AGCAS/NASES PMI2 visit to India February 2010

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AGCAS / NASES PMI 2 India Visit Report

1 – 5 February 2010

The Indian graduate recruitment market and the perceived value of a UK degree

Executive summary: 1. Introduction and background (3)

a. Indian economy b. Delhi c. Mumbai d. Bangalore

2. Key findings (8)

a. Perceptions of UK higher education b. Graduate recruitment in India c. Recruitment challenges

3. Recommendations (12)

a. For students and new graduates i. Enhancing skills and expanding networks ii. Effective job search

b. For UK universities c. For the British Council d. For the UK government

Appendices: Appendix 1: Glossary of key terms (15) Appendix 2: Reports on individual Delhi visits (18) Appendix 3: Reports on individual Mumbai visits (47) Appendix 4: Reports on individual Bangalore visits (90)

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1. Introduction and background As part of the Prime Minister’s Initiative Phase 2 Student Experience & Employment funded projects in 2009-10, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) organised a delegation to India. In order to maximise the benefit of the visit, nine staff representing AGCAS and the National Association of Student Employment Services (NASES) visited three separate cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore – in groups of three. Staff were selected on the basis of their work for the AGCAS Internationalisation Task Group and for NASES, and their active engagement in supporting international students through their work in their own institutions as professional careers and employment advisers, some as specialist advisers for international students. The official five-day visits were undertaken in the week from 1 – 5 February 2010, with some events organised at the weekend prior to these dates. This report is based on the information gathered in each city through a range of visits, interviews and extensive discussions with various parties (see Table 1). The resulting recommendations are aimed at the different stakeholders: students and new graduates and their advisers in Careers Services and UK universities, UK Government departments responsible for higher education and employment, and related organisations at strategic level e.g. the British Council, UKTI, British Chambers of Commerce. UK participants Delegation to Delhi: Yasmina Mallam-Hassam Careers Adviser, Loughborough University Tammy Goldfeld Assistant Director, MLP, Careers and Employability Division, The University of Manchester Calli Amiras Careers Consultant, Brunel University Delegation to Mumbai: Aled Williams Career Consultant (International), Cardiff University Ellen Parkes Careers Adviser (International), University of Bristol Liz Robertson Careers Counsellor (International), Oxford Brookes University Delegation to Bangalore: Saiyada Smith Careers Adviser, UCL & The Careers Group (London) Priya Chauhan Jobshop Manager, University of Bedfordshire (NASES rep) Arti Kumar CETL Associate Director, University of Bedfordshire Visit objectives:

• To improve understanding of the Indian labour market in order to help UK educated Indian graduates enter the job market more successfully on their return to India.

• To discuss the graduate recruitment processes with campus placements specialists within Indian HEIs and careers / recruitment specialists.

• To develop relationships with Indian employers who might be interested in recruiting UK educated Indian students.

• To develop relationships with UK educated Indian alumni to hear of their job hunting and career experiences in India

• To improve understanding of the factors Indian students consider in making University and career choices

• To expand the range of resources and contacts available to career and employment guidance professionals in the UK dealing with students from India.

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In order to achieve these outcomes staff gathered information from the following: Government bodies / umbrella organisations

Employers – Graduate recruiters

Education-UK Agents / HR Consultants

Careers and Placement Staff

1) British High Commission, Bangalore 2) British Council (Association of British Scholars) in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi 3) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bangalore & Delhi 4) All India Association of Industries (AIAI), Mumbai 5) UK-India Business Council (UKIBC), Mumbai

1) Appnomic Systems, Bangalore 2) Centum Learning Ltd., Delhi 3) Cairn, Gurgaon (near Delhi) 4) Evalueserve, Gurgaon (near Delhi) 5) Genpact, Gurgaon (near Delhi) 6) Google, Bangalore 7) Guardian Life Care, Gurgaon (near Delhi) 8) HCC Lavasa, Mumbai 9) ICICI bank, Delhi 10) IDEA Cellular, Mumbai 11) Infosys, Bangalore 12) Marks & Spencer Reliance India, Gurgaon (near Delhi) 13) Naukri.com, Noida (near Delhi) 14) Nokia, Mumbai 15) PWC, Mumbai 16) The Spice Global Group, Delhi 17) Tata Communications, Mumbai 18) Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mumbai 19) Tata Power, Mumbai 20) Tesco India, Bangalore 21) An Asset Management Company (HR Manager privately interviewed), Delhi

1) Conjugate – Recruitment and HR Consultancy, Mumbai 2) SHRM India – Professional HR Organisation, Mumbai 3) YoungBuzz – Career Guidance and Manpower Development Company, Mumbai 4) Study Overseas Education Consultants, Mumbai 5) Edu Overseas (India) Pvt Ltd., Bangalore 6) The Chopras, Bangalore 7) Study Overseas Education Consultants, Delhi 8) Rainmaker Consulting, Delhi

1) Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute of Financial and Management Studies, Mumbai 2) Christ University Bangalore 3) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi 4) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai 5) MS Ramiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore 6) Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Mumbai 7) Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Mumbai 8) The Promise Foundation, Bangalore

Table 1: Summary of visits and events Please see appendices for reports on the outcomes of each visit, and on the focus group interviews which were conducted in all three cities with Indian alumni from universities across the UK. As with any information collected in this way, we have taken care to cross-check and coordinate as far as possible but we need to add a note of caution for readers and a disclaimer. The views are those of the people we interviewed at the time, and may

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express subjective opinion rather than objective fact. As such you may find some conflicting views. If you are acting on this information it would be sensible to conduct your own further research. Please also refer to Appendix 1 for a Glossary which explains key terms as they are used In an Indian context, bearing in mind the terms may have different connotations from usage in the UK.

1. a) Indian economy

India experienced a slight downturn in those sectors dependent on the global economy last year, compensated by strong growth in its domestic market. Its gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.9 per cent during July-September 2009, up from 6.1 per cent in the previous quarter, as per data released by the Confederation for Indian Industries (CII). The economy is predicted to grow at around 9% in 2010. Overseas investors have injected US$ 816.69 million into the stock market in the first trading week of 2010, reflecting a positive start for the year. India is the UK’s 18th largest export market and its second largest export market in the developing world after China. The creation of special economic zones (SEZs) in India since 2006 has helped to liberate the country from export and import restrictions and build business infrastructure. A booming economy, buoyant stock markets and a thriving middle class makes India an attractive investment destination. Prominent among current changes are rapid urbanization and improving literacy rates. A key feature is that large scale corporate investment in tier 1 cities (such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore) has driven economic prosperity and job opportunities, but has also created congestion, and increased demand for – and prices of –residential and commercial properties. This has led to a skills-shortage and war for talent. As tier 1 cities become saturated, respective governments and investment companies are forced to further outsource work to alternative smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities where properties are still available at affordable prices and which offer scope for building better business-equipped infrastructure and skilled manpower. These smaller cities are usually satellites or extensions of the burgeoning metros (e.g. Pune near Mumbai, Gurgaon and Chandigarh near Delhi, Mysore and Hyderabad near Bangalore). As tier 2 cities are also becoming inundated, the next destinations are tier 3 cities such as Jaipur and Kochi, and also cities abroad as functions are outsourced to the Philippines and other English-speaking countries. The functions being outsourced are mainly Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) but India has also fast developed Knowledge and Legal Process Outsourcing companies (KPOs and LPOs). KPO is the outsourcing of specialised domain-based skills and high-end knowledge, unlike BPO which involves standardised routine processes (e.g. accounting). KPO requires advanced information search, analytical, interpretation and technical skills as well as judgment and decision making – all currently considered essential for companies of all sizes to remain competitive in a rapidly changing business environment. According to recent estimates by GlobalSourcingNOW, the global KPO market is estimated to be US $ 17 billion in 2010. India is expected to hold 70% of the total market share, employing more than 250,000 KPO professionals.

According to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), areas with significant potential for KPO include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, technology, legal services, intellectual property, research and design, and the development of automotive and aerospace industries. Sectors that have potential within the KPO industry include data search, integration and management services, financial services, research and analytics, technology research, computer-aided simulation and engineering design and professional services such

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as business research and legal services. HR practices have to adapt and organise their provision in order to meet the demands of the KPO industry.

The number of professionals added to the labour force annually in India is the highest in the world. According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body regulating technical education, India possesses an existing talent pool of around 100 million and annually adds to that over 4 million graduates and professional degree and diploma holders. But the number of people with the right skills is limited. In order to address the issue of this shortage, initiatives have been taken by industry, academic institutions and the government. (Source: India Report: Knowledge Professionals and the Indian KPO Market available at http://www.india-reports.com/summary/KPO.aspx Accessed 3 April 2010)

Key industry sectors in India include:

• Agriculture: India ranks second worldwide in farm output and exports a variety of food products, mainly rice, cashew, spices, tea and coffee. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fishing accounted for 19% of the GDP in 2009, employing 60% of the total workforce. With a growing population, food security is dependent on monsoon rain – and in 2009 rainfall was 29% below average. Developments in Biotechnology and genetic engineering are being applied to food issues.

• Industry & Services: Textile manufacturing is the second largest source for employment after agriculture and accounts for 26% of manufacturing output. Business services (IT and BPOs) are among the fastest growing sectors, contributing to one third of the total output of services in 2008. The growth in the IT sector is attributed to increased specialisation, and an availability of a large pool of low cost, highly skilled, educated and fluent English-speaking workers.

• Banking & Finance: The Indian money market is classified in two ways: the organised sector comprises private, public and foreign owned commercial banks and cooperative banks, together known as scheduled banks; and the unorganised sector comprises individual or family owned indigenous bankers or money lenders and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

• Natural Resources: India's major mineral resources include coal, iron, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium, chromite, limestone and thorium. India meets most of its domestic energy demand through its 92 billion tons of coal reserves (about 10% of the world's coal reserves). The consumer market for fuel and power has grown by 12% in the past five years.

• Pharmaceuticals: India has a self reliant pharmaceuticals industry. The majority of its medical consumables are produced domestically. In terms of the global market, India currently holds a modest 1-2% share, but it has been growing at approximately 10% per year.

• Sunrise Sectors: There is increasing awareness and availability of the internet, a rapid increase in the number of mobile phone users and a cultural shift from that of savings and thrift to spending on luxury and vacations. This has led to a boom in more sophisticated retail, insurance, etc.

1. b) Delhi

India’s national capital, Delhi, is a thriving metropolis and the seat of national government and politics. As the country’s second most populated urban area, it is also one of India’s most important commercial centres. The services sector contributes more than 79% to the state GDP and drives prosperous growth in this region. Ongoing economic expansion has

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spawned neighbouring industrial and financial areas, including Gurgaon and the Naveen Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida). Gurgaon, located near the Indira Gandhi International Airport, is in the state of Haryana, where the local government has offered favourable tax policies for foreign investors. These incentives have led to a wave of international companies locating their international headquarters there, including RBS, Evalueserve, Genpact and Siemens. Noida is a special economic zone (SEZ) near Delhi, which has also attracted a number of multinational organisations, particularly Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organisations and software companies. It is also a centre for the automotive and manufacturing industries and is the location of Film City, which has attracted a number of media-based organisations, including Zee TV and CNBC. The primary research conducted in Delhi in the first week of February 2010 consisted of visits to a range of multinational and Indian-based companies, including India’s leading online recruitment portal, Naukri.com (Naukri is the Hindi word for employment). Interviews were conducted with senior HR managers and graduate recruiters at nineteen organisations. In addition, focus groups with twenty alumni from a range of UK universities were held. See Appendix 2 for more detail on these visits and events.

1. c) Mumbai

Mumbai is India's largest city and is considered the financial capital of the country as it generates 5% of the total GDP. Many of India's numerous conglomerates (including Larsen and Toubro, Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India, LIC, Tata Group, Godrej and Reliance), and five of the Fortune Global 500 companies are based in Mumbai. The Bombay Stock Exchange is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. Many foreign banks and financial institutions also have branches in this area, with the World Trade Centre being the most prominent one. Until the 1970s, the textile mills and the seaport dominated. Today the trend is very much “from mills to malls” and the local economy has diversified to include engineering, diamond-polishing, healthcare and information technology.

State and central government employees make up a large percentage of the city's workforce. Mumbai also has a large unskilled and semi-skilled, self employed population – people who primarily earn their livelihood as hawkers, taxi drivers, mechanics and other such blue collar professions. The port and shipping industry is well established, with Mumbai Port being one of the oldest and most significant ports in India. In Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, located in central Mumbai, there is an increasingly large recycling industry, processing recyclable waste from other parts of the city; the district has an estimated 15,000 single-room factories.

Most of India's major television and satellite networks, as well as its major publishing houses, are headquartered in Mumbai. The centre of the Hindi movie industry, Bollywood, is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest in the world. Along with the rest of India, Mumbai, its commercial capital, has witnessed an economic boom since the liberalisation of 1991, the finance boom in the mid-nineties and the IT, export, services and outsourcing boom in the last decade. Mumbai has been ranked 48th on the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index 2008. In April 2008, Mumbai was ranked seventh in the list of "Top Ten Cities for Billionaires" by Forbes magazine, and first in terms of those billionaires' average wealth

The following findings and recommendations are based on information gathered through a series of visits and interviews in the first week of February 2010 with senior HR managers

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and graduate recruiters from a range of multinational and Indian based companies, alumni from a range of UK universities, the All India Association of Industries, UK India Business Council, a recruitment consultancy, a professional organisation for HR, a career guidance company, four institutes of higher education and British Council India. See Appendix 3 for more detail on these visits and events.

1. d) Bangalore Bangalore is the capital of the state of Karnataka and has in the last few years emerged as the IT hub, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India. The city has been ranked 4th as the ‘Global hub of technological innovation’ by the United Nations Development Programme. Bangalore is home to numerous software companies (IBM, Infosys, Google and Wipro) with over 664 MNCs and 87 Global Fortune 500 company headquarters in the city. The state of Karnataka is also growing as a centre for Biotechnology related industries in India with 50 percent (131of 265) of the domestic biotech firms headquartered in the state. Of these, 127 are in Bangalore, making it the biotech cluster of India. Bangalore is India's fourth largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market with international apparel brands like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, GAP and Wal-Mart all sourcing their requirements from over 300 manufacturing units in Bangalore and surrounding cities. Additionally, the Indian government’s Aerospace and Defence Centres are also located in the city. Bangalore's US$ 100 billion economy makes it a major business centre in India. With an economic growth of 10.3% predicted in 2010, Bangalore is the fastest growing major metropolis in India. The growth of IT and Biotechnology in Bangalore has presented the city with unique challenges. Ideological clashes sometimes occur between the city's business moguls, who demand an improvement in the city's infrastructure, and the state government, whose electoral base is primarily the people in rural Karnataka. The report which follows is based on information gathered through a series of meetings with senior HR managers and graduate recruiters from a range of multinational and Indian based companies, alumni, The British Deputy High Commissioner, The Confederation of Indian Industries, UK-Education agents, careers and placement staff from two top tier Indian universities. See Appendix 4 for more detail on these visits and events. 2. Key findings

2. a) Perceptions of UK higher education

1. A UK education was generally viewed positively by recruiters and alumni. The

reputation of the university where a student has studied is a very important indicator to recruiters. A handful of British institutions, namely Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and the London Business School, had the highest brand recognition amongst employers.

2. Certain Indian employers stated that if they received applications from students from the above ‘known’ UK institutions, they would be cautious about hiring these students as their loyalty to the hiring company would be under question.

3. There was little knowledge amongst recruiters regarding the content of UK degrees.

As a result, it was difficult for them to ascertain whether graduates’ knowledge and skills base could help fulfil their recruitment requirements.

4. The US education system is closest to the Indian system; as such US returnees were seen more favourably in the job market. UK education is also increasingly competing

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with the appeal of higher education in other countries such as Australia and Canada. However the recent attacks on Indian students in Australian cities such as Melbourne have deterred applications to institutions there, and the UK is currently a beneficiary of this situation.

5. There was a mixed perception amongst employers about the one-year UK Masters

degree. Some thought it compared unfavourably to the two-year Indian and American MBAs, while others were more positive. There was a perception amongst some employers that Indian students from less reputable Indian Universities pursue a UK Masters to ‘top up’ their education.

6. Recruiters perceived overseas degrees to be more practical and applied in nature

than Indian degrees, which tended to be highly theoretical.

7. There is a strong view that Indian students who choose to study abroad do so with a view to working overseas, either permanently or at least until their educational loan is paid off. Exceptions to this may be those who are well off or those whose families have a business back in India.

8. There was a strong perception amongst employers that UK returnees would not commit to the organisation as their first choice would be to work in the UK. The difficulties of obtaining relevant graduate level work post-study in the UK was stated in particular as a reason why most Indian students return home.

9. In addition to the quality of a UK degree, there are additional, practical benefits to UK

study for Indian students and their families, namely: • A UK Masters is one year in length and so is perceived to be cheaper; • The UK is geographically closer to home than the US.

10. Recruiters perceived the benefits of UK study to be:

• The ability to interact with people of different nationalities gained from international exposure;

• The maturity and independence gained from managing one’s life in a foreign environment away from family support;

• The opportunity to study subjects not readily available in India, e.g. geosciences and biotechnology.

• a more highly developed 'global outlook' to business. • experience of studying or working with new or developing technologies in

another country may be perceived as particularly useful for certain sectors e.g. telecommunications

• improved confidence levels in terms of being able to express oneself confidently and eloquently in English.

11. Recruiters have some negative preconceptions about graduates who have studied in

the UK. These are: • The students were not sufficiently academically able to gain admission to the

top Indian universities, such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) or the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Exceptions to this are those who enter a top British University or those who gain a scholarship.

• The graduates returned to India because they could not obtain graduate employment in the UK.

• Graduates who have studied abroad have been out of circulation for a long period and as a result have less knowledge of the local economy and Indian markets.

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• A lack of well developed networks, especially if the student has no work experience in India. This may be seen negatively in sales or business development roles.

• The graduates will have unrealistically high entry-level and salary expectations. Typical graduate entry role salary in India is £2000 per annum.

• The graduates will have difficulty adapting to the Indian work culture and may expect a more clearly defined work-life balance similar to some UK/US employees rather than that expected by many Indian employers.

• The length of UK Masters programmes was sometimes perceived negatively as it is a year shorter than Indian Masters and there was a concern that would result in a lack of subject depth.

12. It is also worth noting:

• A UK PhD was seen to lack academic credibility as in India PhD students are required to take written exams in addition to submitting a thesis.

• PhD applicants for a research post in the UK were only required to submit a personal statement clarifying their research aims. No interviews are held for research posts - this makes them less competitive but also less credible.

2. b) Graduate recruitment in India 13. There is an increase in the number of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) returning to India

and this has affected graduate recruitment as freshers are competing with experienced professionals.

14. Graduate recruiters seek similar sets of competencies to those sought by UK recruiters, such as communication, teamwork and leadership qualities.

15. Indian recruiters may also select on the basis of age and family background and photos may be included on the CV (also called a resumé).

16. Graduates are expected to demonstrate skills and competencies more at the interview and testing stage of the recruitment process and less so at the written application/CV stage. At the initial written stage selection depends heavily on academic grades and the reputation of the university attended. This is a marked difference from the UK process.

17. Employment in the UK is highly valued, particularly graduate employment and

industrial placements. However, part-time work may also be useful in some sectors e.g. retail.

18. Young people in India are influenced a great deal by their families in career decision-making. They are often channelled into high-status professions with high earning potential. This, in addition to an exam-based selective education system, creates a lot of pressure to succeed.

19. Parents play a key role in employment and educational decisions and some

employers even involve parents by inviting them to see where their child is working.

20. Employers use their own ranking mechanism to rate institutions, based on a number of factors e.g. performance of personnel from that institution on the job and also the rate of rejection of applicants to that institution.

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21. Salary levels can be determined by which institution the graduate attended and also expatriate salary levels are higher than those of Indian nationals. A UK-educated Indian national would not ordinarily attract a salary premium.

22. Two key channels for recruitment, which play less of a role in the UK, include employee referrals (which can be incentivised) and walk-ins. Walk-ins are open days where anyone can walk into the company on that day with their CV and be tested and interviewed for particular roles. These are usually roles that require mass recruitment. These channels could be more effective for recruiting large numbers, which is the case for a lot of Indian recruiters.

23. Campus recruitment is carried out by university placement cells, which are present in most of the large universities and institutes. They have a committee, mainly consisting of students, that decides which recruiters are coming onto campus and in what order. The best ones - usually those offering the highest salaries - come on the first day which is called Day Zero. (The second day is Day One, and so on.) They interview on campus and will make offers on the same day. Students who accept an offer are then not allowed to participate in subsequent recruitment days.

2. c) Recruitment challenges

24. There is a talent shortage amongst IT, Automobiles and Manufacturing firms and this is seen as the biggest recruitment challenge facing Indian firms. According to Tesco India, Indian factories will need 73 million workers by 2015 - 50% more than in 2010. It was suggested that India will confront a huge shortage of skilled workers in the next decade, particularly in the BPO industry and IT sector.

25. Although India produces some 3 million graduates per year, of which half a million are engineers, only 10% are truly employable due to varying education standards. At graduate level the challenge is the lack of qualified and work-ready graduates.

26. Amongst the large recruiters particularly within IT there is a war for talent. At senior

level practices such as ‘poaching’ employees from competitors is very common.

27. Due to the high demand for qualified employees, Indians from top colleges or with experience in reputable firms often have two or three job offers at any given time. Therefore, although salaries in India are still much lower than those in the developed countries, they are steadily increasing. For example, a graduate accountant might be offered a starting salary of US $12,000 in 2010, up from US $8,000 two years ago. For graduates of top business schools, starting salaries have been rising by as much as 50% annually.

28. Attrition rates are extremely high in India. Within IT, BPO, Pharmaceuticals and Retail the attrition rate ranges from 20-60%. This revolving-door has a major impact on hiring costs in terms of lost training and reduced efficiency.

29. In the past if Indian employees quit their job they would not be likely to regain employment with their former employer. However it was suggested that this practice is changing at mid-level and senior level ranks. These employees are seen to re-integrate into the workplace quickly.

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3. Recommendations

a) For students and new graduates

i. Enhancing skills and expanding networks 1. Don’t neglect your networks in India once you come to the UK as they can keep you

updated about the Indian economy and employment opportunities. Establish a presence on business networking websites such as LinkedIn and the Indian site Brijj.

2. If you return to India for vacation, maximise your time and opportunities at home.

Seek work experience (e.g. temporary work, shadowing, etc.) and make approaches to recruiters in order to broaden your network of contacts in India.

3. Develop extra skills and knowledge related to your potential workplace through

additional professional courses e.g. CAD, accountancy software packages.

4. Take advantage of your UK study to improve your verbal and written English communication skills as employers will expect these to a high level if you have studied in the UK.

ii. Effective job search 5. Register with job sites and recruitment agents a few months before returning to India.

Key online portals used by Indian employers include Naukri.com, Monster India and Jobstreet.

6. Provide key selling points about your university on your CV to assure Indian

employers of its reputation. This should include a breakdown of the contents of academic programmes and skills developed.

7. Use the global exposure and practical, commercially relevant content of your degree to sell yourself to Indian employers. This may differentiate you from Indian-educated graduates whose degrees are not from overseas and may be more theoretical in nature.

8. Try to get as much graduate-level employment experience as possible (preferably

with multinational companies) before returning to India, e.g. by gaining the right level and type of work experience after obtaining a Tier 1 Post-Study Work visa, as this will differentiate you from Indian graduates who may have only three-month internships.

9. Target multinational organisations or Indian organisations with multinational joint

venture partners.

10. Have realistic expectations with regard to salary, entry level and the work-life balance upon your return to India.

11. Be prepared to promote positively your reasons for studying in the UK and returning

to India. Recruiters may have negative perceptions attached to leaving India to study and they may also question your motivation to return to work in India.

12. Join your UK university’s alumni association and also the Association of British

Scholars (a British Council organisation) in India to develop your networks. If there isn't an existing alumni network set it up or if there is a dormant network see if you

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can revive it - ultimately doing so will benefit you.

13. If finding a job in the UK/Europe proves impossible, explore career opportunities in different emerging markets such as the Middle East, Singapore and Africa to gain overseas experience, as Indian businesses are seeking to trade in these regions.

3. b) For UK universities 1. Those universities that are not so well known need to work harder to develop links

and promote their distinctive profiles more effectively. 2. Establish and help to nurture alumni associations in the major metropolitan areas of

India. Not only are alumni powerful ambassadors for UK HEIs, they as employer-mentors can provide valuable advice and employment opportunities to current students and graduates.

3. Use alumni to promote the benefits of UK education amongst Indian businesses to challenge the perception that the US is the best, particularly for business education and research.

4. Participate actively in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) education initiatives

(for example, Cardiff University Business School are doing this by training Indian Managers in the fields of knowledge transfer and supply chain management). The CII provides a platform for institutions to interface directly with Indian companies and business intermediaries.

5. Lobby for an education promotion strand in UK business organisations operating in India to create channels between UK education and Indian business e.g. UK-India Business Council (UKIBC).

6. Provide students with information about the university and degree programme which

students can use on their CVs in order to differentiate themselves. The development of the new Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR, recommended by Burgess, 2007) should help in this respect (see http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/diversity/achieve/)

7. Offer more scholarships for talented Indian students to study in the UK. Many Indian

students choose the US over the UK for this reason.

8. Consider other models of engagement with international employers such as virtual projects or internships combined with short overseas visits for postgraduates. An example is running very effectively at Genpact with The University of Maryland.

9. Consider fostering links with Indian universities in various ways. For example at

Christ University, Bangalore, there are many models of such overseas relationships - joint research initiatives, internships, short exchanges not only of an academic but also of a cultural nature.

10. Make sure that your institution is affiliated and approved by organisations such as the

Association of Commonwealth Universities which are known and respected in India.

