The bars have been raised

Prof. Debabrata Das, Director, IIIT Bangalore spells out the value that academic research, reskilling and lifelong learning bring to the space of talent transformation

Given the critical role of higher education institutions in developing human capital, their leadership in talent enhancement is an important aspect. Making strides with new technologies is the fundamental focus of the talent transformation in an institution like IIIT Bangalore. All the faculty members do research in niche areas, which helps them to stay updated with present and futuristic changes to come. This approach not only helps faculty but students too.

Jobs will be transformed with AI, robotics, automation, and more digitalization

The bars are raised on evaluating academic performance, the academic leadership needs to upgrade their approach to talent identification, development, and deployment. Employee development in an academic environment needs some adaptations to sustain in this knowledge-intensive industry. The concept of talent development is not new in IIIT Bangalore. As mentioned above, our Professors are updated as they are involved in research and publishing papers as well as some of them develop software tools/systems, in their respective domains. We ensure academicians/Professors are informed with the latest knowledge, skills and competencies. 

Over the next years, a lot of jobs will be transformed by advances in Artificial Intelligence, robotics, automation more digitalization, etc. Such a metamorphosis of job markets will demand that people acquire new competencies, skills, and knowledge throughout their professional careers—lifelong learning, reskilling, and upskilling have become essential parts of the work. 

Advancements in computation, communication, data sciences, drones, automation, electric vehicle, security, privacy, trust, inter-disciplinary areas, driverless vehicles etc. driven by AI and Machine Learning are going to drive the job market in the time to come. We can see lots of opportunities in the areas of authentication of data, the purity of the data, and ethical issues related to data and decision making.

Now more than ever, employee experience is crucial to employees’ well-being, sense of purpose and productivity. Universities are gearing to adapt their structure, processes, and models to make full use of new digital capabilities to drive institutional effectiveness.

On issues like moonlighting…

Moonlighting or having a supplementary income-generating activity may be prevalent more in other sectors. The moonlighting in Higher Education Institutes has no scope, owing to academic employees being full with teaching, working on research projects, and publishing their research papers as well as guiding research students. Even if such a condition exists, it is a passing phase once institutions are back from the virtual to the physical mode of teaching.

Prof. Debabrata Das is Director, IIIT Bangalore

By Pratima Harigunani

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in