NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Sharad Kumar (not his real name) passed out of a leading computer training institute in 1995. He had done an advanced course in computer programming in what he thought was a language in demand and had paid a hefty amount. The institute allowed him limited access to a computer to hone his skills, but Kumar managed to familiarise himself with Windows and the language. He thought he was ready for the show.

Kumar's problems began the moment he left the institute to look for a job. The institute he had attended offered a full three-year degree course along with on-the-job training and Kumar found that students from this course had been placed in several leading software development companies in Delhi as interns. Ultimately, he settled for a page designer's job in a small desk-top publishing outfit, a far cry from what he thought he would do after a course in computer programming. Now, two years and as many jobs later, he barely makes Rs 4,000 a month. ``I had to start earning to repay my parents for the huge fee, so after a point, any job had to do,'' he says.

Kumar's is not an isolated case. Thousands of ``computer graduates'' pass out of various institutes in India, but these ``computer programming courses'' merely familiarise students with computers. They do not in any way prepare them to actually handle a project to develop software. Sure, there is no shortage of jobs for people who are familiar with computers, but these are far removed from computer programming jobs. Kumar's is a case in point.

That is the case with most institutes, including big ones such as Aptech and NIIT. Both these, however, offer more comprehensive courses that they claim make a full-fledged programmer out of you. But then you need to spend three years and a fat fee to get through them. These courses give you on-the-job training under a project head so that you can put the theories you learn into practice.

Sanjiv Kataria, vice president, corporate communications at NIIT, rattles off figures. ``Last year, we placed students in over 1,000 organisations, including 263 software exporters. In their fifth and sixth semester, the students undergo professional practice at a leading software development house - that is a whole year's experience of working while studying.'' But is that enough?

NIIT claims that its full course puts students on par with BEs, given the fact that they are absorbed at the same level and command the same salaries. Starting salaries depend on the city. Hyderabad is the lowest at Rs 4,000, while Mumbai is the highest at Rs 8,000 a month.

Not quite. Despite all this, a student still has to cut his teeth in a real life situation. ``Fresh graduates have no idea about the market or what it takes to make a programme. It requires extensive training on-the-job,'' says Uma Mahesh, director of software production house, Crystal Software Pvt. Ltd. What he means is that fresh graduates need to be ``broken in'' before they can be entrusted to handle things on their own.

But that seldom happens in an industry that's grown at over 25 per cent a year in recent years. There are many software development firms and companies waiting to snatch up pass-outs from computer institutes who have garnered a little experience, so much so that these young minds have little time to settle in a job and absorb the intricacies of a project before moving on. ``A lot of education, the kind they do not teach you in a computer school, has to go into making a full programmer out of a person,'' says Mahesh.

Computer institute pass-outs are many steps above the data entry operators, to be sure. But a single course does not a programmer make. This is borne out by the experience of other computer programming firms with fresh graduates. While they have to get up and go, they do not have the skills needed to grasp and execute a project. Therefore, they are limited to helping around in their workplace for the first few years. Isn't that the case with other professionals also? Sure, but training courses for doctors do not lure people with promise of instant lucrative jobs abroad.

The AA India Council for Technical Education decided to ensure a minimum standard for compute education by recognising only those institutes that met its guidelines. Many applied and were given the AICTE seal of approval, only to be derecognised soon after. Institutes with this seal may educate students better, but the fact remains-they are still not computer programme material.

For most fresh graduates, it is a long haul. The job hunt begins as soon as they finish, sometimes even before that. Campus recruitments are reserved only for students at the large institutes and these actually comprise only a small percentage of the total. It is only the larger software development houses that go in for campus interviews. Like Ramco Systems, a Chennai-based company. There are over 100 NIIT graduates working there, claims Kataria, and about 75 doing professional practice.

But the majority of software houses do not do campus recruitment. They wait for fresh graduates to gather experience and then pick them up. However, it is a Catch-22 situation- where does a fresh graduate get his experience from if there are no companies willing to hire him? Kunal Mullick, director of Macrographics India Pvt. Ltd, says, ``Some companies do hire fresh boys for the bottom of the pile work. If these graduates are willing to do that sort of work, there is no dearth of jobs, but this is a far cry from a programmer's job.''

Where does all this leave a youth, fresh from a computer institute, but not `fortunate' enough to have passed out of the larger ones? Essentially, on par with graduates from any other college, not even a professional stream.

If the person has spent time and money after school doing a full-fledged course in computers, and those are pretty thin on the ground, then he stands to land that dream job that the ads promise. Otherwise, it's the rat race for him. In sum, most computer courses afford an entry into the glamourised world of computer programming without really laying a firm foundation. It is up to individual students to do that themselves, with a little help from an obliging employer.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.