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3. c) For the British Council 1. Create educational events and information for Indian employers to inform them about

the UK education system and how it compares with the US and Indian systems, and about the diversity and quality of UK universities and courses beyond the usual 4 or 5 reputed ones that are well known.

2. Provide online resources for Indian businesses with case studies of successful UK alumni (e.g. from the Association of British Scholars) to demonstrate the value of UK-educated Indian graduates to Indian business.

3. Provide more promotional material about the Association of British Scholars to UK Careers Services so we can promote membership to our Indian graduates.

4. Collaborate with the British High Commission to organise Alumni networking events (as in Bangalore). Also extend and foster productive relationships with UK-Education agents.

5. Offer UK returners a career networking and job searching event. This could help UK

graduates re-integrate into the Indian job market and also provide a positive image of the UK brand, whilst promoting membership of the Association of British Scholars.

3. d) For the UK government 1. A key value proposition of UK education is the fact that Indian graduates can forge a

career in the UK afterwards. This is a key perception amongst Indian employers and failure to do this may affect a graduate’s employability on return to India. It is imperative that Post Study Work (PSW) immigration schemes, e.g. Tier 1 PSW and Tier 1 General, remain in order to enable Indian graduates to develop their careers. Failure to do so may result in the UK being perceived negatively as an educational destination.

2. Use existing resources in UKTI, British Chambers of Commerce, the British Council,

etc. to promote returning graduates to local industry/companies. Returning graduates are the product of the UK Education brand and need to be appropriately marketed and supported when they return home.

In concluding this section of the report its authors hope it has been useful and interesting, and that the relevant recommendations are implemented appropriately wherever possible. The individual visit notes for each city which follow in the next section provide more detail but, as with all information collected through interviews, readers need to bear in mind that these views represent a snapshot in time and may express subjective – occasionally somewhat conflicting – opinion rather than objective fact. If you are acting on this information it would be sensible to conduct your own further research.

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AGCAS / NASES PMI 2 India Visit Report 1 – 5 February 2010

Appendix 1: Glossary of key terms

Terms related to the Indian economy and graduate job market

BPO: Business process outsourcing. Involves examining and executing the standardised processes that make up the business and then working with specialised service providers to both re-engineer and outsource these processes at the same time. This can involve the contracting of operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third party provider.

KPO: Knowledge process outsourcing. Knowledge and complex information-related work that typically involves high-value analysis carried out by highly skilled staff. The work done by KPOs is similar to consulting; they provide the customer with options, but do not make final decisions or get involved in the implementation.

LPO: Legal process outsourcing companies provide legal support services to the legal community worldwide and help law firms and corporate legal departments in the areas of research, drafting, litigation support and administrative services.

Core company: large company with multiple departments and divisions (verticals and horizontals) involved in the design and development of various different products and services such as marketing, selling, distribution, etc.

City Tiers: Indian cities are divided into a tier system. Metros or the Tier I cities are large and better developed, but now inundated with burgeoning investments in the industrial and services sectors. Examples are Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Tier 2 and emerging tier 3 cities offering opportunities for work and investment are Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kochi, Pune and Chandigarh. Metros: metropolitan cities e.g. Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata.

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility has risen in priority and is often demonstrated by adopting a school or village, undertaking active community or charitable work.

Domain: Industry area.

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Lateral hires: experienced staff i.e. those who are recruited at a later stage and are not home grown in a company.

MNC: Multi-National Company.

NRI: Non-Resident Indian. This term is used to refer to Indians who have migrated to another country or a person of Indian origin who is born outside India. PIO – Person of Indian Origin - who is not a citizen of India.

Rs.: Rupees, the rupee is the main unit of currency in India.

Lakh: A unit in the Indian numbering system, equal to one hundred thousand (100,000) Crore: A unit in the Indian numbering system, equal to 100 lakhs or 10 million (10,000,000) Stability: company loyalty required to be exhibited by the candidate in the recruitment process.

Terms related to education in India

B-School: Business School (note that the term does not signify a second level institution). Colleges: India has some 300 universities and many of these have a large number of affiliated Colleges offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Colleges are ranked as A, B or C grade Colleges – e.g. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology is affiliated to the University of Mumbai and has been declared an A-grade college by the Government of Maharashtra. IIT: Indian Institute of Technology (There are 15 IITs, all premier tier 1 academic institutions) IIM: Indian Institute of Management (There are 7 IIMs, all prestigious academic institutions)

CAT: The Common Admission Test to the six IIMs is also the entrance test for a few other top Business schools.

LSAT: India Law School Admission Test, introduced in 2009 and only used by one law school at present. This test is commonly used for Law School admissions in the USA.

CLAT: Common Law Admission Test, used by most Indian law schools since 2008.

10th: Students in Standard 10 sit for public examinations held either by individual states or by one of the two national boards of secondary education, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), or the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE). This is a GCSE equivalent. 12th: Public examinations are held at the end of Standard 12 either by individual states or by central boards leading to the award of the Higher Secondary Certificate (otherwise titled the All India Senior School Certificate, Higher School Certificate, Indian School Certificate, Intermediate Certificate or Pre-University Course, etc). These are AS level equivalents.

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Terms related to graduate recruitment

Internship: a period of work experience undertaken as part of or during one’s studies.

Placement: First graduate job out of university.

Placement cell: a department within the higher education institution that supports visiting companies on campus and acts as an interface between industry and students. It also facilitates the selection process for companies. PPT: Pre-placement talk: Campus presentation made by a recruiter.

Day Zero: the first day of a week-long campus placement system. Recruiters are on campus during designated days of the placement week. The most prestigious companies are invited to come on the first day or Day Zero, and get a chance to interview students first. For business schools, the day-based system is a barometer of success. The less time they take to place their students, the more successful they are perceived as a school.

Freshers: new graduates hired from campus without work experience.

Passing out: graduation. Walk-in: open days where anyone can walk into the company on that day with their CV and be tested and interviewed for particular roles.

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AGCAS / NASES PMI 2 India Visit Report

1 – 5 February 2010

Appendix 2: Reports on individual Delhi visits

1. Confederation of Indian Industry (19)

2. British Council (22)

3. Study Overseas Education Consultants (27)

4. ICICI bank (29)

5. Naukri.com (30)

6. Genpact (33)

7. Evalueserve (36)

8. Cairn (38)

9. Marks & Spencer (39)

10. An asset management company (40)

11. Guardian Life Care (42)

12. Rainmaker Consulting (43)

13. Centum Learning (44)

14. The Spice Global Group (44)

15. Indian Institute of Technology (45)

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1. Confederation of Indian Industry Meeting: Ajay Bhattacharya, Director, and Sunita Mohan, Consultant Education, 1 February 2010. Background Between 250,000 and 340,000 students leave India to study abroad and this number is increasing. Education abroad costs 30 times more than an education in India. It can cost $25-30,000 (USD) per year to study abroad, which represents a significant outflow of foreign exchange reserves and, as a consequence, is a negative balance of trade and payment. India imports much more than it exports. At the moment there are $400 billion in reserves but this is as a result of foreign investment. There are different sets of people who choose to study abroad:

1. Rich Indian families who could afford any place – Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford. They are looking for networks for the rest of their lives. But these sets of people are a very small percentage, although they are an expanding number. Today there is a large number of billionaires, probably more than in China and definitely more than in the UK.

2. Well-heeled professionals may themselves have studied law, medicine or engineering abroad and are now self-employed or top professionals who can afford to send their children abroad. They are also brighter children who have gone through earlier education abroad e.g. Eton. They would prefer top universities because of their perceptions e.g. the US Ivy league institutions - engineering at Stanford and MIT. Some of these gain scholarships.

3. Upper-end of the middle classes. They want foreign exposure. It’s very important as Indian businesses operate globally. Most Indian companies are family-owned and children are generally expected to get exposure abroad.

4. The nouveau riche - traders who are the first generation to have sufficient money to send their children abroad because they want respectability and want to get that international ‘stamp’. It used to be just sons but now they send both their sons and daughters abroad - some say that women are better at managing business. For these people, it does not matter which university or which course they do. Many children of the sets listed above can pay their own way and would seek to pursue an undergraduate degree abroad straight after school.

5. Typical middle class. They are professional, educated and want their kids to be educated abroad, typically to pursue postgraduate qualifications. For example, they would do an undergraduate degree in India (e.g. IIT) and then seek a scholarship, many more of which are available at postgraduate level. The name of university is very important (e.g. Ivy League), but they may compromise as long as there is still a possibility of the child gaining work abroad.

6. Those who have a first degree and have worked in India for a couple of years. They have saved up enough money to study abroad. They typically study at Masters or PhD level.

7. The final group are the rural people who desperately want to migrate abroad. The number of people who would come back would be minimal.

About graduates returning to India To have a career with an Indian company, however, it is important to work in India and have exposure to India. After that they could become global citizens and live anywhere in the world.

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For gaining entry to jobs in MNCs, particularly at the more senior levels, it is important to have exposure to markets in India and/or China on the CV. There are many opportunities for graduates when they return to India, especially in an unregulated economy. Some will return to handle family business interests. Perceptions of a British education Indian industry has always looked to the UK as a major source of education. This dates back to British rule and is a perception that is both good and bad. While British education is viewed positively, conversely there is a perception that a UK education just means Oxford and Cambridge. The USA is the number one destination for Indian students. Many students would look to emigrate and would not be looking to come back to India. The origin of these perceptions is difficult to understand. The first set of leaders in India (Gandhi, Nehru) were barristers educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and these are still highly reputed together with other institutions sometimes appearing on the wish-list - maybe LSE or engineering at Manchester. How are perceptions formed? Through word of mouth, what is seen on television and movies, and through the business people one meets and works with every day. It is very difficult to change perceptions. Many Indian businesses would not choose a UK graduate over an Indian one, especially from a lesser known UK institution. They would prefer for example an IIM or IIT graduate. Rankings are very important – sometimes they are done by agencies in India. About education in India There is a huge need to improve universities in India. 54% of the population were born after 1985, which equals about 700 million people, who all need to be educated. There are currently about 14,000 colleges, just over 400 universities and 7,000 technical colleges affiliated to universities. The need is huge - there is a huge gap in the availability of educational places and this gap is growing. The literacy rate (i.e. primary education level) in India is on average 55-60% (in some regions it can be as low as 30%). A law was passed giving people the right to education until the age of 14, but this is easier said than done as India is such a huge country. Only 11% of the population go for higher education. The world’s Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) is 25%, so India is well behind. And seventy million people will hit the job market within the next five years. India is moving to a knowledge economy; knowledge equals livelihood. There is a need for higher skill sets and the demand for unskilled labour is diminishing. This presents a huge challenge for India and has become a national government priority (especially targeting rural areas) as well as a corporate social responsibility. So the challenge for greater higher education opportunities can be met through different possible solutions:

1. For universities to open their campuses. However there is a cost factor. If it costs $25,000 - $30,000 USD per year for an education, the government simply does not have the money to pay for it. But if the price could go down to, say, $1,000 per year, then that would be feasible. India needs universities at 1/30th of the current costs, so many universities cannot open campuses in India. It is very difficult to figure out how and where to reduce costs without sacrificing quality.

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2. There is legislation pending (it might pass this year) permitting overseas universities to open campuses in India. This legislation has been in development since 2007. 3. Partnerships with overseas universities. For example, there could be faculty and student exchanges; collaboration on curriculum development, etc. at a much lower cost. This is probably a better and more viable solution.

What Indian industry wants There is a huge misalignment between what is taught and what is practised in businesses; often professors have not had industry experience, having come up through the academic ranks. The CII has organised industry councils to allow businesses and academics to speak on the same platform. They also promote faculty exchanges between industry and academia. There is also a work culture issue that has not been addressed by universities. University curricula may not be aligned to current industry practice and there are also few universities (only the elite) that have placement cells or offer internships. Therefore when graduates enter the world of work they experience a culture shock. Currently the skills gap is addressed by industry by the provision of on-the-job training. There is a perception that the graduates [‘the outputs’] are not aligned with business. The exception is in the US where it is perceived that that alignment has taken place. This perception does not permeate to the UK, which is perceived to be less aligned to industry and also less renowned by industry. Students lack both technical as well as soft skills. Extracurricular activities are valued by recruiters, such as sports, as well as involvement in politics (student councils) and the National Cadet Corps. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) CSR is very important to companies today. For example, the leadership of Infosys is very strong on ethics, and most large companies are supporting their local schools or have adopted nearby villages, giving in both cash and kind. How businesses recruit graduates All top universities (e.g. IIT and IIM) and some major ones have placement cells. In some cases there is a cost attached to them; SMEs would pay if they could afford it. Many recruiters offer graduate training schemes, so a graduate would join as a trainee. Some would learn on the job and others would go through structured programmes. For example, Infosys offers an eight-month training programme at its Leadership Centre in Mysore. Destinations of graduates 80-90% of people working in finance have an engineering background. In the past, law was taught only at postgraduate level; now there is a 5-year undergraduate law degree. Where are jobs advertised? They are advertised mainly in newspapers, magazines, and large job portals. Recruitment agencies would be used for lateral entry at a more senior level. Often companies would outsource to recruitment agencies which sift applications and shortlist. Agencies typically earn one month’s salary for personnel placed through their services. SMEs favour placing their job advertisements in newspapers, magazines and websites. Top sites:

• Naukri.com

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• Timesjob.com • Monster.com • Times Ascent Newspaper. Every newspaper would carry classifieds.

Other work of the CII Organising events in Nagaland to promote clean technologies and green industries, e.g. how to use bamboo better as it is in abundance in the region. They are also using ICT solutions such as laying fibre optic cable. Growth sectors

1. Food security, which includes biotechnology, and genetic engineering. 2. Energy security – clean and sustainable.

Future actions UK universities are invited to attend CII’s events. The next one will be attended by Tokyo University and Cardiff, amongst others. Cardiff University is talking to the CII about developing a new Executive Development Programme. Their events run in March, April, August and November and will be publicised on their website. 2. British Council Meeting: Amit Chaturvedi, Head Education UK-NI, 1 February 2010 Background The British Council initiated pan-India research at the end of July 2009, which included virtually every industry. It took 4 months to complete the report. It found that people are not aware of UK higher education institutions and did not understand the structure or content of courses. Some employers are not aware of the one-year Masters degree. However, a delegation of Indian vice-chancellors recently travelled to the UK and as a result some Indian universities are considering offering the one-year Masters course. There has been a 73% increase in applications to UK institutions; 45,000 went last year. The predominant market is for postgraduate study: 70% postgraduate with PhDs comprising about 8% of applications, and 21-22% undergraduate. The British Council in the past used to receive 1000 applications per month; now it is 2000 per day. Main disciplines of study: Management: 15% Engineering: 6-7% Law: 6-7% Design: 6-7% Other disciplines, such as Pharmacy and Fashion, less than 6%. The Foreign Education Bill The Bill is to be tabled next session and if passed would allow the setting up of international universities in India. One hundred institutions globally have expressed an interest. There is huge interest by politicians in education. Within the last 15 years, private universities have opened up in India and they are doing well.

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Role of the British Council The British Council works to attract students to the UK in an unbiased, neutral, subtle way. They would not counsel anyone to attend any particular university, but they provide information that enables students to make informed choices and avoid dubious institutions. They do not market the UK as a destination for jobs, only a quality education destination. They also help to establish collaborations such as student-faculty exchanges and curriculum exchanges. They run the Association of British Scholars (ABS) programme. They have 25 chapters and 6,000 members nationwide, but many chapters are inactive or dormant. All British graduates are encouraged to join ABS. The chapters are run by professionals employed by the British Council. The scholars have a role to counsel younger alumni. They play a big part as cultural ambassadors. For example, ABS scholars will be invited to the pre-departure briefings for prospective overseas students. Membership of ABS is offered to students at this point. Apart from that, each university has their own alumni bodies, but they do not work closely with the British Council. They are too scattered. In India, some universities such as the IITs have global alumni networks and run meetings and events across locations. The universities do not fund these – they are funded by wealthy alumni. When graduates return to India they might use placement consultants who are recruitment agents and headhunters. These staff do not help students during their studies. How do students choose which university to attend? Much depends on what is happening in the market. Students perceive that there are huge job opportunities when they come back from the UK. There is a perception that in Australia, universities generally offer more vocational courses than in the UK. The UK is considered to offer more serious degree programmes. A one-year UK Masters attracts many students because in India a Masters is two years. The British Council often has to provide proof that the degree programmes are indeed one year. Another advantage of studying in the UK is that students gain global exposure. However, in many spheres the one-year Master’s programme is not recognised in India. For example, some universities and public sector bodies will not accept the qualification. A degree in India would be at a lower cost and students would gain knowledge of the local market. Where do students get careers advice? In India it is expected that students decide their careers before they embark on their programme. Independent organisations do career counselling but charge for their services. Many universities run their own campus placement programmes. During placement weeks, employers do presentations and students apply. Institutions do the sifting. Universities generally do not provide careers advice for students who have graduated from their institution and then studied in the UK because of the sheer numbers involved. What could UK universities do better? UK universities tend to come to India only for recruitment; however, in order to raise awareness, they need to come more often. Some UK universities only recruit through agents and have no presence in smaller cities (they are only in metros). The British Council recommends that universities use agents that will go to smaller cities as the metro market is mature and saturated.

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In order to increase their branding, they could promote themselves as part of groups of institutions, but promote their brand more specifically in terms of the value they can add. Universities have to be careful about which agencies they use and not have too many because that would dilute their brand. They should use agencies with large reach throughout India. Agents are a convenient method for students to choose courses as the student is not charged and will be helped with the required documentation. Notes from Alumni Focus Group held at the British Council 1 February 2010

1. Introductions were made by the group.

2. How did you get your first job after graduating from your UK degree? • Got from contacts made in UK; course had representatives from 19 countries and

lots of interaction with visiting professors who were working in industry (creative industries) and who had links to India.

• Restricted by scholarship conditions and needed to come back to India so sent CV in advance of coming and this helped to secure a position.

• Graduate wanted to return to the UK to work but not finding easy to return just for interviews-suggested the need for on-line interviewing facilities to accommodate this.

• Applied for PhD funding in India to organisations and re approached the same organisations once PhD completed (CV was already on file).

• Returned to work in the family business: Original plan was always to return and develop and diversify the family business into IT and healthcare sectors so did not apply for other jobs.

• Applied once returned to India (academic post)Tips: good to apply for jobs before returning especially academic jobs as they are advertised throughout the year. Write in advance and ensure you are kept on file. Don’t wait for the job advert to be placed before contacting employer or academic department.

• Worked in the same company before doing the degree in the UK.

3. Benefits of UK study • Clients were UK government organisations so it gave me credentials to have a

UK qualification, thus ‘reinforcing’ my CV. This is especially important when the company works with UK clients.

• Personal enhancement - UK system is more focussed on self study, this skill has helped me research and deliver work assignments.

• My course had students from over 49 countries so it gave me a global perspective and cultural benefits.

• Increased my intellectual capacity and helped me to consider my longer term career goals and not just job hopping. Indian education is very much focussed on getting a good job. The UK is more about increasing knowledge of the subject, which widens your choices e.g. job or research.

• This differs from job area to job area. For academic jobs a UK education gives the opportunity to present in European conferences, and you may get funding to do this through grants and fellowships. This improves your CV and helps you produce more papers, thus enhancing your academic profile. In India there is not enough funding to attend conferences.

• Able to study courses not available in India or which are more established in the UK.

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• The methodology you learn helps in your job even though the detail is different and it is up to you to apply it to the Indian context.

• I learnt a different attitude to work and how to manage my tasks and learnt how to manage my time effectively.

• Although the university system in India is based on the British system, the range of material covered is less.

• One-year Masters provides a shorter career break (if you are professional taking time out from work).

4. Disadvantages of UK study

• You lose contact with your network in India as you are entering a new world and making new contacts.

• It is difficult to know where to look for academic jobs - there is no single or dedicated portal for this in India.

• One year passes quickly and it is difficult to explore the UK. • “Why did they come back?” attitude - if you came back from the UK it was

because you could not get a job. • Universities highlight a 2 year work permit as a benefit of UK study, but this is not

always guaranteed or possible.

5. How do you think employers view UK degrees? • Working in academia, the institution where you did your degree helps. • Employers think you had good overseas exposure. • It can be discipline specific, e.g. the creative industries is seen as a UK

stronghold. • In bioscience research a US degree is preferred; however I went to Imperial

which was ranked fifth. • For a job in India with a UK based organisation it is very valuable.

6. How are UK Masters viewed by employers?

• Employers are not bothered whether your Masters is 2 years or one, it is the university at which you studied that matters.

• University of Delhi academics discourage their students from doing a one year masters especially in humanities or if they wish to be an academic.

• My husband does engineering and they do not accept one year Masters. • From a student perspective a one year Masters may save money, although the

UK is expensive and it may not be the case as there is more chance of getting a scholarship in the US and the cost of living is cheaper. Also staying in the UK after study is more difficult than the US.

• It varies according to discipline e.g. real estate RICS is only in the UK. • MBA from UK is not good except if you study at LSE, Manchester, London

Business School. INSEAD or a European MBA is worth more. • The department you studied in matters e.g. its reputation in industry.

7. Apart from your degree, what other experiences did your employers value

when you applied for a job? • International exposure. • Contacts and networks that I can bring. • My academic degree (academic roles).

8. What can students studying in the UK do while they are there to give them a

competitive edge when they return to India? • Part time work and voluntary work. • Try to get full time work e.g. in your dissertation period, particularly related to your

course.

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• Go to conferences and seminars, research, write and publish (for academic and research roles).

• Develop contacts when you go back to India on vacation e.g. visit employers and academic departments (PhDs). Offer to run seminars. This also helps remove the “why are you back?” question, as you can show you have been planning to return.

• Come back to India to attend or contribute to conferences (use available funding to do so) - this helps build contacts.

9. Who helped you when you were looking for graduate work in India? • Friends. • Personal networks. • Ex-professor. • National institution. • Primary research contacts during MSc projects.

10. What resources did you use?

• Naukri.com • Biotechjobs.com • Milkround presentations from Indian employers on UK campuses. • Specialist course. • University websites in India. • Personal contacts (first job slightly easier with no contacts, but for mid- career

switch you need contacts). • Placement consultants (helpful especially for salary negotiations). • You would never get a job through an advert unless you had worked before

study.

11. In hindsight what do you wish you had known about job hunting before returning to India?

• The course you choose should be tailored to the company you want -don’t just pick any course.

• What experience is required for your chosen industry. • Needed more knowledge on the level of entry for returning graduates. • Go to placement consultants who will negotiate a bigger salary on your behalf

as they get commission from it. • Know what types of jobs you could get from doing your course.

12. Did you use your careers service in the UK?

• Not helpful if you want a career back home. • Geared to undergraduate jobs, not postgraduate. • One of the alumni had an internship to offer and sent it to careers services,

but got no response. He got a response from professors.

13. How can Indian students maintain their networks while studying in the UK? • Alumni from British or undergraduate university - professors organise events

with alumni. • Keep in contact with faculty as people sometimes move to industry. • Careers services to get information on jobs in India to inform Indian students

in the UK. This needs to be a regular feed of information. They need to provide a database of employers and jobs and an alumni directory to help freshers on return and also to help students maintain Indian networks.

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14. What influenced your return to India? • Opportunities in India, 8-9% due to economic growth, western economies

growing at 2-3% (this correlates with real estate sector). • Part of longer term career goals. • If you have a scholarship there is no obligation to pay back family or loan, so

can come back for less money. • There were opportunities in my field. • There has been more investment in infrastructure than in the past e.g. now

laboratories have the best equipment for research. • I was inspired by my professors who were UK educated themselves so I

wanted to do the same (academic). • Returned to develop family business.

3. Study Overseas Education Consultants Meeting: Lakshmi Iyer, Head of UK- North & West Regions, 2 February 2010 The services of Study Overseas Study Overseas offer counselling on studying overseas and focus on the 70 UK institutions they represent, but they do not have the resources to offer general careers advice. It would be a great added value service, but is not available. They have no appointment system – anyone can drop in. Lakshmi visits universities in the UK so that she can evaluate them for herself. They try to give students the correct picture. They have no links with employers in India, many of whom do not know institutions beyond Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and Imperial. Once the students get to the UK, most do not keep in touch with Study Overseas except to contact them if they have problems. Some find it difficult to move from their families to universities in the UK. They have no one to look after them and they find it hard to cope. Study Overseas tries to tell them in advance what to expect. Study Overseas does not have contact with graduates when they return to India and they have no idea what they have gone on to do, or if they come back or not. Most Indian students studying in the UK want to stay and work in the UK so that they can get a return on their investment. To pay off £20 lakhs (£20,000) would take 15 years. Study Overseas used to offer advice on obtaining work in the UK but that arm of the business shut down a year ago. It is too tough to break into the UK, as Indian graduates with immigration constraints are having to compete with UK and EU students. Degree choices of students Most Indian students do not do anything that their heart tells them to do. They usually think ‘I want to make X amount of money’. So they choose a degree which will give them earning potential. The cream of Indian students study at Indian institutions such as the IIMs and they get great salaries. In terms of discipline choices, there are ‘flavours of the season’. For example, International Business can be the latest buzz phrase and everyone wants to jump on that bandwagon. They are very influenced by what their friends and family say. Family and peers have enormous influence. Sometimes students will go to a lesser university just because of the recommendation of a family member.

