital expenditure if one plans to set up a 465sqm (5000-square-feet) to 557sqm (6000-square-feet) training facility in Bengaluru. If that can be avoided, it can be valuable for the students.” Going forward, he predicts that an integrated programme with colleges by private players will be the way to go.

Virtual-instructor-lead training (VILT) is another model adopted by institutes for training industry profes-sionals. Satish says, “Virtual training is mostly for professionals, working on projects, who cannot afford to spend two or three days at an institute.”

Talking about Tevatron Technolo-gies, Kaintura informs, “This year we would also be starting to provide dis-tance education in VLSI design and verification, embedded systems, robot-ics, mechatronics and functional verifi-cation. We are working on a complete package where students can learn from anywhere.”

Geographically speakingTalking about NTTF, Arulselvan notes, “Even though our training centre is in Bengaluru, we are getting a lot of students from Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.” He adds, “Although we have three centres in Jharkand, due to an overwhelming response, we direct them to our other locations.”

Some training institutes are ob-serving an equal influx of students

Major Contributors to this report

Deepa J., manager - training,

Sandeepani School of VLSI and Embedded Systems Design

K. Vijayasree, general manager, Lab Electronics

Venkatesh Prasad,

CEO, RV-VLSI

Pranay Kishore, CEO and founder,

Phi Education Solutions Pvt Ltd (A Phi Robotics

Research Enterprise)

Rajesh Suresh Joshi,

director, Dynalog Didactic Solutions Pvt Ltd

N. Arulselvan, director, Nettur

Technical Training

Foundation

Jayant Singh Kaintura,

head - learning and development,

Tevatron Technologies

Satish B.K., senior manager - training services,

Sandeepani School of VLSI and Embedded Systems Design