Could you please tell me the qualities you look into when you recruit new people at entry. If OpenClass sends a person who is from IGNOU but who can build a complete social game on Facebook himself which 200 people have played would you recruit him or an IITian with just a degree?
I am reading your blog posts for quite some time and feel you are a great mentor. I am currently running an initiative called OpenClass, the aim of which is to create an eco-system where knowledge can be exchanged. I think the biggest deficiency of current education system is the disconnect between industry and students.
At OpenClass we aim to bridge this gap (currently we do not do this for profit but we are not an NGO since I think that all NGOs are corrupt and I think reasonable and just profit is a good aim) . Many people I meet tell that the aim of college or training institute should be to teach programming. I differ. I think the college should teach conceptualization, planning, programming, testing, marketing etc all holistically. As a gaming company founder in my earlier venture I had tough time recruiting people who had knowledge of all these.
I opened OpenClass to give engineering students a feel of the industry and imparting them skills to enable them to complete a project from all angles holistically. I have even trained a non-engineer graphic designer to build a complete J2ME game himself.
Recently I met an IITian who told me that big and medium sized companies do not need people with holistic 360 degree skills. They only want pure coders.
This is the reason I am asking this question.
Also the only way OpenClass can impart practical skills is by bringing people from industry for 2-3 hour sessions with students once every quarter. Do you think people like you will send there team leaders or other team members for such sessions. In return you have the option of recruiting such people.
I know it is a long mail but to change the education system I need support of people like you!