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India is not just one country but it is a hundred nations. Business has traditionally been an aspiration but this is changing. Science is more fashionable as students see earning potential in science. Biotechnology is on the rise. There are also regional differences, e.g. in the South there is an interest in engineering, science and biotechnology; in the West, engineering and business; in the North, only business. Some students choose a university because of the brand and huge networking opportunities. They do their research and are very clear about universities’ academic reputations. They are highly driven by league tables and consult the Good University Guide as well as other available league tables. There are some career counselling services but they are privately run. Major newspapers carry regular columns devoted to career and employability-related topics. Universities run placement cells. Why do students choose the UK? Often it is the decision of the parents – they are the biggest decision makers. They prefer the UK because it is only an 8-hour flight away (closer than the US). Also they are concerned about safety. The US is currently at war on three fronts. Some parents have anxiety. Numbers of UK applications have gone up. For postgraduates, they do think that they will be able to find work in the UK. As a nation, Indians are big believers in destiny. Many decisions are also influenced by people who have been to the UK before. Most are well-versed in the rankings. Many students have started using forums to discuss university choices. Students often use their personal networks to seek advice. Bad news spreads fast. In Lakshmi’s view, the UK government needs to do something about the visa situation so that only the right kind of student may enter the country. There should be rigorous tests about the student’s finances and differentials between offers of good universities and lesser educational institutions. There are a lot of ‘Chinese whispers’ regarding the post-study work visas and possibilities. The recession has caused current students in the UK to tell prospective students not to come to the UK because of the lack of jobs. Yet applications to study in the UK are up. Lakshmi herself did a Masters in Strathclyde on a scholarship. She chose the UK because she wanted a short course and didn’t want to spend the time or money on a longer course. Despite having an excellent academic record, it took her ten months to get a job when she returned to India. Having had a scholarship helped her get her current job and she has been working there for eight years. UK vs. US education Indian students have had longer ties with US institutions because they give more scholarships and Indian graduates have become high fliers in the US and have contributed to the growth of the US. Some Indian employers believe that a US education is better than the UK. There is a perception that MBAs in the US are far more rigorous than in the UK, partly because industrial placements are integral within the programmes. The US is therefore the premier destination for the crème de la crème. They are very clear about where they want to go. Her brother was an engineer and moved to the US to do an MBA. He has no intention of moving back. The one-year UK Masters is not universally accepted; private companies decide to take a gamble accepting it. It is hard for graduates to get a foothold without work experience.

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The challenges of studying abroad Indian students often supplement their degrees with additional courses and qualifications such as CAD. When they go to the UK, they go out of circulation and tend not to do extra courses. They also tend to get used to comforts very quickly. All they have to do is study and worry about getting marks. They don’t have to worry about electricity, space in the bus, etc. Their survival instincts get blunted. India is gradually changing and it is a challenge for returning graduates to fit back when they have lost the “killer instinct”. In India one is constantly competing for resources - from the moment one leaves the house to fight for a rickshaw, and generally competing for space. There is a rat-race from beginning to end. Job prospects in India There are big challenges when graduates return to India. It is perceived that they didn’t make the cut in the UK and that is why they returned. They are also competing with graduates from the top institutions in India. They cannot do anything to prepare themselves for returning home. India is becoming a meritocratic society but it is also about who you know. You have to be good in order to break in. When graduates return, they are very much on their own. And there is great competition for top jobs, sometimes 250 applications per job. India was not affected by the recession as much as the developed world. India is still experiencing 7.5% growth and salaries are expected to rise by 9% this year. Some employers have used the recession as an opportunity to get rid of non-contributing employees. There is a mismatch between the skills in demand and the skills on offer. 4. ICICI bank Meeting: Amit Vatsa, Regional Head HR, 2 February 2010 Background ICICI is one of the largest organisations in terms of recruitment, recruiting between 5 and10,000 people per annum at all levels, from entry-level officer to manager level. They have undergone restructuring over the past 2 years so they have hired fewer people, but this is increasing now. Recruitment is handled via the Mumbai Corporate office, but there are 5-6 people in the Delhi team. Recruitment needs ICICI recruit from any background, not just finance, to enable them to widen their talent pool. Mainly they recruit from India although they will do so from overseas for needs within that overseas office. Campus hiring They use a tier structure to target universities based on their own ranking mechanism. This is based on a number of factors, but a key one is the performance level of previous graduates from that organisation when on the job. They stressed that academic level is not the only thing they look at. The ranking mechanism is reviewed every two or three years. They build long term relationships with universities e.g. sending people on management development programmes. They do some campus talks, but this is not part of a structured process.

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The recruitment process The process consists of aptitude testing, a group discussion and an interview. The aptitude tests are usually verbal and numerical reasoning. These are designed in-house although they do have a tie-up with an occupational psychology company. However, shortlisting criteria may vary dependent on the situation. For example, if there are a lot of applications for a specific location, they may do a preliminary sift by background in order to lower numbers at the test stage. They hire at the graduate level in two main ways:

1. Via the campus process, which takes place from January to March and the graduates will join in May-June.

2. They will also look at 20-30,000 CVs outside of the campus process either via agencies, the online application process or open days. They recruit from any discipline and look at ability and academic result. For sifting these they may look at criteria such as age, basic qualification and marks achieved. Then they will look at a minimum test score. In one open day they may recruit 1,000 people.

What they are looking for at interview includes the ability to:

• drive things through; • implement solutions; • influence an agenda.

These will be gauged using questions on past experiences, achievements and how they have overcome barriers. The information on what is being tested is not available on their website as “there are no ten commandments for effective people”. Other questions at interview vary according to the candidate’s knowledge base and background e.g. financial questions for a finance graduate. The group discussion consists of 8-12 people with one or two observers. Here they will be looking for the ability to articulate views, listening skills, body language, comprehension of others’ views and influencing skills. Other Recruitment Channels

• Internet and Intranet (ICICI careers) • Referrals

Recruitment websites e.g. Naukri.com, www.jobsahead.com 5. Naukri.com Meeting: Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder & CEO, 2 February 2010

Background Naukri.com has 65% share of the market. The site is aimed at all levels of experience but opportunities are predominantly for people with 2-10 years of experience. The biggest functions are IT, Operations, Sales and Marketing. The service industries have overtaken manufacturing. Biggest companies are in IT, BPOs (call centres), telecommunications and insurance. Engineers find jobs easily.

The preferred model of recruitment is walk-ins or campus hire at entry level as well as face-to-face assessment (group discussions). They use tests by SHL. A new site aimed at

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freshers, First Naukri, has just been launched. It is difficult to assess quality of candidates from a resumé so candidates attach certificates and extra information on the Naukri form. Education in India The Indian economy is growing by 9% a year – there is a talent shortage. It would cost only 600-800k Rupees to pursue an MBA from a 2nd tier Indian university (i.e. the top 20-50 institutions).

In India, 300,000 students write the entrance exam. 150,000 apply to IIM but only 300 get in. Schools have to be very tough to get into as unless a school is very selective it will not be perceived as a good school. One would need a 770/800 score on the GMAT or CAT (common admission test) to be admitted. Another benchmark of quality is the average salary on graduation. India has 2,000 government-approved business schools. Outside the top 50, the quality of education is poor. This year there is a 20% drop in MBA applications. There are two main types of universities: state-funded and private. The state-funded universities have problems: they cannot scale up and expand. But the quality of the intake is good, so the output is good. The private educational institutions are run with a more business-like model, however with fees and capacity controlled by the Government.

Career destinations of graduates from Indian Universities In the IIMs, out of 300 graduating, about 70 or 80 would get jobs overseas (e.g. Hong Kong, London). An MBA could earn US$150,000 (this was before the economic downturn). The remaining graduates would get jobs in India. Outside of the top 30-50 business schools, most graduates from the top 50-150 business schools in India would get jobs in either customer service or front-line sales. Corporate office functions would want academic rigour from the top business schools. Average graduate salaries Freshers and MBAs with no experience could earn 1.4 million Rupees per year (on average; some could earn 800,000 Rupees, others 1.6M Rupees). In some cases salaries have dropped to 1.2M Rupees.

An engineer with no experience joining a company like Google could start at 1.2 million Rupees. At a call centre, one could earn 150k – 200k Rupees per year.

Someone with poor English skills or a non-graduate working in McDonalds or retail could earn 3k-10k Rupees per month. Perceptions of Indian students studying abroad India is demographically very young and there is great competition. There is a perception that the students studying abroad would not get into a top IIM (unless they have gone to Oxford or Cambridge). So career prospects for returning students are not great to start with. Students do see study abroad as an added value but if jobs are scarce in the UK, then it is difficult. Mr. Bikhchandani’s sense is that people would prefer to work for two years in the UK after graduation if they could. One of the key problems is that management schools tell students that they will learn strategy but in reality most graduates will not do high level strategy jobs straight away. They have to be willing to take on operational roles. It is also perceived by employers that UK educated Indian graduates have high salary expectations.

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Options for Indian students to gain employment Most graduates need to earn money to pay off their educational loans. Working in the UK would be most valuable, but if they cannot do that, they need to earn money elsewhere. If there are no opportunities for Indian students in Europe, then they should look farther afield to places like the Middle East where Indians can get jobs easily and maybe as well SE Asia, Singapore and Africa. China is off their radar for jobs at present.

Perception of UK degrees and international degrees There is the perception that the smarter kids from India go to the US. For postgraduate degrees, the perception is that the US is above the UK and that the UK is above Australia. Name recognition of universities is very important. The UK is not known for management. The US is seen as the home of the MBA. The only well-known universities in the UK are the London Business School, Oxford and Cambridge while there are 20-40 well known business universities in the US. INSEAD in Paris/Singapore is well known. ESSEC (French Business School) is not known in India.

Branding matters. There is a perception that US universities have large research and development budgets; they invest a lot of money to solve problems. Also more scholarships are available to the US. The UK is known for its strength in the creative industries. One-year UK Masters is regarded as acceptable by recruiters as long as they are from decent quality institutions. Technical and management fields are OK.

Although more expensive than an Indian degree, it could be a more cost effective solution if the graduate is able to work in the UK after one year of study and MNC employers would value the cross-cultural exposure. Niche management courses such as one year Retail Management, Sports Management and Event Management would not be considered as serious as an MBA because of the quality of admissions onto these courses. A one year International Management degree would be seen as a less serious option when compared to an MBA, which has a more solid reputation. What employers look for Extracurricular activities do not matter as much unless someone has pursued them to a very high level. Most employers would not place much value on extracurricular activities – the onus would be on an applicant to show how the skills and attributes gained are relevant. The exceptions are multinational companies such as Unilever, Tata and Citibank. They are looking for the future leaders. Academic grades are always important. Hospitality companies (such as hotels) and call centres where one would interface with people from different cultural and language backgrounds do want international experience. Both IQ and EQ are important.

Advice to UK universities Find out how many alumni are in India and what they are doing, as they are the university’s key ambassadors - target alumni as recruiters and invest in alumni networks. Explain to recruiters how to access UK-educated Indian students.

Universities need to market Management Development Programmes (MDPs) to Indian organisations so that Indian professionals can have a British university experience, even if it is only for one week. They can then take this positive experience back to the business which could encourage HR to look at the institution as a talent pool. A big high-profile campaign is not necessary – MDPs are more subtle and effective.

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6. Genpact Meeting: Shveta Charan, VP HR Hiring, and Indira Screymour, VP HR Organization and Staffing 3 February 2010 Background Genpact are a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organisation, which means that they work on the back end processes of organisations e.g. call centres for credit management or customer service. They also do Business Process Re-engineering. They were the in-house BPO organisation for General Electric, but were divested in 2005. This was a difficult cultural change as they had to move from one client and a ready supply of business to selling their services. This was problematic as their organisational culture was highly GE-centric and they had had no previous need to sell their services. They now compete in the market with firms such as IBM and Accenture and their USP is that they are the best at process consultancy. They bring ‘science’ to processes. They cover a wide range of industries including financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods, with finance and accounting being their biggest “horizontal” or process area. They have 37,000 employees in 13 countries, speaking 25 languages. They have 2 large centres in China: Dalian, which serves the Japanese market and Changchun for China although China is just starting as a market. The Philippines site services the US market. There is also a small site in the UK, centres in Eastern Europe, Morocco, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil and South Africa. There are 6 centres in India. They have one of the lowest attrition rates of staff at 19%, where it is typically 50-60% in the BPO industry. Although they pay about an average salary in the market, they use Six Sigma (process management/engineering) tools to help with career development strategies, making them an attractive company for which to work. Recruitment needs Genpact hire around 6,000-12,000 people for associate (entry position) to first-line manager roles. Since this need is so big, it is run as a separate supply chain operation outside HR. Campus hiring at MBA level and recruitment for associate vice president (AVP) level and above is done via HR. There are 20-30 positions for MBAs and 5-10 from overseas universities (Ivy League). The largest “horizontal” that they have is finance and accounting so there is a big demand for chartered accountants. This means they would have completed their degree and done their chartered exams and a 3 year articles with an accountancy practice. Starting earnings for a newly qualified accountant would be 35,000-40,000 Rupees. They also have a requirement for analytics staff who would carry out data modelling, primary and secondary market research or actuarial support (insurance). These will be MSc or MA statistics graduates. Genpact will help them take their professional examinations. Starting salary will be 35,000-50,000 Rupees. They require IT staff for helpdesk and infrastructure functions, which could have a mixture of programming and network skills. They also require ERP personnel with experience of SAP or Oracle. They require procurement or supply chain roles which could be new graduates or professionals.

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For business process re-engineering roles they need “domain experts” e.g. professionals from the healthcare or insurance industries who know the market. These people need global experience and also need to be conversant with a US corporate culture, which comes from Genpact’s GE heritage. Hence they are more direct and less deferential, which is at odds with Indian culture. Selection process For the functional roles they need people with an MBA. They used to take MBAs straight from University/Institute, but now they prefer MBA plus 4-7 years experience. This is because they have worked in the marketplace and have more realistic expectations and can “hit the ground running” as business professionals. They require people who are articulate, intelligent, able to think on their feet and learn quickly. The selection process steps are:

1) Resumé screening. 2) Technical test. 3) Voice interview (voice is defined as communication skills, verbal and written as well

as English skills, including accent). This needs to be particularly good for telephone communication as this is predominantly how they will communicate with clients. This will be conducted by a voice trainer who will look for fluency, grammar and how they handle communication in certain situations.

4) HR will look at stability, which means loyalty by checking long term aspiration to stay and number of job changes.

5) Operational line interview to test technical knowledge. 6) Client interview. This will occur if the employee will have a lot of contact with clients. 7) Pre-hire and post-offer days where they visit the office for a ‘day in the life of a

Genpact employee’. This is so they are fully aware of the role and the working environment prior to joining.

8) Post-offer candidates will be subject to background check of education, employment, address and only successfully hired after this.

The whole process is about a 6-week cycle. Hiring Strategy All of the hiring for India is done in India. They could hire foreign nationals for internships for which they would pay a stipend. Associate level For associates they start in the Tier 1 cities and work to the Tier 2 cities. There are a number of mechanisms for attracting associates. For finance and accounting they hire from locations where there is an experienced talent pool e.g. where competitors are based. They use a concept of storefronts where they set up small offices in Tier 3 cities staffed by 1-2 people. This serves to raise the brand in areas where there is no functional office. Potential candidates can walk in off the street and their hiring potential will be assessed. If they make the cut, Genpact will work with them to relocate and train their voice skills via a 6-9 week course if required. This contributes up to 20% of hires. These people are generally Bachelor’s level graduates and will form the customer service, call centre type staff or staff recruited to service clients in the India market.

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They have an incentivised employee referral scheme which contributes 30% of hires. This channel is effective as the staff already know the culture of the organisation. Some associate level hire is done on campus, but at lower tier institutions. Targeting for this is done by assessing the university/institution population on previous performance in Genpact. Campus hiring The main campus hire is carried out at Tier 1 institutes (A+) campuses. They build relationships by going to do business lectures on Six Sigma (a process engineering tool) or to give talks to raise awareness about the diversity of roles in a BPO as many of these graduates will equate BPOs with call centres. Sometimes they will also work with the universities to deliver English skills tuition, known as voice training to neutralise “mother tongue” accents from regions. Internships Summer internships are from April to June and are hired in October-November. They can be flexible and they will also hire from institutes abroad e.g. top 10 USA and are planning top 5-6 worldwide. These will be placed in their local country. 50% of the campus hire opportunities (10-15) will be offered after internship to those from Tier 2 institutes to give them a chance. On campus hire will be from Tier 1. Virtual internships: virtual projects for the executive MBA with the University of Maryland where students are given work related problems to work on virtually and are then hosted by Genpact at their offices in India for one week. Parent connect is a strategy whereby parents and significant others are invited to the employee’s place of work to see the company so they are reassured. The job may include some night work so relatives can ensure the environment is safe. Additional sourcing channels:

• Recruitment consultants (60,000 pool). • Naukri.com, Monster.com (25,000 pool). • Walk Ins (walk in to office on specific days and tested for roles) They had 55,000

people walk in and of these 3,300 were hired. • Job fairs. • Advertising for PR and recruitment purposes. • Own web portal of virtual experts hired on a retainer basis.

Hiring Challenges The level of voice skills is a problem. Verbal and written skills are poor so Genpact test in English. According to a McKinsey study, only 12-15% of those with a graduate degree are employable in BPOs as they do not have the necessary language or cultural skills. The education system does not train practical skills so the organisation has to. Talent is dispersed in Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities, but potential recruits are not amenable to moving due to close family ties. Genpact target a graduate pool of 3.5 million people, they screen 150,000 and end up hiring 6% of people who originally applied. MBA students in India have very high expectations and want a strategic role which they will not get straight away. They typically expect a 100% increase in salary for a one-year study investment to pay off their education loan and take their lifestyle to the next level. The Chinese market is serviced from China and it is just starting. They feel it would be difficult to find the skills in China, particularly language so UK educated Chinese graduates may fill this requirement.

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Future Developments The outsourcing market is expected to triple by 2020 (Nasscom) and 80% of growth will lie in sectors not currently serviced e.g. healthcare, Government, SMEs, climate change. The BPOs will have to have industry expertise to enable them to move to a more consultative selling role, telling customers how to improve processes. Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) are growth countries. 7. Evalueserve Meeting: Bhavana Khandari, Manager Human Resources, 3 February 2010 Background Evalueserve is the largest Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company in Asia. It is multinational with India as the main centre and 3 operations centres in China, Chile and Romania. It is the pioneer of KPO - Evalueserve’s CEO coined the term ‘KPO’ and stated “If you have to talk about us as a BPO then call us a KPO.” BPO is about working on a particular business process, e.g. a helpdesk function. The employees will use scripts and follow steps. KPO is more like consulting in that the organisation works on unique projects, doing the scoping of the project, research and analysis and help the client understand what they could do. They do about 80% of the initial research and analytics work of the consulting client firm. However, unlike consultancies, they give the client options but will not make firm recommendations or get involved in the implementation phase of a project. Evalueserve has five different lines of business to provide synergy: business research, financial and investment research, market research, intellectual property and legal support services. Recruitment requirements The India recruitment team recruit on campus, but also do lateral hiring and hiring of foreign nationals. On campus they hire 3 sets of people: fresh graduates (3-year course), graduate engineers (4-year course) and MBAs. They have to be ready to respond to client solutions with the right experts and so may also require specific expertise in an industrial area, e.g. doctors, scientists, accountants and PhDs. They recruit all year round. Level Role Experience 1 Analyst 0-2 yrs 2 Senior Analyst 2-4 yrs 3 Manager 4-6 yrs 4 Group Manager 6-8 yrs 5 Asst Vice President 8+ 6 Vice President 10 yrs

Irrespective of degree, they hire at analyst level. The majority (70%) are at level 1 or 2, approximately 300 campus hires annually and 800 - 900 on demand or lateral hires. They suffer a high attrition rate - after 2 years people leave for further education or other KPOs; Evalueserve has become a training ground for competitors.

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Salaries Salaries depend on qualification and also tier of college. Tiers are based on surveys by education ministries. The rankings differ every year. They also use internal analysis based on performance of previous hires from these institutions. Management (MBA) 3.2 - 6 lakhs (Rs. 300,000 to Rs.

600,000 per annum) Engineer 2.5 - 4.5 lakhs Postgrads 5.2 lakhs

Recruitment Process 1. Campus recruitment - they approach colleges and do presentations on career progression, what to expect, etc. 2. 30 minute aptitude test, English and quantitative questions. 3. Interview rounds consisting of case study, one-to-one interview, domain interview (test of knowledge of specialisation e.g. finance, operations), team interview. They look for communication skills related to client facing roles, also problem solving, leadership and team management are key. Skill sets can be acquired but drive and ability cannot be taught. They look for club memberships, how applicants spend money (indicator of type, area and level of interests), e.g. is an IT person interested more in solving puzzles or coding. 4. Meet HR: they look at overall organisational fit, expectations of role, etc. For organisation fit they also look at integrity and quality awareness because new staff are often left to deliver directly to customers very early in their careers. Recruitment Challenges The latest survey shows that, despite there being 1 billion people in India, the numbers exist but not the quality and Evalueserve needs to recruit the right person for the right job with the right skill set. They would be interested in recruiting from the UK but have no budget to travel. They could use video conferencing for initial interviews, possibly for a one-year internship. Students visiting India on holiday from their course could contact the company. Perceptions of UK Education The perception exists that those graduates who don’t do well in India go overseas to study. This may be partly mitigated if students are seen to go to a college with a good reputation. There is no perceived difference between a one year and a two year Master’s degree. When returning they are on their own for job hunting as no facility exists to tap into university placement cells after graduation from their Indian institution. In comparing UK with US education, the US is perceived as being cheaper and graduates are able to work for longer. International recruitment The company used to employ more foreign nationals who were paid double salaries for the same work as Indian graduates. They were helping to get more projects and were being used as language experts. Benefits of UK education Multicultural experiences, gained from mixing with students from different countries. In India children are very protected. It is a good experience to be independent and this helps in professional and personal life. Disadvantages In India students are perceived to be going to the UK because they did not succeed in India to gain admission to the right college e.g. IIMs or IITs.

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It is difficult to join university placement cell activities on return to India, which is where a lot of graduate recruitment takes place. Bhavana is an alumnus of City University. She came to the UK with a scholarship after doing a first degree in computer applications in India. It took her 3 months to get a job on return to India. She started in HR in a manufacturing firm, then moved to Evalueserve. 8. Cairn (petrochemical company) Meeting: Taruna Magan, HR Business Partner, 3 February 2010 Graduate Recruitment Process There are three streams of recruitment:

1. Graduate Trainees: These are engineers who are freshers and management trainees who are MBAs. Total numbers: 30-40 per year.

2. Lateral hires – about 20-30. 3. Leadership – functional heads.

Cairn is open to diverse talent and they welcome expatriates with oil and gas experience. Petroleum science is not in abundance in India. They also look for technical experts with international exposure. The recruitment strategy is set in September/October when they estimate the numbers and skills that will be required. Every year they sponsor 3-4 engineers to study abroad. They have developed special relationships with about 10 academic institutes – e.g. they provide guest faculty lectures. They recruit trainees from Tier 1 universities and are always invited on Day Zero (a prestigious slot for recruiters) to take part in the campus placement process. Salary levels are set according to national standards. The problem is that expatriates command significantly higher salaries than Indian nationals. Therefore when an Indian student studies abroad, their salary expectations increase. Internships They state that practical experience is lacking in freshers and so they offer 2-6 month summer internships. Institutes will send a list of students which will be sifted by grades and also participation in extracurricular activities e.g. excelling in sporting events. Skills and attributes that are sought include leadership, communication and an extrovert personality. Overseas Recruitment Cairn are open to overseas recruitment from the UK if they send in applications during campus recruitment time, as there are UK universities, e.g. Robert Gordon, Herriot Watt and Imperial, with relevant geoscience content in their degrees.

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9. Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt. Ltd. Meeting: Shalini Naagar, Head Human Resources, Rashimi Chopra, Manager Human Resources, Sachin Sawant, Manager Human Resources, Sumit Kumar, Food Business 4 February 2010 Background M&S India have two offices: sourcing and retail and their vision is for growth in India.The Bangalore office has many nationalities and they normally have 5 or 6 expatriates in Delhi. M&S returns 30-40% margins (normal retail 4% margins). Clothes represent higher profit; food is now being introduced. Organised retail is only 3% of the overall market (US$340 billion). Potential to grow is high due to the greater spending power of a growing middle class. UK vs. Indian education UK graduates are more cosmopolitan and therefore open to cultural experiences. They bring rich knowledge of diversified culture and global perspectives. Disadvantages are that graduates must use initiative to reach out to Indian employers as they miss out on normal recruitment processes. The curriculum is too theoretical in India, with an emphasis on building cognitive skills. Experience-based UK curriculum adds value in international arena. In India kids are protected by parents in their home environment and do not work part-time. 85-95% have never worked and this could be considered a drawback coming into a corporate culture like this. Returning graduates have a mindset that expects a management job but need practical experience, need to ’roll in the mud’. One may have been a sales adviser in the UK but then expects to be a manager in India. Indian Business Schools are very strong with ISB and IM moving up. They set difficult entrance tests, e.g. the CAT is tougher than the GMAT – the competitive admissions procedures ensure quality. M&S consider that higher level business schools should demand higher salaries and other university graduates might start at a lower level in store. For the UK market, there is confusion about which universities are best. Universities need to have more information available. M&S are less concerned with the name of the institution, but look more at programmes and what is taught. Recruitment process There is currently no graduate training programme but they plan to eventually initiate one in conjunction with the London office. There are two levels of hire: management and sales advisers. Management roles require experience and sales advisers require a basic knowledge of retail. Working hours in stores are long; 9 hours per day at 6 days per week, sometimes 10 or 11 hours during sales. They are looking to hire people with the right attitude and mindset as training can raise skills and competency levels more easily. Look for attitudes: positive taking of ownership, teamwork, respect, being determined to achieve, and vision to have a long-term career. They use logical reasoning and psychometric analysis followed by 2 - 3 behavioural event interviews. There is a 30-day induction.

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Recruitment challenges Choosing the right people with right competencies and values and finding the right fit with the current set of people. For this reason yhey may not hire an MBA from a business school because it is felt they will not last in the role due to a mismatch in expectation and background e.g. trying to fit those with education into a not highly qualified group. Attrition runs at 11-15% due to long hours or unrealistic expectations, but this compares favourably with other retail where it is closer to 35 - 40%. British influence The mix of Indian and expatriate leaders gives a good mix of cultural influences, values and respect. In their employee satisfaction survey, they scored highly on three key measures: positivity (86%), commitment (will want to stay for the next 12 months, 91%), response rate (97%). They encourage devolved responsibility and self-managed ways of performing, expecting people to speak up. They operate a 360-degree feedback appraisal system. In an Indian company if the boss is in office you must stay at your desk, you cannot leave before they leave, but M&S India encourages a more flexible approach. Sources of recruits They advertise jobs in papers, through consultancies and internal referrals. They also have adverts in stores. 200 have been recruited this year, 80% front-end staff, and they are looking for 40 staff each for 6 new stores. At peak periods, they look for extra short-term staff i.e. January, May, August, and December present windows of opportunity for short term experience. They are open to recruiting from other parts of the world. Functional areas are in merchandising, buying and retailing, and they would welcome Masters degrees in those fields.

10. An Asset Management Company*, Delhi *Note, we interviewed the HR Manager in his personal capacity and it was requested that we not reveal the name of the organisation. Meeting: 4 February 2010 Introduction With 1,300 employees, this organisation provides back office functions for its parent company based in Europe. It is primarily a technology centre which provides customer service operations and manages process transactions. Attrition rate is below 20% for the entire company. Graduate recruitment and development The period between 2005 and 2007 saw rapid expansion, but since then recruitment has stabilised, and more lateral hires, rather than new graduates, are sought. However there are plans to revive the graduate recruitment programme. The company has run graduate development programmes in the past, and they primarily targeted the IITs and universities of that calibre. When recruiting on Indian campuses, the pre-placement week is very well attended by students. They look for applicants who hold Masters in computer applications,

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electrical engineering, and related subjects. They are taken on as graduate trainees or associate programmers for a year and then become more permanent programmers. The company seeks long-term investments and hopes that the graduates stay on for at least 3-5 years. The supply and demand gap has not helped to build the managerial capability properly. The typical career path for a graduate would be:

Associate Level (up to 6 years of experience) Middle manager (up to 14 years of experience) Senior manager (about 20 years of experience).

All new recruits are expected to spend the first 4 years concentrating on technology. After that they can follow different distinct tracks:

• Technological track • Management track (project management) • Leave to pursue a postgraduate qualification at a graduate school (e.g. MBA finance)

and then come back to the company.

They have a small team of research associates who support the research analysts in Hong Kong or Mumbai. There is a lot of focus on research – that’s the value proposition. For this position, they want 1 - 2 years experience from a good graduate school, not necessarily a PhD. He recommends that the CV be no more than two pages. Students should provide further detail on projects they have been involved with. The University is definitely what stands out to the recruiter. If a student attends IIM or IIT, the company definitely wants to meet the candidate. They are not finicky about grades but are looking for a “wholesome package”. Graduates need to display well-rounded skills: communication, assertive behaviour, negotiation / influencing – the whole gamut of skills. Perceptions of candidates with overseas qualifications It is not entirely clear from candidates’ applications what they have actually done whilst studying abroad. A recruiter in India is not entirely conversant with the certificates and wants to understand what the qualifications mean. Unless they have supplemented their degree with additional work, or studied at an Ivy League institution in the US, there doesn’t appear to be a great advantage to studying overseas. They are generally away for 12-14 months and then when they come back, they have a feeling of superiority. We need to bring them to the ground and ask “So what? How are you differentiated?” The question arises as to why they did not study at an Indian University. Is it because they did not get admission? There is also the perception that people do not want to come back to India once they have studied abroad. The company does not receive many speculative applications from overseas. Benefits of studying and working overseas Yet there are some advantages to studying overseas and gaining exposure to a different country. Particularly with regard to financial markets, it is very valuable to have gained experience working in London or other parts of Europe. The company does employ expatriate staff, which helps create a culture of cross-fertilisation. Although the ex-pats are new to the Indian environment, they are very quick to learn.

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Education in India There has been an explosion in the number of universities and there are some very good newer ones in India such as the SRM University (Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University) which is very advanced, with faculty from all over the world. Universities in India are now working with industry to offer tailor-made programmes to prepare the students for work. UK universities should raise their profile with Indian industry organisations such as the FICCI, CII and NASSCOM (the IT BPO sector). 11. Guardian Life Care Meeting: Neha Rajput, Assistant Manager HR, 4 February 2010 Background Guardian Life Care is one of the largest privately owned pharmacy chains in India, with over 175 stores throughout the country. They are on the retail and not the manufacturing side of pharmacy, selling FMCG products, FMHG (Fast Moving Health Goods), GNC (Living Well) health supplements and the Yves Rocher beauty range (exclusive distributor). They now also have their own mineral water manufacturing plant and market the water under the Extracore brand. They have over 100 employees, mainly operating in the retail outlets although they do have some area managers and managers in the corporate office. The pharmacies they have are retail stores and are also in hospitals (operating 24/7). Recruitment Needs For the retail stores they need sales executives, but these are not generally of graduate calibre. They also require trained pharmacists who are registered to practice in India and have a registration number as proof of this. They have enough interest from pharmacists who wish to work for them and they walk into the offices to find work. For management posts they require an MBA or Masters in management or in retail management for area managers. They require innovative thinkers and leadership qualities. The college they went to matters a lot, but they must also have selling and convincing skills. Typically pharmacists are paid Rs. 10,000 -15,000 (for 2 years experience) and will work 9 -10 hours per day, 6 days per week. Managers are paid Rs. 25,000 - 35,000 per annum depending on experience. Selection Process For pharmacist roles the selection process is as follows:

• Written test (marked by a line manager). • Personal Interview by HR. • Technical Interview by head of department. • HR negotiate salary and designation.

Recruitment Channels • Predominantly walk-ins for pharmacists, as they are well known in India. • Job portals e.g. Naukri.com as these are low cost. • Employee referral is also a very important source.

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Recruitment Challenges There are lots of players in the same field so poaching of good staff takes place. 12. Rainmaker Consulting Meeting: Ruchika Sukh, Senior Recruitment Consultant, 4 February 2010 Background to law qualifications Law has a common entrance exam for all national law universities (Common Law Admission Test CLAT). This covers general knowledge, legal aptitude and mathematics. Often marks are not reflective of calibre of student, but more about rote learning. Also it is not possible to appeal any results. There is also the LSAT-India which is used by the newer schools and based entirely on a multiple choice format in areas such as logical and analytical reasoning and reading comprehension. The competition among the different law schools is tremendous. At the moment the Government is trying to rationalise and centralise systems. There are 2 paths to law qualification, either ordinary degree and then law postgraduate course or 5-year integrated law degree. So the degree award could be BA LLB or BCom LLB. There is no requirement for a training contract in India. A small internship is undertaken in the final year of the course. Anyone can practice after that. No structured training exists in most law firms. Law is looked at as a noble profession in India and most people who study law don’t change careers. There is also a hereditary element. Family firms still loom large in India's legal landscape. And ‘family firm’ often literally means that the entire family gets involved in the legal practice. Families continue the profession and pass on clients and, in the case of barristers, pass on chambers. (It takes 10 years to get chambers. In Delhi there are no barristers – these only exist in Mumbai.) Recruitment Graduate level: Recruitment committee on campus sends invitations to leading firms and they negotiate to attend on appropriate campus placement days, e.g. Day Zero. Law graduates from top law schools will become employed by top 5 law firms. Those not succeeding and also those from lesser colleges might choose to work at in-house law firms or legal processing organisations (LPOs). They provide services such as repetitive document reviews, i.e. dealing with non-core functions. This could be for companies within India or for joint ventures with overseas companies. Salaries at tier one law firms can be Rs.100,000 per month. Useful link to research top tier firms: http://www.legal500.com/c/india Reasons for doing LLM Half of the graduating class normally apply to do the LLM in America or UK. It is not a requirement to practice law but provides international exposure and is looked on favourably in India. For returning graduates without an Indian University law qualification, you may not get actual experience of court litigation. You may be assigned an office or consultation job.

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13. Centum Learning Ltd Meeting: Kamini Prasad, SVP Consumer Business Group, Thomas Mathew, Head Human Resources 5 February 2010 Background The company is a 100% subsidiary of Bharti, a leading telecommunications company in India. They provide education and training in collaboration with universities. They are tied up with three universities and two institutions and deliver their services to 6,000 students at 130 learning centres across 86 cities in India. Most students are from India, but a few are from the Middle East, Nepal, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Centum does not aim to compete with the top-tier IIMs and they specialise in the service sector. Typical jobs are front-line sales and customer relations. MBAs have a higher entry point. Many are already working for the Bharti Group. Their focus is management areas. Major programmes:

1. BBA (Business Applications) - includes applied management and industry interaction and is very practically oriented.

2. MBA in Retail Management.

Key activities Their key sectors (the “Sunrise Sectors”) are telecommunications, insurance and retail. These sectors recruit the largest numbers. Upon completion of their programmes, 77% of graduates are in employment. They work to improve the employability of their students through:

1) Technical training - knowledge of the subject 2) Development of social skills – “leadership, personality grooming, attitude, learnability

- the softer part”. They provide “Edutainment Activities” where students engage in team exercises and simulation scenarios. Industry is very involved by providing guest speakers who share their life experiences. There is high probability of students getting jobs through the interaction with employers. They run a “Knowledge Forum” where industry experts, such as the CEO of Airtel, address the students. All students must do an industrial internship, which is accredited. It is 4-8 weeks and is part of the curriculum. The internships are not all paid, but 90% do get a stipend. The internships are valuable because students get exposure to industry and a feel for the world of work. They do projects such as market research. As part of their service to employers, Centum does the shortlisting of candidates. There is a dedicated industry interaction team for this purpose. When recruiting, family background and social networks of the candidates are very important. Photos are to be included with CVs. They have limited experience with UK graduates. While they can see some benefits, their Indian employers prefer graduates to have a good knowledge of the Indian market.

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14. The Spice Global Group Meeting: Divya Modi, Global Director Finance, 6 February 2010 Background The Group has more than 10,000 employees. It has a customer base of more than 25 million across various products and services in India and other global markets including Nepal, Bangladesh, South East Asia and Africa. The Spice Global group has four divisions: I. Spice Televentures (Noida) – operates businesses in the domain of Mobile devices,

Mobile Value Added Services, Application Development, Mobile & Technology Consumer Products, Retail and Domestic Onshore BPO Services.

II. Spice Enfotainment – Has business interests in Filmed Entertainment (Buddha and ‘No

Problem’), Malls and Multiplexes, Restaurants, Entertainment Content.

III. Spice Investments and Finance Advisors – Fund Management, Distressed Assets Funds, Fixed Income Products, OTCEI Retail products.

IV. Spice Innovative Technologies – Information Technology. The company is looking to develop mobile internet technologies further as broadband does not cater for outlying areas. This would work much better in India. Recruitment The company has recently moved corporate headquarters to Singapore and might also be looking for returning Singaporean graduates. Most vacancies are in technical and finance customer support functions. Not keen to approach top MBA schools as they have over-inflated salary expectations. The company would be interested in taking interns over the summer. They are positive about overseas education as many members of the management team have studied in the UK and in the US. On the whole they feel that exposure to the education system of both countries is ideal. UK vs. India education The education system in India is not as focussed on the development of soft skills. Some Indian graduates they have recruited have had poor presentation skills and needed to be trained in-house. The UK system is much better geared for this. 15. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Meeting: Professor Sen, Director Placement Cell IIT, Professor Vyas, Loughborough alumnus and assistant registrar 8 February 2010 Background Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the foremost engineering institutes in India and have a world renowned reputation for excellence. There are 15 of them in India. Entry to IIT

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is only gained by achieving top grades in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) which is a national examination Indian students have to take if they are to study at these prestigious institutions. As an anecdotal example, one coaching organisation for this JEE says that you have to do 60 extra hours of schooling to make the grade. In the Indian context, a placement cell sources graduate entry positions and not industrial or summer placements. At IIT, students also do a summer internship and the placement cell facilitates sourcing both, although this is not standard at all Indian institutes and universities. The larger, better known universities and institutes have placement cells. Internships and graduate jobs All students at IIT have to do a mandatory period of training, which is like a summer internship for 10 weeks. This is to help them put their classroom knowledge into industry practice. They will then return to share their experiences at a colloquium, which is part of their grade, and will then go on to their final project. IIT will request that they are given a real industry project to work on, but this is not always the case and they may go around various departments of the business to learn how it works. There are a small number of people working in the placement cell, but there are also faculty co-ordinators and some student helpers in each faculty who help with placement sourcing. IIT have about 150 company contacts and from this they source 500 internships per annum. Even if a student wants an academic career, they will still need to do an industry internship. An internship may also lead to a pre placement offer (PPO), which means an offer of a graduate job upon passing out (graduation). About 10% of interns get a PPO. Entrepreneurship There is no formal entrepreneurship education in IIT, but the general course preparation prepares students for this and students interested in enterprise can meet informally in “Entrepreneurship Development Cells”. There is a business incubation structure on campus and there are currently about 12-13 spinout companies on campus. Students sometimes wish to join start-up organisations as, although it can be risky, they will learn a lot from the experience. Also, sometimes, their professors are part of start-up companies. Rankings There is not really a formal government mechanism for rankings although some publications, e.g. Asia Week, send out questionnaires to institutions to compile a ranking. For overseas education or company information, students tap into informal alumni and peer networks to find out more about organisations. There is an on-campus hostel accommodation system (similar to halls in the UK) and students build up networks and learn a lot through this. Alumni relations IIT has an alumni relations office and a Dean of Alumni Affairs, whose role it is to maintain relationships with IIT alumni. The office invites alumni and their families to campus for anniversary celebrations e.g. silver jubilee and other events. There are alumni chapters outside India including the US and UK. The office organises the general body committee meeting, and a pan-IIT alumni meeting is held alternately in the US and India every year.

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AGCAS / NASES PMI 2 India Visit Report

1 – 5 February 2010

Appendix 3: Reports on individual Mumbai visits

1. IDEA (48)

2. Conjugate (50)

3. Institute of Information Technology Bombay (51)

4. British Council (53)

5. Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute of Financial & Management Studies (55)

6. Tata Power (57)

7. YoungBuzz (59)

8. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology (61)

9. SHRM India (62)

10. TATA TCS (64)

11. UK India Business Council (66)

12. HCC Lavasa (68)

13. All India Association of Industries (70)

14. Alumni focus group (71)

15. TATA Communications (81)

16. Nokia Siemens Networks (84)

17. PriceWaterhouse Coopers (85)

18. Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (87)

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1. IDEA Meeting: Mr Manish, 5 February 2010 Background: IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in March 2007. IDEA Cellular is a leading GSM mobile services operator in India with over 53 million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It is a pan India integrated GSM operator covering the entire telephony landscape of the country, and has NLD and ILD operations. IDEA is the winner of ‘The Emerging Company of the Year Award' at The Economic Times Corporate Excellence Awards 2008-09. The company has received several other national and international recognitions for its path-breaking innovations in mobile telephony products & services. It won the GSM Association Award for “Best Billing and Customer Care Solution” for 2 consecutive years. It was awarded “Mobile Operator of the Year Award - India” for 2007 and 2008 at the Annual Asian Mobile News Awards. IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India’s first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 130,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities. The Group has been judged the ‘6th Top Company for Leaders in Asia Pacific Region’ in 2009, in a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, in partnership with the RBL Group, and Fortune. The Group has also been rated ‘The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia’ by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Questions & Answers: What is the required educational level of the candidates you recruit for?

We look for students with Masters/MBA programmes mainly. In the Indian system a

Masters consists of 1 year in general management and the 2nd year provides an opportunity to specialise (e.g. marketing, production, logistics, etc)

What skills and qualities do you look for in an ideal candidate?

Learning, a positive approach and adaptability. Students are raw products, we polish them, brand them, train them.

Demonstrate commitment and enthusiasm for working in IDEA.

Can you please describe your recruitment process?

Direct contact with students through campus visits. We try to get the visit slots on day 0 or 1 as more or less all the students will apply when you are the first employers on campus. They sometimes manage to hire people before they have even graduated, particularly good when top talent has been spotted.

Pre-application presentations, aptitude tests and screening, interviews. Employee referral scheme Recruitment agencies

Where do you normally advertise vacancies?

http://www.naukri.com http://www.monster.com

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How do you work with Indian universities to attract graduate talent?

Every year we visit 10-12 colleges/universities offering Summer projects and graduate jobs. The Placement and Training Cells typically call the company/hr department inviting them to come to the campus.

Do you target particular universities to recruit candidates and if so how do you do this? If you do target, what is your reason for this?

Yes we target particular universities. We assess their reputation by looking at which previous hires have performed well in our company. We look at the professors and their curriculum and particularly like institutions who are open to curriculum modifications to meet our companies needs. The media image of the college/university is also very important (positive brand recognition).

Colleges and universities that invite members of staff from the company to deliver guest lectures on themed topics are particularly well liked. It provides the company with a way of interacting with students and professors, which in turn gives the member of staff a sense of the quality of the institution. Normally only 5-6 companies are invited to do this and it provides a good business networking opportunity also.

The Corporate Headquarters only tends to hire from A institutions. Regional offices of IDEA go to B+ and B- institutions - in the regions, it is important to

be able to hire people with a ‘regional flavour’ (dialect, cultural understanding, networks)

What relationships with overseas universities do you have?

As there is no real relationship, when an application arrives it is necessary to do a google search to find out more information about it. This makes it time consuming.

What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates?

Students do unrelated part-time work whilst studying in the UK, often in menial jobs. This experience does not add any value.

What are your views on the quality of: a) a UK master's degree e.g. in comparison with a US or Indian master's degree? b) a UK MBA?

There is a concern about the duration of study for a UK Masters being only a year compared to 2 years in India, the US and Australia. Not really sure how it can be an equivalent qualification when it is so short.

What do UK universities need to do in order to prepare UK-educated Indian graduates for the Indian employment market?

Universities need to not just make money, they also need to start talking to business/industry and explaining more about their ‘product’, i.e. the students they are producing.

UK universities should only educate students who have previous work experience in the Indian market. That way the student has a greater understanding of the corporate world in India and is better prepared for his/her return.

Universities need to actively promote their returning graduates with employers.

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Extras: The Idea training scheme hires in batches of 20-25 new graduates. Many of the

students only have a theoretical knowledge and it is up to IDEA to provide the practical knowledge. They do 6 months cross-functional training to gain an overall view of the business and that helps them to decide what function they want to do.

Out of 1500 applications only 50 were from people who had returned from overseas. 2. Conjugate – Recruitment & HR Consultancy Meeting: Ashish Tripathi, Vice President and Swati Tripathi, Director 3 February 2010 Profiles: Ashish is an alumni of Claremont Graduate University - Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, USA Ashish worked with Oracle Financial Services in the USA before returning to India. Swati is an alumni of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management MBA Marketing programme and founded Conjugate in 2001. Background: Conjugate is a recruitment and HR consultancy that provide all types of human capital solutions for multi national companies from across the world with a growing market in the UAE. It deals particularly with large conglomerates in Oil & Gas, IT & Telecom and Banking & Financial Services. Started in 2001 by a team of professionals in Mumbai, the company has grown to the level where there are offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Dubai. With over 8 years of recruitment experience, Conjugate continues to grow and offer solutions tailored to the needs of its clients and offer talented individuals a wealth of career opportunities. Conjugate Mumbai currently has a workforce of 25 staff. They work primarily in hiring for executive levels and identifying talent trained in the latest business technologies from a variety of global locations. Ideally their candidates will have a minimum of 5-10 years experience. For fresh graduates or college hires, they prefer to visit educational institutions and conduct talks rather than call people in to their offices. For graduates, they are looking to create a talent pool of candidates and then they work on getting suitable recruiters. Services & products: The Conjugate website www.conjugate.co.in outlines a number of services they offer:

- Executive Search - Sector specific services - Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) - Career Consultation - Career Change - Career Openings

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Effects of the global downturn: It has not been felt in the same way in India. In fact, hiring in the financial sector and especially in Marketing has remained high with Conjugate generating much business from large employers such as HSBC, Development Bank of Singapore, Standard Chartered. Advice to UK HEIs wanting to help Indian students return successfully to India:

- Think about ways of creating robust relationships with Indian employers to facilitate study and work abroad exchange programmes

Advice to Indian students in the UK:

- Decide early on in your UK studies if you want to stay in UK on completion of your studies or return home.

- Be focused in your job interests - Try not to fill your CV with a lot of experiences that do not add value - Customise your CV to the accepted country format e.g. many US resumes are one

page whereas Indian CVs could be as long as 4 pages. - One would need a specialised degree e.g. a Masters with a specialisation or a very

specific undergrad, if one wants to compete on the ground in India. Big demand in India for highly skilled workers.

Action agreed: We agreed to send the following to Conjugate:

- Association of British Scholars link - Executive Summary of the India visit report - A link for accessing UK HE Careers Service contact details - Details of the AGCAS Virtual Careers Fair

3. Institute of Information Technology Bombay Meeting: Professor Maiti, 2 February 2010  Background: IIT Bombay, set up by an Act of Parliament, was established in 1958, at Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai. Today the Institute is recognised as one of the centres of academic excellence in the country. Over the years, there has been dynamic progress at IIT Bombay in all academic and research activities, and a parallel improvement in facilities and infrastructure, to keep it on par with the best institutions in the world. The Institute cherishes the hope that its graduates will be the leaders of tomorrow. Their education is patterned with this in view. Thus in the engineering curriculum, besides the professional courses, there is a strong emphasis on acquiring a thorough grounding in the basic sciences of mathematics, physics and chemistry and a reasonable knowledge in subjects like economics, english, philosophy and social sciences belonging to the Humanities and Social Science. The emphasis on the basic sciences removes to some extent the fear of rapid obsolescence, while studies in the Humanities help the students to interact more positively with the society in which he lives. Besides making available facilities for higher education, traning and research in various fields of engineering and technology, the Institute contributes to the industrial development and economic growth of the country by preparing a cadre of engineers and scientists, who provide both man power and support R&D work for industries.

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Questions & Answers: Please clarify your definition of ‘placements’.

Placements in IIT Bombay refer to both short term holiday placements (internships) and post-graduation work.

How does the placement centre (T&P cell) work with students/alumni?

The Faculty wanted to get rid of the Summer placement element for students, placement in this context being maximum 2 month internships. The reason they weren’t happy with it was that students didn’t take them very seriously and the employers weren’t necessarily providing relevant on the job training for them. The Faculty felt it should be more of a two way process, i.e. Employers offering greater support and training, students working hard to protect the IIT image. Members of the Faculty used to go and visit the students on their placements and discuss their progress with their supervisor, this was very time consuming.

What would be the process from start to finish (1st enquiry to securing placement) for an individual student?

Currently students who make the effort to contact employers can do so and they are allowed to have the internships, but the support for this activity is now minimal. For the first two years of their degree students are encouraged to concentrate on academics. Opportunity for internships normally happen between the 3rd and 4th year holidays.

Does the placement centre (T&P cell) provide advice on career choices, career development, etc?

Training is provided to students regarding interview technique and some alumni get used to provide success stories for students (particularly the entrepreneurs).

Can students hold a number of offers for jobs and choose the best one? Do they have to express a preference or ranking? Do they apply for one, have to wait for a reply before applying to the next?

Students choose who they want to apply for and once they get an offer they have to accept it and the placement process stops there for them.

How do you create and maintain employer links for your placement services? Do you approach employers or do employers approach you?

Employers are invited to IIT to conduct pre-placement talks (full time graduate jobs), this tends to happen between December 1st and March. The placement office manages the invitations.

IIT works closely with employers by developing research around questions that employers pose/need answers to.

Do you prioritise employers when allocating campus interviews? (i.e. in terms of number of vacancies, salaries, etc)

Every branch of Faculty has a group of students that decide which companies are going to be visiting them. They base this decision on how many vacancies are being offered and which companies will offer the best challenges for the students.

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Previously companies paid to come but they don’t anymore. Companies can get blacklisted by the student groups if students have a negative

experience or they don’t recruit enough students from IIT Bombay. Do you market a good student to particular employers in any way?

IIT has an online resource which allows employers to post information about themselves and students can also post their cv.

What in your opinion are employers looking for in potential graduate employees?

What makes IIT students stand out to employers is that the training achieved academically is as good as any overseas institution. Students are very creative, smart and good leaders.

In what way has the recession affected the graduate labour market in India?

Normally all students get placed but during the downturn things have been a little more difficult.

Extras:

Unfortunately the person in charge of the placements section of IIT Bombay was unable to meet with us, but Prof Maiti was able to give the perspective of a Faculty member.

Before 1990 students were particularly attracted to software companies as the opportunities were very highly paid. After 1990 general management became more popular.

Approximately 1% of students go into academic careers as historically salaries were not very competitive. However salaries have recently improved so there are hopes that more students will pursue an academic career.

IIT Bombay has a student population of about 6000 and each year approximately 20-30 students are being sent on study abroad opportunities (overseas exchange for a semester). Partners include Germany, Cambridge Uni, Purdue Uni, North Western, Berkeley.

4. British Council Meeting: Suchita Gokarn, 1 February 2010 Employability Survey:

It was carried out by a market research company. The methodology consisted of 12 initial face to face qualitative interviews with employers, followed by 200 respondents to a quantitative survey. The full report is being published on Wednesday 3rd Feb.

The major concern from the results was the lack of recognition that Indian employers have for UK institutions, with the exception of Oxford, Cambridge and the London 4.

Employers also feared that they couldn’t meet the salary expectations of UK educated returning graduates. Many UK graduates not only expect higher salaries but also to enter the workforce at a higher level.

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Mr B. Santana, President of the Skills Sector and the Confederation of Indian Industries, on reading the employability survey recommended several things (sheet available) that universities could do to counter balance that.

The market research company originally targeted employers who were more open to the idea of recruiting UK graduates or had experience of recruiting UK graduates.

Further information:

3 month internships with company, open to UK returners Alumni happy with experience and they do feel it is value for money, however they

have struggled on their return. The British Council have had difficulty in getting a co-ordinated response from the

UK partnership, e.g. when trying to get speakers on employability 2 years ago no institution could provide one. No UK universities doing any work on employability.

US universities are very positively and aggressively courting their alumni and being very proactive in business networking.

Possibility of a future career forum bringing together UK universities and local employers. This would potentially improve the UK brand locally.

The Association of British Scholars has traditionally not been very inclusive in Mumbai as originally all the members had received scholarships. The membership has now opened up to all returning UK graduates. The organisation has 26 chapters and there is varying degrees of success between them. It is particularly difficult for the chapters based in Metro-cities, but they are constantly advertising for new members.

The British Council site is being re-designed and an alumni page will actively exist, Suchita wasn’t sure whether any careers information would be present.

UK universities wouldn’t send a link providing information about a British Council initiative

The British Council don’t provide a re-orientation programme. In fact, as India is 80% an agent market, the BC only have contact with students at large forums. Pre-departure events are run by the BC but alumni actually deliver the content and it is very difficult to get speakers/helpers.

Brands are hugely important in India and the employability issue is potentially damaging the UK brand.

Suchita expressed concern that UK universities need to match their academic programmes more closely with the needs of employers in India. The employers don’t know the UK curricula and UK courses don’t always deliver what they want. There needs to be a more joined up coordinated response.

UK graduate returnees don’t believe that they need further training. The work option has always existed in the US market, which puts the UK at a

disadvantage. UK graduates with work experience either don’t come back or find the local market

relatively easy to find work. It is the students without work experience that particularly struggle.

Sussex University was quoted as doing good work with employers and has set up placements and work experience internships in India for students on certain programmes.

US universities successfully get funding from the private sector for certain activities. Locally educated Indian talent is very strong. Demand for a UK education is a very mixed bag, some with money and

intelligence, some just with money and some just with intelligence. The Indian culture is very savings based so the recession hasn’t had a massive

effect, many people save 30 rupees for every 100 made.

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The British Council are making links with HRD (equivalent to AGR) as they have 30 chapters across India. NHRD – 7500 HR managers are members.

Actions:

After AGCAS have finished the project the British Council will look at both our results and the employability survey to see how things can be moved forward.

Suchita to send the results from their employability survey (dated 3rd Feb) We can send the China report executive summary to Suchita.

5. Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute of Financial & Management Studies Meeting: Ms Kavita Mishra, Placement Officer and Dr Smita Shukla, Reader 3 February 2010 Background: Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute of Financial & Management Studies is a Department of the University of Mumbai. Courses: They offer the following courses:

• MMS – a 2year full-time Masters in Management Studies • MFSM – a three year part-time Masters Degree program in Financial Services

Management • BMS – a three full-time Bachelors in Management Studies

We were made aware of the hierarchy within the Indian education system where A category institutions would be the Indian institutes of Management and Technology (IIMs and IITs), B category institutions would comprise regional institutes and universities such as University of Mumbai, followed by smaller and lesser known C category institutions. Placement Centre: The Placement team at Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute consists of five people. The overall goal of the Placement team is to assist students to get a better understanding of their career choices and options in order to obtain a placement of their choice on completion of their studies. The focus is on grooming and shaping of students. 1-1 Counselling is on offer which is non directive but rather provides general advice to help explore student scope in the job market. The Placement Officer noted that they deal with similar issues to us in the UK in managing student expectations, dealing with student confusion about their career possibilities as well as dealing with student anxiety. The analogy of an onion was given in that the layers do not all unravel in front of you during a first consultation hence making it necessary to offer multiple consultations for students. Two kinds of appointments are offered by the Placement Centre:

1. 20 min Initial appointment to explore student history, background, personality 2. 20 min Interest levels appointment where particular sectoral interest areas of

students are identified and action agreed in terms of contacting companies.

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The Placement team have recently started offering a series of Soft Skills workshops to help groom students for the Placement application process. The content of these workshops is based on feedback received by the Placement team on particular skills sought by companies which may be IT related like Excel or softer skills like communication and presentation. The Placement team use employers or academics to deliver such workshops. Similarities and differences between Placement team at Alkesh Dinesh Mody and UK careers services are summarised below: UK Alkesh Mody, India Placement refers to a period of vacation work experience or a year long placement as part of a course UK may get feedback from employers but will not necessarily use it in planning and delivery of own careers programmes Careers Services refer students to company websites, events etc. We might employ student representatives in the marketing of careers programme and events but not to facilitate the application process We may view student results on CVs but will make no use of them for reasons of data protection

Placement is taken to mean a graduate job. 2-3 month vacation work experience is referred to as an internship They get feedback from companies on student performance on internship and in placement interviews and actively use this to inform the contents of their soft skills programme Placement team contact companies on behalf of students Students take an active role in the placement process and some are appointed to positions within the placement cell or committee where they facilitate the process of contacting companies Placement team hold academic results of students and pass on to employers

The Placement Selection process at Alkesh Dinesh Mody is divided into three phases: June to September a. Selection of placement committee members b. Creation of placement team c. Updating of website with student details d. Printing of visiting cards/brochure/feedback form /registration/and industry form e. Visit to companies by students and placement officer October to January a. Visit to companies by students and placement officer b. Scheduling of company for on Campus placement activity process c. Institute will conduct the training session for students and objective type of test on economy and management. Institute will also provide counseling of students / mock interview session by director and senior faculty of the institute etc. February to May follow up the companies and students for appointment letters and conduction of placement activity/preparation of placement reports / updating of list of companies, students and placement details.

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• One offer one student – once students are placed with a company they are no longer eligible to go for further placement interviews via the Placement Centre

• However if company or student does not disclose then Placement team will continue to notify student of further placement opportunities.

Last year the Placement team ensured that 100% of final year students were given 2 to 3 placement opportunities to apply for. The main function of the Placement team is to have long lasting relationships with employers. Study Abroad including UK: We discussed the perceived advantages of studying abroad and the UK in particular and the Placement team felt that studying abroad may be better in many students’ eyes than going to a B category school in India. The placement team were aware of the work regulations in the UK which they felt would make it a less preferred location than somewhere like Australia or USA. Other Issues: Further discussion centred on the way equality and disability is starting to be addressed in the Indian labour market. We learnt that Government departments and some large companies offer reservation categories (as many as 50%) for candidates from different strata of society e.g. physical disability. Tata Group is an example of a large Indian company who try to highlight the number of marginalised candidates they recruit via their positive affirmation initiative where they give specific training to such candidates to bring them up to the level of the mainstream. 6. Tata Power Meeting: Dr Gobind Baghasingh, Vice President – HR, 1 February 2010 Background: Recognised as India’s largest private sector power utility, it generates and transmits energy sources such as coal, gas, electricity and renewable sources such as panel / wind. Tata Power is part of the Tata Group which also comprises:

• Tata Metal / Steel - Corus • Tata Automotive • Tata telecoms • Tata Consultancy Services – Information Consultancy • Tata Solutions

The Group employs some 300,000 employees but each company is a separate entity and has own selling and recruitment strategy. Tata Power Key Facts: Established early 20th century 15,000 employees $4bn annual turnover $1bn annual profit

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Planning tenfold growth in business over next ten years and expansion into countries such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Netherlands, Australia, Singapore etc.

Can you please describe your recruitment process and timing? Placement Centre of Targeted campuses contact TATA Power in Aug / Sept with invitation to do pre-placement talk (or employer presentation in UK) Tata Power Pre-placement talk in Dec-Jan Written test – technical test Group discussion Final interview with panel What types of positions do you recruit for? Graduate roles:

1. Graduate Engineering Trainees who are expected to fill roles where they would learn to run and maintain power plants

2. Generalist Management roles including Trading, Regulatory where many candidates come from Finance, HR, MBA background and where many have come from US especially if they have gained 4-5 years experience there.

Those who are not fresh graduates / college leavers will normally be hired as Lateral Joinees at a range of levels including mid-level and senior positions. As with graduate trainees, the lateral hires will also go through a structured induction programme covering soft skills modules. How many graduates do you typically recruit annually? Approximately 300 vacancies throughout India 35 campuses across India are targeted (although TATA receives some 300 campus requests). 200-300 applications from each campus Approximately 10% of applicants are successful Do you target particular universities to recruit candidates and if so how do you do this? Their graduate scheme only open to graduates in 35 targeted Indian institutions including Internship scheme with prestigious US institutions such as Harvard, MIT, California, Berkeley, Georgia Tech Internship programmes of 3 months duration during vacation plus 1 year possibilities Internships not a formal part of the TATA graduate recruitment programme. Around 2% of interns choose to work for Tata Power afterwards What recruitment challenges do you have? Key shortage areas: Project management experience in a Mechanical / Civil / Electrical field. Energy Trading is a new area with a lack of local expertise. Drop our rates: 8% of all campus recruits compared with 4% all employees Talent Sourcing:

1. TATA’s own in house team and their contacts 2. Employer referral contacts and friendships 3. Headhunting firms which were not named

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95% of talent sources through 1 & 2 and 5% from 3 How has the global economic downturn affected your recruitment? More applications from US due to recession. What are the benefits of candidates with a UK degree compared with Indian-educated candidates? Five years work experience in US or UK would give an applicant twice as much salary with TATA Power as a locally recruited candidate. What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates? Strong links between US and TATA and Indian economy at large. Lack of awareness of the UK Education brand and benefits. 7. YoungBuzz – Career Guidance Company Meeting: Mr Pranav Gandhi, Chief Operating Officer, 5 February 2010 Profile: Pranav graduated in Finance from the University of Texas in Austin. During his studies he spent two summers working in India and undertook an internship in New York before working there for three and a half years with Goldman Sachs. After returning to India he set up YoungBuzz with his brother Bharti who is a Harvard Business graduate and who also works with Goldman Sachs. Background: YoungBuzz markets itself as India’s premier corporate organization in career counselling and manpower development aiming to revolutionize the way Indians make career decisions and develop their professional lives. YoungBuzz prides itself in being the first company in the Indian corporate sector to do this.

They provide students with information and knowledge about the choices before them, and assist them in making an informed decision. Their strong database of information and knowledge is backed up by constant research, thus providing students with the most up-to-date information possible. They provide soft skills enhancement Services, like personality development workshops and finishing school, to help increase the all-round development of individuals.

Since they started in Mumbai in April, 2001, over 500,000 individuals across 120 cities have benefited from their Services in various languages. The organization is now looking at expanding around the country by setting up state-of-the-art career centres in various cities.

Their mission is “To help individuals do what they love, and love what they do; and develop into successful, confident and responsible human beings.”

Client groups: YoungBuzz have two main client groups:

• 12-18 year olds (constitutes the majority of their work)

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• 18 + including graduates (growing area). YoungBuzz invests much time and activity in helping MBA graduates see beyond the Finance & Consulting options they often consider.

Services & Activities: Their services can be split into the following areas:

• Career Guidance includes the administration of aptitude and personality tests. For University students and graduates, they use the Harvard developed Career Leader which is marketed as a number one tool for MBA students. The tool is used by large corporates such as Microsoft.

• Life Skills Development Training. This involves a number of job hunting, CV and skills workshops based upon the twelve essential life skills identified by the World Health Organisation.

• Work with Learning Disabilities particularly the diagnosis and additional support for individuals with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia.

YoungBuzz are also getting involved in the following fields:

• Career Exhibition Fairs. Some 100-120 of these employer and occupation specific fairs will take place across India every year for both client groups.

• Study Abroad where a team are involved as agents to publicise options to students and also handle visa issues for students wanting to study in a range of locations including USA, UK, Singapore etc.

YoungBuzz was established and developed in the direction it did given the fact that in India things are traditionally based on academics. Given the hierarchy of academic institutions and the perceived hierarchy of academic disciplines in the order of Engineering & Technology, Business Management and then Humanities, YoungBuzz sought to tap into the market for grooming and developing talent and potential. YoungBuzz sees itself as part of the wider effort to nurture and retain home grown talent and to counteract the trends seen in previous decades such as the brain drain of IIM (Indian Institutes of Management) and IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) graduates to the West. The effect of the Global Downturn: Across India, Pranav noted that 2007 was characterised by 7-8% growth, 2008 by a freeze, by second half of 2009 things started picking up. There have been lay offs in Retail, Finance across the board as well as Real Estate and Airline. Action agreed:

1. Pranav to email list of Top 200 Indian companies for us to use when talking with students. Such companies include Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, Kotak, HDFC etc.

2. Pranav agreed to email a proposal from their Study Abroad team for us to forward to our International Office counterparts in the UK. In an effort to grow the Study Abroad side of their company, YoungBuzz are keen to partner with UK institutions.

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8. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology Meeting: Professor Ajay Bhongade, 3 February 2010 Background: Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology is one of the ISO 9001:2000 Certified premier educational institutions, established under Manjara Charitable Trust in 1992, providing high quality engineering and management education in Mumbai. It is affiliated to the University of Mumbai and approved by All India Council for Technical Education (A.I.C.T.E.), New Delhi. The institute has been awarded “A” grade by the Govt. of Maharashtra. Questions & Answers: How does the placement centre (T&P cell) work with students/alumni?

Placement and training are separate entities. Training offered to all 3rd years consists of 20hours delivered 4 hours a day for 5

days with 60 students at a time. The week is called Career Launcher and focuses on soft skills sessions. These are predominantly delivered by local industry professionals and include: goal setting, resumes, interviews, group discussions, teamwork. Following this they have the opportunity to meet 1-1 if they want.

The training side offers aptitude tests and how to prepare a cv properly. The training isn’t included in the curriculum. Aptitude tests consist of: logical thinking, numeracy, verbal reasoning.

What would be the process from start to finish (1st enquiry to securing placement) for an individual student?

Applications are made all year, however 80% will happen at the beginning of the season.

Does the placement centre (T&P cell) provide advice on career choices, career development, etc?

They have a one day programme for their alumni association in which they come back and share their experiences.

How do students choose which jobs and employers to apply for/to? What is important from the student perspective?

Students are mostly looking for companies related to their subject areas and the best pay they can achieve.

Can students hold a number of offers for jobs and choose the best one? Do they have to express a preference or ranking? Do they apply for one, have to wait for a reply before applying to the next?

During a recession only single offers are allowed, during boom times it would be 3-4 offers for good students.

Normally students will apply for one company offering their core subject area and one in a non-related company.

What percentage per year find placements/are placed with the assistance of the placement centre (T&P cell)?

50% of students are placed by the end of their academic studies. Students/graduates are on a database so those that weren’t placed in the first run

still get sent opportunities via that database. They guestimate that 70-80% eventually get placed but they don’t monitor that.

How do you create and maintain employer links for your placement services? Do you approach employers or do employers approach you?

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The Placement and Training Cell calls companies for the recruitment process, aiming at securing long term employment for their students. The service is offered to all students.

They develop relationships with companies largely through them experiencing the quality of the students and the reputation of the Institute improving. They manage to get 25-30 companies to come to the institute.

Do you prioritise employers when allocating campus interviews? (i.e. in terms of number of vacancies, salaries, etc)

Companies are chosen to visit based on how many offers have previously been made to the students. One company has taken as many as 55 students from them.

Do you screen applicants on behalf of the employers you work with?

The companies are sometimes very specific about what students they need, i.e. subject areas, sometimes they are very general. The employers send through their criteria. When it is specific they can recommend particular students to them.

What in your opinion are employers looking for in potential graduate employers?

At this stage employers are simply looking at academic performance as the students have no relevant work experience.

Their extra-curricular activities do get reflected at a later stage in the assessment process.

Are employers looking for particular skills or experience?

Employers are looking for teamwork, communication, technical/academic ability. What would a good CV look like? Example?

A good cv goes into detail about academic grades, date of birth, gender, marital status and isn’t too long.

Extras: This institution is private and generates its income through student fees, it was

established 17 years ago. Students also have the opportunity to be involved in cultural and technical festivals,

e.g. a robotics competition. 9. SHRM India – Professional HR organisation Meeting: Rajesh Kamath, Head Educational Programs and Mary John, Researcher 4 February 2010 Profile: Rajesh is a Computer Engineering graduate who started his career in Computer Hardware and Networking before moving into technical and later soft skills and HR training. He has also undertaken a US MBA by distance learning.

Background: SHRM India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) which is US based. Sharing the same mission as the world's largest HR association, SHRM India is devoted to supporting the professional and advancing the profession of human resource management in India. Whether it is offering professional development programs or conducting joint research, SHRM India's mission is to leverage the

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strengths of the professional in the West and in India to share information and advance the human resource profession in a global community.

HR is seen as a maturing profession in India and SHRM India offers a number of services to HR professionals:

• Business Education Programmes • Certification • Membership • Publications & Content • Video & Book Releases • Conferences • Advocacy – deciding on what SHRM can do to take up causes that impact the HR

community at large • Collaboration with Business Schools. Some 120 schools are offering HR courses

aligned with Global Standards, the HR Manual produced by SHRM India. Many HRM Student forums established.

SHRM India has designed India specific HR programmes called HR Next for working professionals typically with 2-5 years experience. This is face to face learning. No corresponding electronic or school level learning on offer as yet.

SHRM Connect – their own social network. Possibility here to connect UK & Indian HR students.

SHRM Foundation is a sister body which is devoted to HR / LMI Research.

SHRM India also involved in Awards for HR professionals who devise measures to minimise the impact of recession on employees. In India, the view is that the actual recession has not been felt although growth has been hit a little.

Some of the discussion centred upon the way India is characterized by competition as opposed to collaboration. Rajesh commented that the culture of organizations is changing with a multi-generational workforce. Whereas the 40+ generation may still guard a lot of project information and ideas, there is a greater spirit of sharing and collaboration among the younger generations especially those 25 years or below.

Rajesh mentioned the following as particular challenges facing HR professionals across India especially those involved in hiring college and university graduates:

• Job readiness of college leavers. A recent McKinsey study for the whole of Asia found that in India only 25% of them were employable when taken across a number of organizations and industries.

• Job hopping is rampant. Although it has been found that where workers find their feet is where they often stay.

• Dilemma around the actual value of English Language in the Indian workplace. Especially when 70% of Indian businesses are in the unorganized sector where use of English may be less common.

Rajesh felt that a UK education was not valued by Indian employers mainly because of widespread ignorance about its contents and benefits. Again, the UK Education brand is up against the fact that India is greatly influenced by the USA and the practice of the USA is generally considered as best practice. Most multinationals in India are US while only 10% are British.

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Rajesh mentioned the 3 kinds of contracts typically offered by Indian employers:

1. On Roll – where you are paid a monthly salary. Your salary has multiple components and company benefits apply to you

2. On Contract – none of the benefits apply to you but you would receive a consolidated monthly salary

3. Retainership – often used by employers to hire people they need for a particular project or period of time but not a defined role.

Actions agreed:

• Rajesh to investigate and let us know which companies are signed up to the Global Leadership Programme which offers aspiring leaders of different nationalities the possibility of a 2 year internship in India.

• To send Rajesh a list of recommendations produced by the Confederation of Indian Industries following the British Council commissioned Employability Survey of employer perceptions of UK graduates returning to the Indian job market.

• To send Rajesh a copy of our India visit report which could appear on the Research section of the SHRM India website.

• Rajesh to check whether UK MBA / HRM Students could join the SHRM Connect as SHRM Global Student Abroad members to promote networking with Indian students.

• We also agreed to contact the British Council to establish what information they have in their library about UK education which may be of use to Indian companies.

10. TATA TCS Meeting: Arusha Gupta, 3 February 2010 Background: Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is a software services and consulting company headquartered in Mumbai, India. TCS is the largest provider of information technology and business process outsourcing services in India.The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India.

TCS is a subsidiary of one of India's largest and oldest conglomerates, the Tata Group, which has interests in areas such as energy, telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, chemicals, engineering, materials, government and healthcare. TCS is considered one of the largest private sector employers in India with a core strength in excess of 240,000 individuals.

Questions & Answers: What is the required educational level of the candidates you recruit for?

When looking at fresh graduates they recruit BEng (4 year programme) students from both Category A and other institutions. They target both private and government funded educational institutions.

When TCS hire for their overseas offices they tend to hire locally and will generally insist on MSc holders rather than ‘plain’ graduates (BEng).

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Training is offered to graduates entering the TCS workforce.

What skills and qualities do you look for in an ideal candidate?

Attitude is the most important thing, TCS will train for other skills.

Can you please describe your recruitment process?

The recruitment cycle runs from October through to December, however the hires are staggered throughout the 6 months.

Recruitment strategy consists of going to campus, delivering an online test (technical aptitude test) with a 60% cut off, technical interview, management and a human resource interview (minimum 2+ for the panels).

The technical interview focuses on the student’s knowledge of their particular BEng degree specialisation, so it is designed for them.

The HR interview mainly looks at the student’s compatibility to the culture and values of TCS. They also try and identify what motivates them.

Where do you normally advertise vacancies?

TCS don’t advertise for ‘fresh graduates, less than 3 years experience. They do advertise for ‘lateral hires’.

What relationships with overseas universities do you have?

It is a global organisation so recruitment of local in-country talent does occur.

How has the global economic downturn affected your recruitment?

The recession did impact on TCS, the HR department felt it was important to maintain the people that were currently working for them. There were less projects coming in and therefore no need to recruit to man those projects. TCS did continue to hire but only on internal recommendations rather than any other mechanism.

What are the benefits of candidates with a UK degree compared with Indian-educated candidates?

UK educated returners can be very good professionally. What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates?

They can be quite demanding. Sometimes it seems that they don’t always know when to stop pushing on a point.

What are your views on the quality of: a) a UK master's degree e.g. in comparison with a US or Indian master's degree? b) a UK MBA?

TCS don’t distinguish between a UK MSc returner and an India graduate in the process.

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Extras: Recommendations of Indian students in the UK to look at engineering specific

websites and to join Yahoo groups in order to create a network in India and gain a better understanding of the local market place through those forums.

A general point was that Indian graduates tend to be “more competitive than collaborative”.

11. UK India Business Council (UKIBC) Meeting: Mr Ashish Goenka, Country Head, UKIBC, 2 February 2010 Background: UKIBC is a private company set up in partnership with British Government. UKIBC acts as a B2B consultancy creating an India knowledge platform in UK for businesses wanting to establish a link or presence in India. UKTI is one of its clients. UKTI is an outward facing organisation and deals with taking investment to UK. It also deals with bringing trade to overseas markets including India through its Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS). UKIBC is a quasi public body which generates a large part of its funding from company sponsorships. Its membership largely comprises of UK businesses. UKIBC Programmes & Services: UKIBC Scholarship The UKIBC scholarship programme places UK students in companies in India for an eight week paid placement. Their website features case studies of recent placement trainees from the Universities of Durham, Leeds, Sheffield, Kingston. Next Generation Network The Next Generation UK India Network (NGN) is a programme run by the UKIBC which is a network of young people - under 40 years of age -- of all nationalities, interested in the UK India business relationship. Its aim is to bring together the next generation of top entrepreneurs and business leaders to share ideas and information through networking events that tackle topical areas of interest. Through this it aspires to promote diverse opportunities emerging from the Indian market and enable a new group of individuals to engage with government and leaders of UK and Indian industry with innovative ideas and thoughts on leadership. The Next Generation UK India Network has already been successfully established throughout the UK in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Southampton and Scotland as well as Mumbai and Pune in India. The Champion for the Next Generation Network is Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman of United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines. UK India Business Angel Network The UK India Business Angel Network (UKIBAN) connects Angel and Venture Capital Networks in the UK and India with high growth Indian companies looking to establish their business in the UK. UK India Technology Club A 'no agenda, no speeches' meeting place for the leaders of technology companies. It aims to bring together technology-driven companies with business interests in UK and India as well as those hoping to build their business across this very active business corridor.

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UKIBC also works with UK HEIs and currently works with Universities of Southampton and Edinburgh through their International Offices and Alumni networks. Leeds Met has set up a campus in Mumbai via UKIBC where the degree involves spending two years in Mumbai and one year in Leeds. HEIs are able to set up India liaison offices although these cannot generate revenue. There are legal and taxation issues to consider if setting up a permanent presence in India. The UKIBC is ready to work to connect UK and India partnerships which may or may not lead to a permanent India presence for the UK organisations in question. There are possibilities to set up incubation cells in India which are lower risk and which allow the UK organisation to withdraw at any point. We were made aware of the significant inroads other countries are making in India e.g. US companies and aggressive marketing associated with this. Also, Germany is bringing many technology and engineering based programmes as well as Language Centres. UK HEIs interested in developing India partnerships need to be aware of the Indian education system which is characterised by:

• Process and Form rather than function • Giving the right answer and learning by rote

The movie “Three Idiots” was mentioned as being a movie which illustrates well the nature of Indian education. Ashish Goenka’s profile BSc Computer Science, King’s College London Worked for ten years in Investment Banking at Dresdners in London Returned to India in 2008 without a job to go to initially. His return to India was influenced by his observation of the difference between the UK which he perceived to be all about downsizing, cost cutting, squeezing the last drop out of employees, and India which he perceived to be faster moving and characterised by growth and expansion. In India, he worked self employed as a financial assets adviser and adviser for SMEs. His move to UKIBC was spurred by his own experience of being out of the Indian job market for fourteen years and wanting to be a part of an organisation that is primarily about identifying and developing networks in lesser known sectors and organisations and not just the TATAs and other big names in India. His view of Indian job websites such as Monster, Naukri and Shine is that they serve a purpose but may not always be as professional as one would expect. Ashish is a member of the Association of British Scholars (ABS) but finds it to be more active in Delhi than Mumbai. Action agreed: We talked about the GTI Asia series and agreed to email Ashish details of an exchange initiative to help British graduates find internships in the UK and India ahead of his meeting with GTI.

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12. HCC Lavasa Meeting: Mr Vinay Menon, 1 February 2010 Website: www.lavasa.com Background: Lavasa is a new city made up of four towns being built across 25,000 acres in the Sahyadri Mountains three hours away from Mumbai and one hour from Pune via road. The first town will be finished in 2010; the city should be completed by 2018.The project is being led by HCC, which is India’s leading engineering and construction conglomerate. It is government assisted but investment comes from the private sector. It will offer a range of residential and commercial opportunities, including national and international educational institutions. Lavasa aims to provide educational institutions for the whole range of society, from the children of top executives to those of the service personnel. Mr Menon is Vice President Education of Lavasa Corporation Limited. He himself has a Bcom from the University of Calcutta, a postgraduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (New Delhi) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Said Business School, University of Oxford. He was also the recipient of the Hansard Scholarship (Chevening Programme).

Questions & Answers: 1. The recruitment process

What is the required educational level of the candidates you recruit?

• Indian employers are looking particularly for Masters students.

Are factors, such as university rankings, important?

• Rankings are very important for MBAs. Students are very aware of rankings provided by FT rankings, the Times Higher and The Guardian.

• Alumni connections with individuals within Indian companies (see more information below regarding alumni networks).

2. Attracting talent in India and overseas Do you target particular universities to recruit candidates and if so how do you do this?

• As a general statement – in India there is a shared legacy among the present generation of 40-70 year olds in high-level positions who have been UK-educated, e.g. the Prime Minister. However, the younger generation are more attracted to the US. In relation to the UK, only 3-4 universities are well known (Oxford, Cambridge and LSE).

What relationships with overseas universities do you have? • In Lavasa L’Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland) is setting up a campus to

provide 4-year undergraduate degrees. Oxford Said Business School is also providing short 5-day executive training programmes. MIT is going to run some programmes in Lavasa connected to the airline industry.

• There is a change in government legislation coming, which will allow overseas institutions to set up campuses and award their own degrees in India without the need for a shared local partner.

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How has the global economic downturn affected your recruitment?

• Mr Menon gave the opinion that in times of recession recruiters may be less likely to take the risk of employing someone who has been educated and obtained work experience abroad since they might not ‘fit in’ the Indian working environment. Personal connections with individuals in a particular company are very useful to counteract this perceived risk.

3. Comparing UK-educated and Indian-educated talent

What are the benefits of candidates with a UK degree compared with Indian-educated candidates?

• There are skills gaps that UK graduates could fill in environmental development, architecture and design.

• Vocational training/education in some sectors also needs development in India compared to that already established in the UK.

What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates?

• Unrealistic salary expectations once back in India e.g. if graduates had worked for 4-5 years in Deloitte, London they could be on 50K; the same position in India might pay 11K. (Mr Menon mentioned that the return for investment of obtaining a UK qualification was not easy and could take a lifetime on current Indian salaries for those who were self-funding and who had had to take out loans to pay for their UK qualification. A suggestion was made that UK graduates could perhaps start targeting some of the UK companies that had been taken over by Indian companies. The example given was TATA taking over Jaguar, Land Rover and Corus.)

What do UK universities need to do in order to prepare UK-educated Indian graduates for the Indian employment market?

• Candidates could be told to mention the rankings of their UK institution in their CV if it is advantageous to them.

• UK educated graduates from ‘unfamiliar’ (not the well known top 3-4) institutions need to be able to sell their uniqueness in a positive light to Indian companies and particularly to HR managers of those companies.

• UK institutions need to encourage and assist their students to use their alumni connections. UK institutions, in conjunction with the British Council, need to be investing in and developing their alumni networks, especially since the US alumni network are working aggressively within business in India. More activity is required and is crucial e.g. CEO of the Reliance Group (one of India’s largest companies) is a Stanford alumnus and actively advocates for other Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni.

4. Working together to promote your company to a broader talent base

How can UK universities raise their profile with Indian businesses?

• Indian HR Managers need to understand what the UK qualification can provide in terms of academic and technical content. It was felt that at the moment it is left to the candidate to sell the advantage of the qualification because of the lack of knowledge.

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UK HE needs to be trying to make sure that employers and especially HR managers – i.e. the people actually doing the recruiting, understand the UK HE product.

5. Other comments

• Mr Menon was of the personal opinion that students liked to stay in the UK and they go there because they want to work and live there, not just for studies. He knew about the 2-year post study work opportunity, but felt that 2 years of work experience in the UK would not really be enough for most students.

• 40% of the Indian population is under 25 years old – the potential educational market is huge. 400 million people are expected to migrate from rural to urban environments in the next 50 years. This will require the creation of 500 new cities. If UK HE wants to take advantage of this it needs to think about which programmes can travel. There could be collaboration with Indian organisations on trying to work this out as has been done with Lavasa and MIT.

13. All India Association of Industries (AIAI) Meeting: Mr Vijay G. Kalantri, President, Ms Hannah Christian Director 2 February 2010 Website: www.aiaionline.org Background: All India Association of Industries (AIAI) was established in 1956. As an organisation it has a mission to promote bilateral trade and foster joint ventures and encourage technology transfer and globalisation of Indian trade and industry. Membership:

• 1400 organisations across a wide spectrum of industries • 70% of membership is from the SME and MSME (Micro SME) sector.

Activities:

• Trade exhibitions, trade delegations to different countries and participation in trade fairs such as the Global Economic Summit on Trade and Investment 2010 held at the Expo Centre in Mumbai (Jan 2010). This event was attended by representatives from 25 countries.

• Advocacy role for members and their concerns on various national and regional government bodies. Recent campaigns have included calling for the lowering of interest rates for SMEs and MSMEs, which traditionally have found it difficult to obtain credit from Indian banks.

• Associate bodies include: o Young Entrepreneurs’ Society (YES) which provides 21-35 year olds with

networking opportunities, training and practical start-up support. o Indian Council of Foreign Trade o Indo Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCC) o Indo Mauritius Chamber of Commerce (IMCC) o Direct UK links established with International Business Wales and various

Chambers of Commerce across the UK. • Developing an on-line presence via various networking sites including Face Book,

Linked In, Twitter and in the next 3 months will be setting up a Virtual Business

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Centre. They are hoping to involve 150 Chambers of Commerce and senior level management in this venture.

• It produces a regular newsletter and has a diverse portfolio of funded training, seminars, workshops and professional programmes, examples of which are: ‘How to attract talent’ for those setting up their own businesses; research into combating cyber crime with experts from IIT Bombay; sponsorship of engineers on a 6-month shop floor experience project in The Netherlands.

• A platform where networking and mentoring opportunities with experts from MSMEs to large companies and policy makers can take place. AIAI can also link venture capitalists and established businesses with entrepreneurs and new businesses.

• Support of the increasing number of incubation centres which are located on the campuses of colleges and institutes of technology. Again links to similar schemes overseas, as well as fostering collaboration with the Asia Pacific Incubation Network.

What sectors are growing in India and what are the talent requirements?

• General 12-13% growth in SME/MSMEs. NB: 95% of Indian economy is made up of SMEs

• Across all sectors there is currently a 7% growth, which is expected to increase to 10% in 2012.

• The sectors growing the most rapidly are food, biotechnology, engineering, textiles, IT and the automotive industry.

• “Mills to malls” phenomenon – large manufacturing industries are being replaced by service industries. Mumbai is seeing a growth of the hotel and finance industry. However, there are new opportunities in the state of Maharashtra in textiles, diamonds, sheet metal, pharmaceuticals, food processing (such as meat technology and dairy products with the move away from only using fresh products).

• Entrepreneurship is becoming more acceptable. However, this is often handicapped by a complicated Indian bureaucracy and lack of available credit. AIAI finds that new businesses can achieve set up, but often find access to the market difficult; this is where connections within the AIAI membership can be most valuable.

Advice to Indian UK educated graduates:

• There are an increasing number of opportunities in India. It is true that many returning UK education Indian graduates initially have high expectations in terms of salary and work–life balance, but they “quickly settle down” (Hannah Christian).

• Establish and use their global networks when studying abroad. • Many organisations and companies are headed up by UK educated Indians with a

global outlook. Indian UK graduates should be encouraged to use alumni networks as well as industry networks that organisations such as AIAI provide.

• Graduates should try and establish links with experienced mentors, especially if they are trying to set up their own businesses.

14. Alumni Focus Group - Mumbai

1. Please briefly introduce yourself to the group and say what you are currently doing.

- Went to Oxford Brookes to pursue an MBA with International Marketing as my elective in 2003 and returned in 2004. I have been working for a Management

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Institute since returning. When I finished I found work in Dell, Bracknell but I was very clear that I wanted to come back and teach in a Management Institute, as the orientation and the exposure I got in the UK I wanted to share with people back home. I am currently an Associate Professor and my Institute is affiliated to Bombay University and is AICTE approved. On a personal level and professional level I am trying to bring the Indian institutions closer to the British institutions. I am trying to create a partnership between Oxford Brookes and my universities and I am looking at other institutions as well – Cardiff, UCE and Birmingham. 2 years back I took about 20-22 students to the UK and they visited industries there and had an orientation of the University of Central England. One of my students went to UCE and is graduating this year and she has already got a job in the UK. I am really grateful that this has been organised to discuss issues so we can come to the same platform and discuss issues.

- I am a Professor in a Management School here in Pune. I am a Commonwealth

Fellow and am in contact with the Commonwealth University, London (?) and I have been working around the world for quite some time now, about 26 years, I have worked in 19 countries. I was last in South Africa and I was Dean of the School of Management in the University of Cape Town. I am coming close to my retirement age. I came back recently and I joined the University of Pune and they requested that I take over the ASAMA Institute of Management. This is a new institute and it is affiliated to Pune University and approved by AICTE which is a regulatory body for management schools in India. I am a Chartered Accountant and ACCA. I have a LLM from Birmingham and am a Super and Court Advocate in India. I am a company secretary, cost accountant. I have published quite a lot of papers across the world and have connections to the World Bank. I am a Trainer with management graduates and Corporates. Looking for University contacts abroad, this has become very important to bring in internationalisation of education, especially in management. AICTE (the regulatory body) wants Management Schools to have interaction with foreign schools hence we are looking at different ways of liaising with people like you, from there will may look at further collaboration, teacher exchange programmes etc. These things take time, but one very important point about the system in India I must insist to make the point that regulatory bodies in India like the University Grants Commission and the Association of Indian Universities insist on membership of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, India is a country where the regulations are very strict. I know of a number of universities which have been disaffiliated recently. Certifications, approvals, affiliations and regulations are very important. For example, my certificate was sent to the Association of Indian Universities Commission and they didn’t approve it. (The first speaker - another Associate Professor, also confirmed that this was a very important point). UK universities really need to think about this kind of thing in the context of the massive Indian market. If not, students will return home and not be able to find jobs.

- Studied at Oxford Brookes and I am currently the National Head of Sales for a

Telecom company, we are into a very niche area called Matrix. He is absolutely right that if the University isn’t registered with these regulatory bodies employability is a problem. So there is an academic context as well as the regulatory hurdle. People are getting more and more aware of these things now and you have good HE regulation in the UK, so it should not be such a problem. Considering Australia is taking a beating in India, UK universities need to get their regulatory recognition in order. UKBA have closed their Northern offices for visas, but there was something very strange going on out there, we work with VFS very closely and something very strange about the number of applications.

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- Studied in 2004/5 at Oxford Brookes a Masters in International Hotel and Tourism Marketing Management. I worked out there in sales regarding the hospitality industry and have just got back in late December 2009.

- I studied an LLM in Commercial Law at Cardiff University in 2003, before pursuing

that degree Of course I investigated the employment opportunities before studying the LLM, but when I was there realised it would not be possible to get any work experience in the UK. Friends who were with me on the LLM are doing Associate or Paralegal jobs over there, sometimes they were doing this just for experience because they did not have their Bar or Solicitors degree. I came back because that was my back up and I had practiced for a year in Mumbai High Court before going. So I started again at Mumbai High Court and then got a job at Khaitan Jayakar (Sud and Vohra) which has 5 partners and work for of 25 advocates and about the same number of paralegals. My education in the UK helped me to get work in a corporate firm, but they only exist in Metro-Cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

- The British Council have offices in Mumbai and Pune and they can provide a bridge,

but often they do not have enough information.. I would be happy to help students as an alumni, as students like to hear about peoples experiences.

- Studied MSc in International Hotel and Marketing Management at Oxford Brookes. I

finished in 2007, had a placement within my course and worked with a couple of hotels in the London area after which I moved on to the post study scheme - the International Graduate Scheme (which is now the Post Study Work immigration status) and worked another two years with a tour operator which was my preferred line of work and I was handling product India and Asia and was the India specialist. I would send British visitors all over India and around the Indian Ocean. My visa expired in December 2009 and I had to come back, because of the recession they were cutting down staff and it was difficult for them to justify keeping me on. I don’t completely agree with what people are saying about finding work, there is adequate support provided by the university, it is just a matter of getting in touch with the right people and obviously asking the right questions. There is a good support structure there are just some finer details that need to be fine tuned.

- The issue isn’t in the UK, I agree that the support is there. The issue is when you

come back.

- My experience in the UK has affected me in such a way that coming back to India I am not interested in taking a regular job. In fact I feel so empowered and equipped that I might even start my own company. (Encouragement from rest of group.) That doesn’t mean that I am a rich bloke with loads of rupees. I am just not afraid to do that now.

2. How did you get your first job? - I responded to an advert in the newspaper. I got the job before I finished my Masters.

It was not difficult. - I had a lot of work experience (“work ex”) before I went to Oxford Brookes so I have

never needed to show my degree, in fact I haven’t even bothered to get the certificate. Ideally, before accepting students on to a masters they should have some work experience to make them employable when they return home. They may get some work experience in the UK, but when they come back it is not transferable. There was a time when if you had work experience in the UK or the US you were highly sought after, but suddenly the entire world has woken up to the fact that the

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two work contexts are very different. I was working in Canada as pilot and then worked for Fedex, then I came back to India and started my business and have worked for a variety of employers since, while my own business keeps running. I worked for 4-5 years in India and then went to study in the UK and then returned. I do look at the kids that come back from the UK, I know that the thought process changes, and they talk about and are taught about work-life balance which this country does not have. It is a culture shock for them when they come back as they expect to work from 9-5 and that doesn’t happen here, your job never finishes.

- When I came back I had an interview and the guy asked me about how I felt about

working late and I asked him what his reimbursement for that would be. (Other alumni – “Wrong answer!”) People expect you to work until 9pm or 10pm but the contract says 9am -6pm. I have my own life and I want to spend as much time at home as possible. It isn’t good for self development to just work. I have had calls for interview, but I have lost interest in going for interviews because it is not giving me the right outcome. People are not paying enough and they don’t understand what my qualification means and how they could make use of this qualification. How they could benefit from my services and what skills I bring. I would propose that Universities should have employment offices within India to help people and coordinate with companies who might be willing to recruit such talent.

- The orientation towards coming back to India has to happen, unless you people are

able to provide jobs. You have to have better knowledge of the Indian market, jobs are plentiful in the India market. 22 of my MBA students are placed today – opportunities are plentiful. A guy who starts with 15,000 -20,000 rupees (£200-£266) is doing well, maybe it isn’t as good as a UK salary but it is very good here. They start on this, they prove themselves and then they grow.

- Even global companies have changed the ways they work, in Hewlitt Packard or IBM

they still offer things like flexi time, but that isn’t common. However, there are incentives in India for people who work hard. The culture is so different, people work on National Holidays! It never stops!

- I did my degree in hospitality in India and then worked in sales and events for 3 years

before going to Brookes. This was the best thing, looking back now, that I could have done. When I finished my studies at Brookes I had 5 years work experience and went up the ladder in the UK. My work experience in the UK was far more than my work experience in India, so when I came back I banked up all my Indian work experience and then talked about my UK experience as a global context and talked about it in terms of my global outlook. The work experience really mattered, because now I work for a really good pan-India chain (Café Coffee Day). I work in a corporate role as a Sales Manager for Western India, working with outdoor events and sales. They took me because I had some sales experience in Bombay before I went to Oxford Brookes and I had made a few contacts, I also banked up my events experience both in India and abroad and was able to talk about the other marketing campaigns of other global companies in the sector – Starbucks, Café Nero etc. (Which networking sites do you use?)

- Face book can also provide some help, but it is not really used a great deal for this

kind of thing in India. - When you come back and actually even if you have not been away but you are

meeting a new employer, the first thing they will ask you is where are your networks? Who do you know? What are your references like? When you come back from the

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UK that is one thing that you won’t have. You will only have a network if you have worked for some time. Your network will be people you have worked with, people you have sold to, etc. An employer will look at that. Especially in the sales field this is probably the easiest or the most difficult thing to do, depending on how you are networked. From an employability point of view your network is the first thing an employer will look at.

- UK Universities can create a database of companies and contact those companies.

Top management institutes in India will have a list of all the top Corporates and work with those companies in a marketing sense.

- I am going for my second MBA and I am going to Kellogg’s. - All the Law Colleges in Mumbai and Pune have connections with law firms. Someone

in my law firm and other law firms visits the colleges at certain times and check out the curriculum and then pick up a few students to work. They work as Paralegals whilst they are studying and if they have exposure in your firm and they work well you can recruit them after. Like a training scheme or internship.

- If UK universities use their entire database of alumni, some of which are in very

senior positions and invite people from their HR departments. Let them know what type of students we have and what students grades are like, these are their grades etc. I am sure a lot of them would hire people.

- Could there be a tie-up with British companies and market us better with them? - Education is becoming so important in India. Today everyone wants to send their

kids to school. Take a city like Delhi, it takes four years to get a kid into primary school. You need references in place, you need to have lived in Delhi for a certain amount of time etc. Every one wants to send their kids to school and somehow they will find a way of doing that.

- Banks in India provide loans to go to University. - In my company if an employer earns less than a certain level a month (ie less than

15,000 rupees) his kid will be sent to any school, even the top school and it will be paid for, their medical will also be paid. All employees’ children will be sent to school even if their parents are completely uneducated.

- Work-life balance does not exist for people at certain strata of society. For many it is

just a question of survival. Only people like us talk about work-life balance because we have seen you guys! And we have worked there. Here there is no 9am to 5pm, if I switch my phone off I will get fired in the morning.

- There is no check out time! It is the market economy. The number of educated

people in India is increasing so job A has 10 people wanting to do that job, so only the fittest survive.

- It is market demands and the market works. - This is the time of year when we are doing interviews like crazy, there was time when

I would go to colleges and hire directly from colleges. I would look at the resumes later and I started to realise that I was taking the students who were scoring between averages of 50-60%. I wouldn’t hire the very brilliant ones (those achieving 80-90%) and I never looked at their education in advance because I didn’t want to form a

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mental block. I looked at who I hired and I wanted street smart kids, kids who were outgoing, spunky and wanted to do something different. Then you realise that the kids who have all of that will never have the marks.

- There has always been a mis-match you have the best job but you don’t have the

best person, you have the best person but not the best job. This is the same in the UK. Attitude change of UK universities is necessary, you (UK Unis) must have contacts with Indian Corporates as we do in our own country. Placement co-ordination, maybe through the British Council would be good.

- I had this idea in the MBA but I would argue with my HR professor, in Brookes. I

would talk about ethics and work-life balance in terms of the Indian context. I had a perpetual problem with him, I would ask him to come down and look at the Indian context. What is unethical in the UK is very regular in India. What he said was an employee’s given right in the UK is not even thought of in India. It is nice to have these ideal values but they don’t translate to the actual working market of India. Interestingly when you are studying about HR in the UK you start thinking that this is the way you would like to be treated.

- Share some of the outstanding things happening in India, we are teaching 77

languages from across the world – these are being taught in Indian schools. Pune University has international students.

3. What are the benefits to studying in the UK for your career in India?

- After coming back I started practicing as a lawyer. My UK education the commercial

aspect helped me to enter corporate law. At interview they asked me about my education and my research area was Intellectual Property law. The right research project is important in terms of employability.

- The thing that benefited me the most was networking. Networking was important. I

met with about 30 different nationalities in one class. I am still in touch with at least 20-25 different nationalities now. Either I have helped them or they have helped me to do business, finding me contacts. They are great friends, they are only a phone call away it’s not all about making money for each other it is also about asking for help. It has helped a lot.

- My teaching methodology has improved, using case studies, getting the students to

do the work. Extensive reading, my forefather was one of the people who introduced the Dewey Decimal System. I learnt a lot and read a lot. On a personal level meeting different guys from across the world and trying to talk to them, so the social aspect is well.

- I love the ways things are taught there. It is not about somebody putting things in to

your head it is about someone giving you the idea about how to learn things. You read all these journals, you do all your research, you write your paper. It is not about mugging and writing your exam.

- No spoon feeding, i.e. you don’t have a specific text book and questions are only on

this.

- The question papers are really designed well.

- It has connected me to so many people and my MSc has helped me to think like an entrepreneur. So in the future I am thinking of employing people not being employed.

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India might be difficult for people coming back to get jobs because of the political scenario and the Indian firms being unwilling to change, they are rigid. The UK Universities can play a role in changing the mindsets of employers by encouraging experimenting and trying out returning students.

- It has done a lot for us, it has changed our way of learning and of thinking. 4. What are the disadvantages to studying in the UK for your career in India? - In my case I didn’t get any benefits from my UK University because when I started

looking they weren’t approved by the Association of Commonwealth Universities as my ambitions were slashed. Fortunately I already had an MBA and I had been working for 35 years. In India it is affiliations, if they are not there, you are lost.

- (Other individual also working in academia) Recently I put in papers for a promotion,

but they wouldn’t make a decision until I finish my PhD in India as Mumbai University wouldn’t recognise my MBA, Bombay University is very strict and very particular. (More discussion about the importance of affiliations to help UK education in India, especially in relation to degree programmes.)

- Lack of accreditation which makes sense in the Indian context and to Indian

employers. - The cultural misfit of returners, it is a shock for them to come back and work here. It

is absolutely different. - When I was young in the 1960/70s, only millionaire and top class sons used to go the

UK, they would come back and take over the company as a CEO. Since the 1980’s the middle class are going so when they come back they have to repay the loans and they do not have these companies or family backgrounds to fall back on, they will struggle looking for jobs.

- The accreditation is a quid pro quo thing – our universities are not recognised in the

US. The institution needs to make an effort no government is going to help you. The one place you can make a difference is sorting out the paper work for your returning graduates.

- I opted to take the education sector, where I knew that there were many reforms

anticipated in this sector, so potentially I thought there would be many opportunities in the future, so I didn’t face the same problems or difficulties. When I applied for my first job they saw that I was UK educated and it was fine. When I look back, if I had tried my luck in telecoms or another sector I wouldn’t have been in an advantageous position. The response when I looked at working for DELL in India was not very positive. They said are you from Oxford or Oxford Brookes ie it is brand recognition as well as rankings recognition..

- My younger sister got a scholarship to LSE, has worked in her spare time with the

UN. She studied a social science degree relating to developing countries. She has worked all over Europe and Africa, but she wants to work in India and can’t transfer her skills to India. Can’t find work because they say her skills aren’t transferable; it is a different environment. She has an extreme level of frustration having been so successful academically.

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- I have spent a fair amount of time in Canada, US and UK and only some of our Indian universities are recognised there. At the end of the day it is the institution that has to make the effort, no government is going to help you.

- We (as alumni) would be very interested in helping you educate alumni coming back

about the limitations of coming back. We could have a small gathering of other alumni to talk about things.

- The British Council is the oldest organisation of its kind in India. Is it doing as much

as the Australian equivalent with the University Grants Commissions in India? 5. How do you think employers view UK degrees? - I look at people when they come back from the UK and although I want to hire them,

what they have been taught is not in the context of India and China. The curriculum is very European and American focused. It is absolutely out of context. You can use some of the things taught but a lot of the things can’t really fit into the system here. The education system needs to start recognising the different ways of doing business in India and China, the culture is very different in these countries and so is how business happens and how employability takes place.

- Experience is the best teacher, India has so many foreign visitors and so much

exposure now that a degree from a foreign university does not add that much since you can get lots of relevant exposure and experience in India. Secondly, when people return they need to think about the differences between the experience they may have just had in the UK and what things are like back here in India. When you come back here, people would rather play safe and recruit a guy who has worked in the Indian system of things for five years rather than someone who has just got a PhD from Harvard. If I was a boss I would rather play safe with a guy who knows the Indian context of things.

- He is absolutely right. People should have work experience before the UK

universities take them in. This is so important on their return to India. My first question as a recruiter is always ‘Have you worked in India?’ Someone working for the Carphone Warehouse out in the UK doesn’t translate to the Indian context; it just does not translate. It is not the same way of doing business and it is a major factor hampering their employment back in India.

- If I had wanted to practice as an independent lawyer my education wouldn’t have

helped because they require practical experience and the LLM doesn’t have this. It did provide me with research knowledge and knowledge in certain subjects – I did commercial law. This kind of thing helped me when I started in the law firm, but to work as an independent lawyer you need the experience of case work. For litigation you need to have experience of standing in court.

6. How are UK Masters viewed by employers? - The UK would be surprised by how effective Indian institutions have become

because the entire selling point of their MBAs are the placements on graduation. When people spend money (on education) they want to be able to make that money back in the next two years. It is all about placement.

- Good B-Schools in India will charge the same amount of money for an MBA as the

UK, now I would rather go to an Indian school and guarantee myself a job after graduation rather than getting into so much debt.

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- UK Universities need to market their students better to UK companies and overseas

companies. - UK education is entering an education market that is much larger than China and

now there is permission to open institutes in India. Unless UK universities try to adapt the curriculum, the placements, the cultural things it will be very difficult for alumni to say I’m from ‘X’ UK institution.

- It’s about supply and demand. As employers we can’t find enough experienced hires

and as graduates we can’t find enough companies to hire us, it is a catch 22. Foreign universities are pumping graduates into our country and we are looking for people, we are ready to pay the money, but we are looking for the right kind of talent. We (employers) may be able to find people but you might not find the mix of talent and personality/attitude.

7. Apart from your degree(s) what other UK and Indian experiences did your

employers value when you applied for a job? - I have tried to get students to be involved in best practices. Extra-curricular do have a

value in terms of employability. - In India there are similar organisations from our school days where students develop

their transferable skills eg the National Credit Corps (?) the National Service Schemes, international organisations such as SIFE (Students in Free Enterprises), these exist across the world. Employers do value them.

- These extra activities are valued, some of my sales force have worked entirely in

NGOs. I also have a doctor working in my sales team. - What is important is the personal development opportunities of anything. You open

up to a different way of life whilst you are away and it gives you confidence. You have confidence to speak about things that happen in a different way and your perspective changes.

- Our studies in the UK has done a lot for us. I am confident enough to say that I am a

different man than I was five years ago. It’s also the little things such as etiquette and different ways of doing things (example holding a door open).

- I now fight with people who jump the queue! 8. What can students studying in the UK do while they are there to give them a

competitive edge when they return to India?

- Alumni activity very important. Regular emails are sent. - There is no chapter for UK Alumni here in Mumbai. - 80% of things happen if you have good work experience 9. What helped you when you were looking for graduate work in India?

10. Were there any key resources you used in securing your chosen employment?

Or are there some top 3 or 5 job websites you might recommend? - Networking – LinkedIn, etc. “Nothing works like networking in this country”. - Strong work experience is a resource that you carry with you.

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- The internet and newspapers – Times of India. - Naukri.com - I would look at the websites for the particular professional associations related to the

particular industry sectors or the career I am interested in. - Headhunted – there are head-hunters around. - Jobwallah, ABC Consultants = Recruitment Agents. There are a number of recruiting

agencies in Mumbai, many of them with vacancies in the Gulf - www.jobs.ac.uk - www.chronical.com 11. In hindsight what do you wish you had known about job hunting before

returning to work in India?

- You have to be ready for the huge culture shock when you come back. Prime importance before one comes back to India is to do some research and home work, you can’t just expect to come back and get a job straight away. When you suffer from culture shock after arriving in the UK, if you stay there quite some time it is the same culture shock you suffer when you come back to India (with regards to salary, everyone expects a fancy figure, which never happens) however glorious your track record. Secondly, it is very important to start developing networking contacts, let’s say 2 months beforehand, in your specific field and which companies you will be particularly interested in because of your experience. Try to phone or email those companies saying that you are coming back and when would be the right time to meet with them. This is what I did before coming back. I think LinkedIn helps. If you are interested in industry or Sector A, I will try to find who are the guys working in that area and then drop them an email.

- Need to apply to recruitment agents before coming back. - Start using LinkedIn before coming back. - In India people often know what sector they want to stay in, so you have to make

friends in that sector, network in that sector.

12. How can Indian students maintain their networks whilst studying in the UK?

13. What influenced your return to India? - I wanted to stay back in the UK, in my job as I was happy there. Unfortunately in the

UK the doors have opened up to MBA graduates from small colleges in India via the Highly Skilled Migrants Scheme, if they can show that they have had a certain salary. People who have invested money doing a UK Masters are competing with other people who have come over on Highly Skilled Migrants Scheme. This is unfair to people who have invested that kind of money and time in the UK by studying there. I am not happy about this situation. My visa ran out and that was why I returned.

- I never wanted to stay, I planned to come back.

- People are in different situations. For example, a lawyer’s son goes to the UK, but

their parents expect them to return to India as they are already set up here with a legal practice etc.

- The majority of people who decide to study abroad, they look at employment

opportunities. If you have researched this, I am sure that more than 50% would probably want to work or settle abroad.

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- If the MBA programme is on the list of the top 50 MBA providers for Highly Skilled

Migrant Programme, then it is easier. Extras

- In India you get type cast into a particular sector. There is little movement between

sectors. I have been fortunate in that I have jumped sectors every 6-7 years. Perception and preconceptions about job roles. Domain knowledge is very important, but them what happens is that you finding yourself in the most comfortable rut and you stay there. “Changing your vertical is very difficult.”

- The mentality of Indians affects this, e.g. I have 10 years working experience in the

hospitality field and then I want to work in a different field. - Security is extremely important in this country, pressures from all around you make

you stay in a particular sector. You are expected to have certain things by certain ages.

- Employers in India tend to have preconceived notions about people who choose to

study abroad. Universities can play a role in educating employers. - Personally I like to employ people who come from different sectors as they bring a

very different perspective. However that doesn’t happen everywhere. If you look on naukri.com (in hindi ‘naukri’ means “job”) the sales jobs will insist on experience of the particular sector even though sales is sales.

- In Dell working as a business analyst and I still get jobs offering positions in that field

even though it is very clear that I have been teaching for several years. - I feel unlucky to be in the tourism and hospitality industry because every Tom, Dick

and Harry can do it. People who have taken MSc in this sector can’t get jobs despite knowing things. It has been a problem. Employers don’t realise they could make use of additional skills gained in these postgraduate degrees.

- Hospitality is the worst paying sector in this country.

15. TATA Communications Meeting: Mr Rajesh Kumar, General Manager, HR, Mr Salil Mehendale 5 February 2010 Background: Tata Communications Limited is a major provider of communications technology. It describes itself as “the number one global international wholesale voice operator and number one provider of International Long Distance, Enterprise Data and Internet Services in India”. The company was named 'Best Wholesale Carrier' at the World Communications Awards in 2006 and was named the 'Best Pan-Asian Wholesale Provider' at the 2007 Capacity Magazine Global Wholesale Telecommunications Awards for the second consecutive year.

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Becoming the leading integrated provider to drive and deliver a new world of communications, Tata Communications became the unified global brand for VSNL, VSNL International, Teleglobe, Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit and CIPRIS on February 13, 2008. Tata Communications Ltd. is a part of the £19 billion Tata Group; it is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TCL). It has offices in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, USA, London, France, Spain, German, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Questions & Answers: 1. The recruitment process

What is the required educational level of the candidates you recruit for? • Graduates need to have a Masters-level qualification.

What skills and qualities do you look for in an ideal candidate? • Particularly interested in graduates who have followed curriculum or completed projects which have encouraged them to look at the areas of challenge or innovation in the communications industry. However, other areas such banking and business are also considered.

Where do you normally advertise vacancies? • Tata Communications has an Internal Referral Scheme which is popular and effective.

Salil Mehendale explained that the Tata Group has a reputation for ethical business, and having satisfied employees and contributors to this scheme were seen as ‘active and engaged employees’ contributing to the continuing success and growth of the company. Current employees are given training on how to refer appropriate individuals and benefit financially if the person they refer is selected.

What are your favoured on-line recruitment sites? • Tata Communications uses some recruitment sites (eg Naurki.com) but not extensively. 2. Attracting talent in India and overseas

What types of positions do you recruit for? • The Tata Group Business Unit decides what the current need is in terms of recruitment

and Tata Communications recruit the following: - summer internship/trainees - management trainees - lateral hires (those with 3-4 years experience after finishing their masters).. How do you work with Indian universities to attract graduate talent? • Campus visits. Number per year varies according to need (In 2008 – visited 20 campuses,

2009 – 12 and 2010 planning to visit 12-15). • Summer trainees – contact is maintained with particularly bright and impressive summer

trainees and they are involved with continuing project work after the summer internship has finished.

Do you target particular universities to recruit candidates and if so how do you do this?

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• Impressed by institutions which are encouraging students to look at the areas of challenge

in the industry via the curriculum or project work How has the global economic downturn affected your recruitment? • Not significantly. The telecommunications industry in India (and the Indian economy in

general) has been less affected by the global recession than other countries. India is a growing nation where its own domestic demand is rapidly increasing. Success means that salaries are getting higher and spending patterns are increasing. However, India can still provide the rest of the world with low cost labour and the number of western companies operating in India is increasing.

3. Comparing UK-educated and Indian-educated talent

What are the benefits of candidates with a UK degree compared with Indian-educated candidates? Salil gave his personal opinion and mentioned the following points: • Perception that the Indian UK educated graduates may have experienced a more dynamic curriculum than one that might have been followed in India. As an example, the Indian undergraduate engineering curriculum would probably have been developed in 1990/2000. Technical knowledge may be more advanced or current.

• Indian UK graduates may have concentrated more on the ‘soft skills’. • Indian UK educated graduates who have had work experience in the telecommunications field overseas, may have already worked with new systems and seen at first hand where errors had been made or difficulties corrected; this would be seen as particularly valuable.

• Better able to deal with potential cultural barriers if educated in the US or the UK, which is useful for TATA Communications’ continued global expansion.

What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates? • Potentially ‘job hoppers’ but this can be seen both negatively and positively by recruiters: positively: graduate is seen as adaptable, with lots of recent, valuable experience which may be of use to TATA Communications. May have been working on a project of specific interest and encouraged to move to TATA (TATA Communications uses head-hunters). negatively: not a stable employee, only chasing salary. Salil felt that candidates need to be strategic and aware of economic conditions in the sector in deciding when and where to hop. 4. Working together to promote your company to a broader talent base

What can UK university careers services do to help you access student and graduate talent? • Encourage students to write CVs which assist the recruiters. An HR officer in TATA Communications may see 70-200 CVs a day for 20-30 positions, so the CV must:

a. highlight skills clearly and concisely; b. sell any summer internships more comprehensively, especially if closely related to the field to which they are applying;

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c. keep relevant stuff on the first page and avoid excessive length. 16. Nokia Siemens Networks India Meeting: Mr Vikram Baxi, HR Specialist (Western Region Head - Resourcing & Employment) 5 February 2010 Website: www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com Background: Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the world’s leading telecom infrastructure companies. It spans 150 countries and globally has 60,000 employees. In India, Nokia Siemens Networks commands 30% market share. The Indian headquarters is in Gurgaon, in the state of Haryana and has a presence in 170 locations across the country, concentrating on Sales & Marketing, Research & Development, Manufacturing and Global Networks Operations. Mr Baxi wished to check with his line manager that the AGCAS questions posed regarding Nokia Siemens Networks India recruitment practices could be answered. However, he was willing to give his own general personal insights on graduate recruitment in India as summarized below: What are HR professionals looking for in graduates? • an MSc or MBA qualification. In the HR sector other programmes such as change

management are being considered because of the nature of the telecommunications industry.

• A candidate needs a balanced profile which includes: communication skills; interpersonal skills; a competitive edge in relation to technical knowledge. • Recruiters are looking for a “good cultural fit” with their organisation, which will be

assessed in terms of does the candidate interact well? Is he/she a quick learner? How does he/she communicate? Can he/she communicate their thoughts clearly? Is he/she adaptable?

What particular skills or knowledge might Indian UK graduates have which would be attractive to HR recruiters in India? • Technical knowledge. In India hiring straight from campus can mean that candidates have

poor technical knowledge because of an outdated curriculum. • Some Indian institutions are beginning to liaise much more closely with the telecoms

industry and are developing programmes specifically matched to its needs, which is a positive development..

• Oxford and LSE are well known and well respected in HR circles in India. However, B grade institutions can often get preference when hiring in local regions because of local knowledge and understanding.

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Do you think that the telecoms industry is more “competitive than collaborative”, which is a view that was expressed by other HR professionals during our visit? • Information sharing about good practice does happen in the form of competitions and

awards which showcase good strategies and policies and spread good practice. • HR organisations such as the NHRDN (National Human Resources Development

Network), Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) and the UK’s CIPD are known and used by HR professionals in India. (NHRDN has 8000+ members, 30 chapters and 9 online communities in India.)

Do you think the UK HR context might be very different than the Indian context? • No, not really. The main question is whether the work gets done or not. How do you think graduates select the companies they apply for? • They look at the package being offered and then the brand name. However, in India the

first employment position after graduation is a very important stepping stone for the rest of a good career.

17. PriceWaterhouse Coopers Meeting: Mr Yash Sikka, Director – Human Capital, 2 February 2010 What types of positions do you recruit for? 3 lines of business:

• Tax • Audit • Advisory

The first two require a Chartered Accountancy qualification followed by a three year articleship or (training contract in UK) Two levels of entry:

1. Graduate training contract 2. Train people from Junior College (two year before they go to University).

PwC also offer 2-3 month summer training / internships. Can you please describe your recruitment process? Application (either submit resume to careers.india@in.pwc.com and enter "New Hire" in the Subject line or apply online)

Group discussion with around ten other applicants (not topic specific)

Interview - this process starts with an one-on-one interview with a member of the relevant department. If you qualify, you need to appear for a technical interview conducted by a senior person from the relevant Business Practice. This process assesses whether you suit the organisation as an individual. If you qualify, a partner or a leader of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) will conduct the final round of interview. If approved, HR will trigger the process of working out the compensation package, offer letter and finalizing the date of joining.

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No assessment centre. What are your favoured on-line recruitment sites? PwC uses naukri.com and mentioned that some head hunters do good work. Graduates returning from UK In India, the job market can be tough for a graduate (known as a ‘plain’ graduate) without a specialised Masters. Aspiring Accountants would need to do the three year training contract unless they returned with a Chartered Accountancy qualification. Are factors, such as university rankings, important? They do not follow particular rankings.

Do you target particular universities to recruit candidates and if so how do you do this? PwC target certain institutions known to be reputable such as Indian Institutes of Management Hyderabad etc. University of Mumbai, Xavier Institute of Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. General advice to candidates:

• Show what you are capable of doing • Don’t wait for employer to ask you • Consider and communicate what makes you distinctive • Brush up on self presentation – a particularly strong aspect of which was English

language (diction, vocabulary). • Learn to cope with failure or setbacks

What recruitment challenges do you have? Shortage of Chartered Accountants. Exams take place in April and are getting harder. PwC used to disqualify people who had made more than two attempts at professional exams but have had to discard this due to shortage. It is now common for them to take people who have made three or four attempts at the professional exams. Education more important than work in many people’s perceptions so many will take the professional accountancy exams without the training contract without appreciating that the exams themselves do not mean that they are more employable particularly for smaller organisations. Qualification only has value if taken while working. What are the benefits of candidates with a UK degree compared with Indian-educated candidates? A global perspective Acceptance of diversity Clearer diction These factors were collectively described as a candidate having added ‘polish’. But the candidate would need to realise that they have may only have some 10-20 minutes to impress a busy employer with the above. They need to do a ‘better sales job’ and convince the recruiter of the ‘added value’ of their UK qualification, especially in relation to skills. What are the drawbacks of candidates with a UK degree compared to India-educated candidates? UK graduates will need to anticipate and counter the perception that they will not want to stick around in India and will want to return overseas. They will also need to be diplomatic about HE in India and avoid comparing the different education systems in an unfavourable way.

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How can UK universities raise their profile with Indian businesses? Advertisements and brochures but they need to be designed and promoted well if they are to be read. Action agreed: It was noted that Indian employers are less informed than Indian students about the UK education system which is why they may not consider candidates from the UK. It may be an idea in the case of MNCs like PwC for the UK firm to tell the India branches about the HEIs targeted in the UK. 18. Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (SPIT) Meeting: Mr Harshad A. Joshi, Training & Placement Officer Discussion with four members of the Placement Team (final year students). 3 February 2010 Website: www.spit.ac.in Background: • The institute is located in a 47-acre campus at Andheri (West), the fastest growing suburb

of Mumbai. On the campus there are four institutions which combine to make up Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s College. Sardar Patel College of Engineering was established in 1962 and in 2006 changed its name to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Sardar Patel Institute of Technology. It is affiliated to Mumbai University. It runs courses in Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering and Information Technology and in 2009 introduced a new 3 year Masters of Computer Applications.

• Mr Harshad Joshi heads up the Training and Placement Cell which places graduates in their first graduate level job. Mr Joshi kindly made it possible for us to talk to student members of his Placement Team.

Question & Answers: How does the Placement Centre work?

• Mr Joshi has a team of 14 final year students in his Placement Team. Each class has 2 representatives who volunteer for the work. However, there is usually a petition in each class to decide who the class members would like to represent them in the Placement Team. Interestingly, the classes often chose individuals who had lower grades because there was a belief that these individuals were likely to work harder for the class as a whole than the academic highfliers. These students work as an interface between the students in each class and the work of the Training and Placement Cell.

• The team members prepared and managed the data base of information on the final year students which is sent out to the companies. They also liaised with the companies on administrative arrangements concerning on campus activities such as pre-application briefings, interviews etc.

What would be the process from start to finish? • Companies come onto campus to make pre-application presentations which usually last

about an hour. These include giving a job description, history of the company, procedure for application and a time for questions from the audience.

• Interested students then take various on-line or paper aptitude tests.

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• Students then take part in group discussion on a general topic related to economics or issues in society. They sometimes discuss case studies. They may also be asked to put together a presentation in a group where they are given 2-5 minutes to discuss what they are going to talk about and then make the presentation. Performing under pressure is part of this process.

• If successful at the aptitude test and group discussion stage, students are called for 3-4 rounds of interviews which can take the form of increasingly technical interviews and more general panel interviews.

• After passing all the interviews the candidate receives a job offer. Does the Placement Centre provide advice on career choices, career development, etc? • Yes, there is a training programme arranged by Mr Joshi.

How do students choose which jobs and employers to apply for/to? What is important from the student perspective? • The students ideally want to work for a ‘core company’ i.e. a large company which

develops, manufactures and markets its own products. They ideally want to work for a ‘dream company’. The SPIT students talked about Sony and Microsoft being ‘dream companies’ i.e. companies offering graduate training schemes that had remuneration packages above 5 lakhs per annum (£6, 650 approx). TATA Power, Wipro Technologies and Infosys were all offering a below 5 lakhs package but were considered attractive. There was unfaltering and unanimous agreement that the number one dream company for SPIT graduates was Microsoft. Information on the SPIT website re placements at http://www.spit.ac.in/files/2009/11/annexure_2.pdf shows that in 2008/2009 Microsoft were offering a graduate training scheme salary of Rs. 9.2 lakhs (£12, 869 approx) when the average salary was 2.63 lakhs (£3,678 approx).

What percentage per year find placements/are placed with the assistance of the Placement Team? • About 80% most years. 20% find other employment. Can alumni use your service? If yes, for how long post graduation? • Yes, alumni do sometimes contact the Training and Placement Cell, but this is usually

within 4-5 years of graduating. How do you create and maintain employer links for your placement services? Do you approach employers or do employers approach you? • The Training and Placement Officer makes an initial contact or the company contacts the

institution directly. The administrative arrangements are then made by members of the Placement Team.

Do you prioritise employers when allocating campus interviews? (i.e. in terms of number of vacancies, salaries, etc) • Yes. Dream companies get the first slots in the schedule, which starts in

December/January each year. Do you screen applicants on behalf of the employers you work with? • We send the whole list of students and their data to each company or compile the list to

comply with particular company requests or requirements. What in your opinion are employers looking for in potential graduate employees? • Different companies may be looking for different qualities, but the common denominators

are technical knowledge and a good attitude.

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In what way has the recession affected the graduate labour market in India? • Slightly affected starting salaries, but these seem to be going up again. Do you think graduate ‘job hopping’ is a problem for graduate employers? • Yes, but some employers counteract this by asking for their successful candidates to sign

an insurance bond/bank guarantee where if they leave before the end of their training contract, the graduate has to refund a certain percentage of the salary they have been paid.

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AGCAS / NASES PMI 2 India Visit Report

1 – 5 February 2010

Appendix 4: Reports on individual Bangalore visits

1. Alumni focus group (91)

2. Appnomic (93)

3. Confederation of Indian Industries (95)

4. British High Commission (96)

5. Google (97)

6. The Promise Foundation (98)

7. The Chopras (100)

8. Tesco (101)

9. Christ University (103)

10. Ramiah Institute of Technology (105)

11. Infosys Technologies (106)

12. Edu Overseas (108)

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1. Alumni Focus Group Interview held at the Bangalore Club

Meeting: 31 January 2010 The Focus Group was attended by nine alumnus representing a wide range of UK institutions which included Cardiff (2), UCL (3), LSE, Warwick, SOAS and the Open University Business School. Participants were employed in a wide range of employment fields which included Medicine, Public Policy, Law and Pharmaceuticals. One alumnus was currently job hunting.

1. What are the benefits to studying in the UK for your career in India?

Studying a specialist subject was seen to have a stronger benefit in particular

within growth industries such as Environmental Science and Biomedicine. UK study gave the alumni knowledge of the outside world, which broadened their

thinking and enabled them to be more comfortable when doing business with foreign companies. It also helps broaden imagination, ideas and creativity.

The case study led method of teaching was particularly commended as developing valuable commercial awareness skills.

Much credit was given to the high-calibre visiting lecturers (mainly from industry) as adding wider business perspective.

LLM students in particular enjoyed a ‘world view’ as a large number of peers were international.

UK education develops applied critical analysis and reasoning skills, which is in contrast to the Indian system, which is theoretical and academic.

2. What are the disadvantages to studying in the UK for your career in India?

Ways of thinking changed and they experienced challenges in adapting back to

the ‘Indian way’ of working. There is a perception amongst employers that foreign-educated graduates

demand higher salary, are blue sky thinkers and not willing to undertake fundamental tasks.

Employers are not aware of UK institutions. When asked which universities they recognise or actively recruit from, LSE and Oxbridge were specifically named.

There is a perception that UK returnees are typically students who were academically too weak to make it into a top Indian University or Institute.

The US education system is seen as superior compared to the UK system.

3. How do you think employers view UK degrees? UK degrees do not give graduates an employment edge in the Indian labour

market. The market is saturated with overseas returnees and UK graduates compete with the US, Australia, Canada, Singapore and South Africa.

The US education system is closest to the Indian system and therefore US returnees are seen more favourably in the job market.

There is a lack of awareness amongst employers about the calibre of UK universities and degree components.

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UK graduates are deemed over-qualified for certain roles and are also viewed as a threat by recruiting managers.

There is a strong perception amongst employers that UK returnees will not commit to the organisation; the post-study work visa was stated in particular as a reason why most Indian students return to the UK.

Employers feel that it is difficult to retain UK returnees as they are likely to want to pursue employment opportunities or further study in the UK.

4. How are UK Masters viewed by employers?

There is a perception that Indian students from Tier 2 Indian Universities pursue a

UK Masters to ‘top up’ their education. It was stated that these students are viewed suspiciously by employers.

UK taught MA qualification is not academically comparable to the Indian MA which is seen as more comprehensive.

It was suggested that a UK MA develops creative thinkers; however Indian companies are keen to employ graduates who will ‘do’ the job.

It is also worth noting: A UK PhD was seen to lack academic credibility as in India PhDs are required to take

written exams in addition to submitting their thesis. PhD applicants applying for a Research post in the UK are only required to submit a

personal statement clarifying their research aims. No interviews are held for research posts, and the process being less competitive is also viewed as being less credible.

5. Apart from your degree(s) what other UK and Indian experiences did your

employers value when you applied for a job in India?

Relevant work experience is highly valued. Developing niche technical skills in IT for example. Some employers favoured University rank but this was dependent on the Hiring

Manager being aware of the UK education system.

6. What can students studying in the UK do while they are there to give them a competitive edge when they return to India?

Maintain networks: with school, family and university. Networking was cited as the

key way to secure a job in India. Develop commercial awareness skills – employers want to know you can perform

basic tasks required in your field. Gain experience of situational interviews; competency based questions were only

used in the final stage of the interview for reassurance. In some sectors such as Law, candidates are required to submit their dissertation

along with their CV. UK educated students and graduates need to have realistic expectations and adjust

to conditions in India as it was stated that India produces 4 million graduates a year who are more than willing to take on entry level jobs and work up.

7. What helped you when you were looking for graduate work in India?

University alumni network helped secure first graduate job. Identifying key personnel in your target company and asking for a referral. Perseverance, the Indian job market is highly competitive and the market is flooded

with overseas returnees.

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Flexibility - as a graduate the key step is to get a foot through the door and then work your way up.

8. Were there any key resources you used in securing your chosen employment? Are there key job hunting websites you would recommend?

University alumni network was crucial in securing first graduate entry position. Job Hunting websites:

o Monster India o Naukri o Jobstreet o Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Brijj

Use contacts in target companies to put your CV on the prospectives database. Employers search through this database before advertising a job.

Referrals were cited as an effective recruitment strategy. Most employees are offered an incentive bonus if the company hires a graduate they recommended.

Individual company websites. Network through professional bodies in the occupational area.

9. In hindsight what do you wish you had known about job hunting before

returning to work in India?

Maintain networks. General awareness about the competitiveness of the graduate job market and clarity

around how to explain value of UK education. Gain an insight into employment opportunities in the Tier 2 cities and not just the

Metros.

10. How can Indian students maintain their networks whilst studying in the UK?

Maintain contact with personal tutors from undergraduate university and classmates. Join the British Council’s Alumni Association (Association of British Scholars). Use professional networking websites and join specialist communities.

2. Appnomic Systems Pvt Ltd Meeting: N. Jothiganesh, Head of Shared Services and Quality, G. Prabhakaran, HR Manager 1 February 2010 Overview of Appnomic Appnomic provide IT infrastructure management services to large corporations and SMEs, mainly within India. Clients include TATA Sky, Trust Bank Ltd, Everest Bank Ltd, rediff.com and Karnataka Bank. Their specialism lies within:

• Infrastructure and Application support and operations • Scaling and building delivery teams with competency development • Core Banking solution architecture, development and implementation

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• Transition management, System Integration and IT operations management • Sales, Client Relationship and Engagement Management in India, Europe, US and

the Middle East

Appnomic is amongst the first few companies in India to be assessed for Integrated Compliance to three ISO standards namely - ISO 9001 (Quality Standard); ISO 20000-1 (ISO Standard for IT Service Management) and ISO 27001 (ISO Standard for Information Security Management Systems). Appnomic recruitment process Appnomic recruit approximately 60 graduates per year; most places are offered to final year students in the final semester. IT and Engineering specific Universities are targeted for on-campus recruitment and these include Manipal, BES and Mysore College of Engineering. Only the top 5% of students are considered for employment. 70% of recruitment across all levels of jobs in the company is through employee referrals. Employees are compensated for the successful introduction of potential employees. It was suggested that employee referrals and institutional partnerships yield the most success in terms of recruitment. Adverts are placed on Monster India and graduates are recruited through Institutional Partnerships. The selection process includes an aptitude test (classroom based), group discussion and a HR interview. They accept CVs (or ‘resumes’ as they are also called). The average monthly salary for graduates is approximately Rs.21,000 ($500) Recruitment challenges There is a shortage of skilled IT and Engineering professionals; the challenge is to recruit and retain this highly skilled workforce. Approximately 50% of Appnomic’s workforce is made up of graduates or college leavers recruited from across India. The highly academic Indian curriculum was seen to produce ‘thinkers’ and not ‘workers’. Appnomic have as a result introduced a 4-month training programme aimed at developing practical IT skills such as systems engineering, introduction to programming languages and IMS. The training module is undertaken by all new hires before a firm offer of employment is made. Impressions of UK returnees

• A lack of awareness of UK HE institutions and what a UK degree comprises often resulted in UK returnees being rejected by HR Managers.

• When asked which UK HE institutions they recognised, Oxford and Cambridge were named; however it was suggested if students from these institutions applied for jobs they would be treated with much caution.

• It was suggested that UK returnees may not adapt to the Indian work culture and that they have unrealistic salary expectations.

Developing relationships with UK HE institutions Indian IT firms are interested in collaborating with UK HEIs to attract talent. At present Appnomic do not have collaborations with UK HEIs, but are keen to gain an understanding of how the UK HE curriculum is delivered and what skills students develop. Additional Information

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Please find attached IT sector data from the company. 3. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Meeting: P. Radhakrishnan, Director & Head of CII Karnataka Office 1 February 2010 Introduction The CII is a non-government and not-for-profit, industry-led organisation funded through membership. It works closely with government on policy issues, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and expanding business opportunities for industry. CII has over 65 offices and 10,000 members across India, 600 of which are in the state of Karnataka, and 9 offices overseas, including the UK. CII employs over 850 staff and there are opportunities for students to obtain internships. In addition to links with industry, CII also work with over 120 NGOs exploring issues around CSR, health, education, diversity management and skill development (the latter was identified as a priority area, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities, and in rural areas). Overview of Indian economy The recession in the developed countries has impacted export, which has seen a downturn in India. However by and large most industry sectors are thriving - in particular IT, Biomedicine and Agriculture. The local market has seen much growth (9% in 2009) and has shielded India from the wider economic crises that many Western countries are experiencing. Recruitment amongst the large IT firms such as Wipro and Infosys was scaled back in the quarter September – December 2009; however recruitment at graduate level is recovering in the current quarter. There is a talent shortage amongst IT, Automobiles and Manufacturing firms and this is seen as the biggest recruitment challenge facing Indian firms. There is a big demand for graduates who have studied Engineering and IT. It was suggested that Indian IT firms are considering attracting foreign educated talent in a bid to fill the talent gap. The government is incentivising development in the rural regions with favourable tax breaks offered to companies who invest in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Overview of the local economy in Karnataka

• IT, Biomedicine, Agriculture and Infrastructure were seen as growth sectors. • There is a focus on engaging rural communities to sustain economic growth and

development. The government offers tax exemption to companies who actively engage in CSR activities, and many are adopting whole villages, giving in cash and kind.

Opportunities for graduates

Indian Civil Service roles:

The average age for a graduate trainee in a public company is 25-35. The recruitment cycle occurs every two years. The selection includes an Entrance

Exam, Tests and Interviews. In the 2009 Public Administration selection round over 18,000 applications were received for 18 jobs.

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Opportunities are advertised through Employment News, a bulletin published by the Indian Government.

Opportunities are also advertised through the staff selection board and via the Public Service Commission which is a government recruitment agency.

Each state or region has a local Public Service Commission and there is a Union Central Commission that recruits nationally.

A graduate trainee will earn £10-15 per month. Public sector recruitment managers may perceive foreign educated graduates as a

threat and as not having the right attitude.

Multinationals

• It was suggested that a multinational firm would be a better cultural fit for UK educated graduates as opposed to public sector roles.

• Unlike the public sector, multinationals do not follow a structured recruitment cycle, with most hiring according to organisational needs.

• UK education has devalued in India with most multinationals opting to recruit local talent.

How can UK graduates market themselves effectively?

• UK graduates need to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability to working in the ‘Indian way’ along with realistic salary expectations.

• There is no real decline in the number of Indian students pursuing education in the UK, and there is a great need for them to promote their unique selling points.

4. British High Commission Meeting: Richard Hyde, British Deputy High Commissioner (Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh) 1 February 2010

Summary of discussion points

• At the time of writing this report, the issuing of student visa applications was suspended in 3 cities in Northern India.

• The office had seen an increase in the number of student visa applications from 28,000 in 2008 to 102,000 in 2009.

• The reason for the suspension was to investigate and sift out fraudulent applications. • Some people we interviewed were of the opinion that the attacks on Indian students

in Australia are linked to the increase in the number of student applications to the UK. The High Commission however felt that there was little correlation in the matter.

Overview of Indian economy

• There is an increase in the number of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) returning to settle back in India and this has affected graduate recruitment as freshers are competing with experienced professionals.

• For example, the British High Commission received 1500 applications for one of its vacant posts. It was stressed that the applicant who was selected was a non-resident

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Indian (NRI) who demonstrated flexibility and adaptability. In particular a cultural understanding of the UK and India was seen as a selling point of the employee.

• In Karnataka the flourishing industry sectors are ICT, Electronics, Life Sciences and Aerospace Engineering. The pharmaceutical industry in Hyderabad is growing.

• Bangalore in particular is seen as a centre for IT, Engineering, Textile Sourcing and Manufacturing.

• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is being outsourced out of Bangalore to Tier 3 cities and to Vietnam and the Philippines for cost saving purposes. The Philippines is particularly attractive due to high levels of English competency amongst the workforce.

• Although discrimination by caste has been outlawed there is still a deep rooted traditional culture and as such some applicants may find it challenging to secure employment in India.

Value of UK education

Education has a strong academic, theoretical underpinning in India. A selling point of UK education is the interactive and applied nature of teaching and learning. However it was suggested that there was a lack of awareness amongst Indian employers about what a UK degree entails.

It was acknowledged that the British Council is effective in recruiting students to study in the UK but much work needed to be done to support UK returnees to India. The High Commission is starting an Alumni Group in Delhi and Karnataka to facilitate networking amongst returnees.

5. Google Meeting: Prasad Rao, People Programs Specialist (responsible for Campus Recruitment) 2 February 2010 Overview of Google in India

• Google currently has three offices in India with distinct functions: o Bangalore: Research and Development o Hyderabad: Online Sales Engineering o Gurgaon (Delhi): Online Sales, Operations and Legal teams.

• Google India employs over 2000 employees across the three offices. • Particularly recruit Software Engineers and Computer Scientists and as such they will

only work with higher education institutions in the UK that have a strong academic department within the specific subject areas.

• Google has a flat hierarchy and no managers, as all employees are required to manage specific functions. The appraisal process is undertaken through peer reviews; therefore strong team working and self management skills are essential.

• The company does not recruit for a particular role as projects within Google India are short-term and team-based. As such, applicants need to be flexible and adaptable.

Google’s recruitment process

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• They work with approximately 75 universities in India where they target high achieving students. Of particular interest are students who have entered competitions in design coding and system design.

• Indian Universities would typically submit resumes of final year graduates with CGPE of 8.5 or above (equivalent to degree classification in the UK).

• Graduate recruitment typically starts in July (for the following year). • Google accept resumes which are reviewed by peers followed by an initial telephone

interview. • Resumes should include indication of final year grade, degree, details of specific

projects undertaken and relevant experience. • Successful applicants are invited to an assessment centre which comprises of 4 peer

interviews and technical competency tests. • Detailed feedback is submitted against each applicant. This is reviewed by the hiring

committee in each branch. The final recruitment decision is made by senior management in the USA.

• Google offer 2-month internships which take place during May and June. Interns receive a stipend of 25,000 rupees, accommodation and food. Approximately 15-20 internships are offered in 2010.

• Internships are used as a pipeline to fill graduate roles. However no conversion statistics were provided.

Recruitment challenges

• Higher Education has a strong academic underpinning in India. The view was expressed that graduates lack practical skills of applying concepts to projects.

• Google is inundated with graduate applicants (1 vacancy will typically receive over 25,000 applications). The challenge for Google is recruiting applicants with the right technical, personal and interpersonal skills.

Hiring UK graduates

• Google have not hired UK returnees as the perception is that US universities have a stronger reputation within the field of Computer Sciences.

• A general lack of understanding of the UK higher education system was expressed along with not understanding the content of IT and Engineering specific degrees.

• Indian students studying in the UK were encouraged to apply through the London office of Google as they would have a better understanding of the UK HE system and can refer directly to the Indian office. Graduate roles are only advertised on the Google India Careers section.

6. The Promise Foundation Meeting: Dr Gideon Arulmani, Director, and some of the Promise Foundation’s team members 3 February 2010 The Promise Foundation consists of a small but very active and devoted team of professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds (teachers, social workers, psychologists). The Director who established the Foundation, Dr Gideon Arulmani, has studied in the UK and is an international member of the UK-based organisation NICEC – the National Institute of Careers Education & Counselling. We met 3 members of the Foundation team who are currently undertaking MPhil studies, deriving from Behavioural

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Science, Sociology and Computer Engineering interests, but there are others studying at postgraduate level covering a range of disciplines linked to careers work. Despite this diversity they are all united by a common overall aim: to develop careers information, advice, guidance and education culturally suited to India. Towards this end they have a research arm with a long reach (the research team speak 8 languages between them and have attempted to cover all major areas of India), to gather and classify career-related information and also to theorise a model for careers education and guidance that is more culturally suited to the conditions in India. Providing accurate information on higher education institutions in India is complex because more than 300 institutions that are privately set up apply to the University Grants Commission for funding, and the UGC then link this funding with quality audits. However the situation can change, as some ‘deemed universities’ may fall in quality and status, and therefore become ‘de-recognised’. Part of their strategy therefore is to provide a database of careers information based on updating as far as possible, but also with disclaimers urging all applicants to check an institution’s current status in their own best interests. In terms of building a career counselling model for India, underpinned by relevant theory, they are focusing on career belief and decision-making in a cultural context where options are often limited by the socio-economic conditions in the family and the power of parents to make career choices for their children. Their research as well as practical work with underprivileged children (and parents) tells them that there are 3 key points at which interventions in schools can prevent problems: At age 3-6 existing pre-school support has improved physical health and safety, but literacy work is needed as 40% of children cannot read. At age 7-8 cognitive development needs to be addressed as many cannot comprehend lessons fully. Class 10 brings with it a whole range of influences and constraints – e.g. those families that cannot afford to keep their children in school put pressure on them to leave and take unskilled, dead-end jobs. Middle class parents are ambitious and push their kids into prestigious areas – but many qualified engineers end up in Call Centres because of the better pay and conditions, leaving a skills shortage for actual engineering jobs. We gained a sense of clash of ideologies here – on the one hand India is making rapid progress, but the values associated with GDP (Gross Domestic Product) are at odds with GWB (General Well Being). It was suggested that India is paying a price in GWB terms in hitching its wagon to the GDP star, and that the ensuing chaos in its infrastructure will not just be temporary but last for many years to come. Meanwhile the team at the Promise Foundation are active in schools to address children’s mindsets and aspirations to progress. They have developed simple, user-friendly, paper-based materials as part of their Jiva Project (Jiva means ‘life’). The materials are easy and effective to use in schools, even with few resources. They are also ‘training the trainers’ to build up a discipline related to career counselling and livelihood planning – so their work covers a range of needs and areas and is impressive. See the website for more detail: http://www.thepromisefoundation.org/jiva.htm

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7. The Chopras - Education UK Agents Meeting: Rohini Chopra – Education UK Counsellor, 2 February 2010

After meeting with The Chopras, it was brought to our attention that the agents have been suspended from the UKBA-approved agents list. This may be temporary.

Overview of The Chopras

• Work with a range of universities overseas. Provide education counselling service via 1:1 advice and also run a number of profile raising road shows in major Indian cities.

• Currently have offices in 15 countries globally. • Launching a new initiative to provide an aftercare service to overseas returnees

which will include 1:1 careers advice on CV writing and interview along with developing links with employers.

Impact of the recession in India

• At the time of writing this report it was suggested that multinationals scaled back on graduate recruitment for a period of 6-8 months.

• Job losses in particular occurred within BPO with over 700 jobs lost in one large Indian firm.

• This was directly related to the economic downturn in the developed countries.

Perception of UK education In India

• The UK remains a popular destination for education particularly for MBAs as a number of UK institutions don’t require entrance exams such as the GMAT.

• UK taught MAs are attractive as they can be completed in one year. • Factors influencing choice of study in the UK include specialist subject, funding and

availability of scholarships. • The Post Study Work visa has made the UK an attractive destination as potential

applicants consider the option for employment in the UK as a key factor. • Students and parents considering UK education review University Rankings such as

the The Times Good University Guide, cost of tuition fees and living costs.

Perceived benefits and disadvantages of UK education

• Education has a strong academic underpinning in India. A selling point of UK education is the interactive nature of teaching and learning.

• UK returnees are more confident, independent and develop an international perspective.

• It was suggested that there was a lack of awareness amongst Indian employers about what a UK degree entails.

• India is extremely brand conscious; UK universities need to establish a strong brand. Word of mouth is a powerful way of establishing an institution’s reputation.

• Job hunting is challenging for UK returnees as they find it difficult to adapt to the Indian work culture, experience difficulty in re-adjusting to family life and have unrealistic expectations about the type of work they can do.

• Returnees fall out of touch with their networks. Networking and employee referrals are a key way of securing employment in India.

• Part-time non-relevant work experience has little value in India. UK returnees with relevant work-related internships have a competitive edge particularly with MNCs.

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How are jobs advertised?

• Online on jobsites such as Naukri and Monster India. • Applicants can cold call or walk-in to companies with their CVs; however this is time

consuming and yields little success. • The most effective way of securing employment is through personal referrals and

family contacts.

8. Tesco India

Meeting: Sudheesh Venkatesh, Head of Human Resources, Shweta Munjal, Manager of Corporate Communications 3 February 2010

Overview of Tesco in India

• The Bangalore office employs over 4,000 staff o 50% of employees work within conventional IT roles such as application

development. o 600 work within Finance and Accounting o 1000 work within stores support

• The Bangalore office provides store support to all Tesco stores, architectural design and handles back office functions such as payroll.

• 95% of employees are graduates but do not necessarily undertake a ‘graduate role’ as defined in the UK. Graduates in India would typically work as receptionists, in IT support etc.

• There is a graduate training programme and trainees are referred to as ‘The Elites’. This is open to only the top 2% of graduates from high calibre Indian Universities and they are essentially MBAs, Law students and Chartered Accountants.

• Tesco India actively promotes CSR activities to its employees. The company supports a school for underprivileged children. There is high take-up of employee engagement as voluntary charitable work is intrinsic to the Indian culture. Employees contribute both time and money.

Tesco recruitment strategy

There are three tiers of talent:

• Tier 1 – Indian Universities equivalent to UK Oxbridge are ‘The Institutes’ such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and Institutes of Management. There is a war for talent for Tier 1 graduates and Tesco are not able to compete with the large IT firms in attracting talent from the Tier 1 institutions.

• Tier 2 – The graduates are typically those that have not made it into a Tier 1 university in India. Typical Tier 2 universities include Christ University in Bangalore. Typically students applying for overseas education would be Tier 2 Indian University students looking to top-up their education. Tier 2 talent would be the cohort that Tesco targets.

• Tier 3 – Ordinary universities in rural areas, typically graduates would not be employable in a company such as Tesco.

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The Elite Graduate Programme

The elite group is selected from high ranking specialist Indian Universities. There are two sub streams within the Elite Programme and training is for 2 years:

• International – upon completion trainees would move to work in the UK. Trainees on this program would earn the equivalent foreign salary which in 2009 was £25,000 per annum.

• Local – upon completion these trainees would work in one of three core functions in the Bangalore office in a senior role (IT, Finance or Store Support). Trainees on this program would earn a high-end local salary which is £17,000 per annum.

• Recruitment for this programme takes place institutionally with applications opening in January. The graduates start employment in June.

• The recruitment process involves personality profiling (OPQ questionnaire), Case Discussion, 2 HR interviews (competency based) and one technical interview.

• For 2010 start, 8 offers have been made.

Graduate entry roles Most graduate entry roles are within Computer Programming and the starting salary for a graduate Computer Engineer is £4,500 per annum. Approximately 3% of graduates work within financial support roles, the starting salary is £2,500 per annum.

The recruitment process involves Aptitude Test and Technical Interview. At this stage the emphasis is not on soft skills but more on the fundamental skills to do the job. On average the conversion rate is 2% into offers from 100 applications.

Recruitment challenges

• Difficulty in hiring and retaining the Elite Talent as they are in high demand in India. In general Tesco is not seen as a sexy employer or as being associated with technology.

• Increase in labour costs. • Although India produces 4 million graduates per year, of which half a million are engineers, only 10% are truly employable. This is down to the varying education standards. Hiring UK graduates

• Being a UK company has meant that Tesco hiring managers are aware of the UK education system. As such they would consider UK educated graduates.

• The hiring team use the Times Higher Education world rankings to shortlist candidates from the UK.

• Tesco India is currently employing about 10 UK educated graduates and it was suggested that a key skill demonstrated by UK returnees is team work.

Advice for UK returnees

• Realistic salary and job expectations (the notion of a graduate job in India is very different to that in the UK).

• Holding a UK degree does not guarantee employment, if anything the mass marketing of UK education has meant that there are many foreign degree holders in the market.

• Intense competition for jobs in ‘New India’; the country is expecting 15% growth over the next two years. There is restlessness amongst local graduates to get ahead.

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• Working hours are longer than the UK (48 hour working week in India compared to 36 hours in the UK). Therefore UK returnees need to re-think their notion of work-life balance.

9. Christ University Meeting: Prof. Suniti Phadke, Director, Office of International Affairs, Molly Mampilly, MBA Placements Coordinator 4 February 2010 Background o Established in 1969 o Currently enrolled 9,000 students o Run by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Fathers o Slow progress until 1998, then remarkable expansion due to re-structuring with a Vision

and Strategic Plan o Now claim to be in the top 10, especially for undergraduate Business & Commerce

programmes. They offer a range of courses except for Medicine, e.g. Arts, Tourism, Computer Applications, Hopitality.

o 60% of students are from outside Bangalore, 200 international students from 40-50 countries.

o Considerable international exposure at various levels. These include relationships with the USA and Australia, e.g. tie-ups and exchanges with Western Michigan University, Swansea and Sheffield Hallam, joint research with Liverpool Hope University.

o They have developed a cultural India Gateway programme where they host students from all over the world, and provide experiences in sight-seeing and company visits, together with short courses in Indian History, Contemporary Culture, etc.

Preparation for recruitment and employment Students are prepared through a ‘Soft Landing in Industry’ programme which covers CV writing, interview dress code, etc. – provided by HR professionals and employers –e.g. from multi-national companies, banks and public sector organisations. Mentoring is provided by faculty members as well as seniors to juniors for two years regarding all aspects of life, and an open door policy with warmth in relationships was identified as a key advantage. For CV and interview skills, 10 students are allocated to one mentor, who will guide and facilitate but keep things confidential. Mentoring has become an embedded concept and habit. On both undergraduate and postgraduate vocational courses there is an organised compulsory internship (paid or unpaid), as a structured study working on solutions to a real company problem, with a mentor. On MBA internships the functions are related more to observation and shadowing. There is 100% success from ‘campus placement’ – which is a term that is commonly used to mean something similar to ‘the milkround’ (placement refers to recruitment after a course, as distinct from an ‘internship’ which is a period of work experience during the course). Students put together their own profiles with a photo, which are compiled by the Student Committee into a booklet. Half the cost of this is borne by the students and half by Christ

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University. The booklet is sent to all recruitment companies, for them to invite selected students to an interview against clear criteria for posts. Other employers come to the campus and do a Pre-Placement Talk (PPT) and students apply in the light of company information and job descriptions. This is followed by a test or first round interviews conducted on campus, followed by short-listed candidates being invited for more in-depth interviews on the employers’ premises. Staff just inform the Student Committee about the dates of PPTs, and they publicise the events. There is an excellent turnout. Summary of discussion points with the MBA Placements Coordinator In the past 9 years student numbers on the MBA have increased from 60 to 500. Molly has built up a database of 700 organisations who can provide 2-month paid projects with hands-on experience at the end of the first year. These are in various business functions such as Marketing, Finance and HR, and some companies recruit for all 3, some for one. Key to the success of this has been the networking, constant updating and building of relationships with employers. This is a formalised selection and recruitment process and 90% of it takes place on campus. They do not charge employers. Molly trains and provides lots of help with the recruitment process. Apart from this, a key unique selling point of Christ’s education is quality, holistic education where a range of employability skills and attributes are developed, through components such as stress management, team building, green issues, conflict management. Differences between India and UK education: o There is much more timetabled contact time – 9 to 4 in the classroom, whereas more

independent study is expected in the UK. o The influence of teachers is strong and students expect spoon-feeding, while in the UK

critical thinking is encouraged. o The power distance and respect between teachers and students means there is better

discipline and a policy of ‘no smoking, no drugs on campus’ is strongly enforced. o Admission to the University is very competitive – applications are filtered through a

written test, group discussion and interview, whereas it is easier in the UK. Generally speaking, UK HE is perceived to be less demanding. In the first semester students who come to study in the UK seem to struggle with the various adjustments required, but find the second semester onwards easier.

o Parents prefer to support their children right through to Masters level. This has its advantages as students have no other responsibility – just the freedom to study. However this also has drawbacks as it does not develop rounded, independent individuals with the skills and experience that come from work.

o Employers in India do value and expect work experience, so those who have such experience have a competitive edge.

o Only 8-9% of students make it into undergraduate study, and only 1% into Masters level, because many have to start earning. For the same reason there is a high attrition rate. Wealthy parents from business communities have the ability to pay fees, but there are many students who are bright and cannot afford the fees.

o Education in India is more theoretical and academically rigorous, but does not give the applied dimensions which UK HE provides.

o Some high-end courses are not available in India – e.g. Nanotechnology, which requires expensive specialist equipment.

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10. Ramiah Institute of Technology Meeting: Prof. Dr. M Vijayadev – Head of Placement & Training Department 4 February 2010 Overview of Ramaiah Institute of Technology

• The Ramiah Institute of Technology is ranked 28th in India. • The core subjects delivered at the Institute are: Engineering, Computer Applications

and Business. • 1250 students graduate each year, typically with a Masters level qualification (MA

Engineering, MBA and MA in Computer Applications). • In 2009 they achieved 95% placement of their graduates. • Students at the Institute have industrial projects built into the core curriculum.

o MA Technology Students – 1 year work based project. o MA Computer Applications – 6 months work based project. o MBA – 3 months work based project. o All undergraduate students undertake a 3.5 month work based project

• If a student does not undertake a work based project, they would fail the year and would have to repeat their studies.

Placement Centre structure and service

• The team consists of a Head of Service, Deputy Head (whose core function is industry liaison) and an assistant.

• The centre forges and maintains links with employers and facilitates campus recruitment days.

• Primarily they engage IT, Mechanical Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering firms.

• The centre does not work with public sector firms as the Indian government rules do not allow affiliation with a particular university. Recruitment in public sector firms follows a separate recruitment cycle.

• Other than campus recruitment days, the centre does not engage employers in any other capacity (such as careers fairs).

• Employers do not pay for participating in campus recruitment days. • 40% of employers who participate in the campus recruitment days are IT firms. • One-to-one careers counselling is not offered to students. Typically a lecture would

be delivered to students to prepare them for the campus recruitment activities.

Overview of Campus Recruitment Day

• The war on talent has created stiff competition among employers to have the first slot (Day Zero) during the campus recruitment season.

• The University will allocate slots according to the number of graduates placed in an organisation. For example, Infosys in 2009 recruited 240 graduates (25% of the graduating student population), and as such they will be allocated the first selection day (Day Zero).

• Campus recruitment usually takes place in the final semester (January – March). • All participating employers are sent a database which contains student details such

as technical competency and academic grades. • Some employers may shortlist candidates to interview on the basis of this

information.

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• Most employers will usually deliver a ‘Pre-Placement Talk’ where they provide information about the company, starting salary, relocation package and available jobs.

• This is usually followed by a classroom based aptitude test usually lasting 1hour. • Results would be announced on the same day with shortlisted candidates being

invited to participate in a group discussion. • Successful candidates are announced and invited to participate in a technical and

HR Interview. • Job offers are usually made on the same day following the interview. • Students are allowed to hold a maximum of two offers. • Unsuccessful students would be encouraged to apply for jobs directly with relevant

companies or via Placement Agencies. • Placement Agencies specialising in IT and Engineering specific roles include:

o E-Litmus o Meditrak o Aspiring Minds o Careers Net

Other points of note

• Careers Fairs are usually organised by newspapers such as Times of India, The Hindu and Deccan Herald.

• Job placement in Indian terms is referred to as a graduate job. • Internship in Indian terms is referred to as a work based project undertaken as part of

academic studies. This is often unpaid and usually organised through the Placement Centre.

11. Infosys Technologies Ltd Meeting: Jharna Dharmiah & Amit Cruz, HRD - Global Entry Level Recruitment & Campus Relations Manager, Sitaram - Head of Market Research 4 February 2010 Web: www.infosys.com Background Infosys was started in 1981 by 7 people - Mr. Narayana Murthy (still today Chairman of the Board and chief mentor) and 6 engineers - with a small capital investment of US$250. It has since demonstrated phenomenal growth and won several awards, rated by the Wall Street Journal as India’s most admired company for the past 10 years in a row. Today it has emerged as the world’s IT hub, a global leader in the "next generation" of IT and consulting, with revenues of over US$ 9.67 billion. Infosys defines, designs and delivers technology-enabled, end-to-end integrated business solutions that “help global 2000 companies win in a Flat World” as they say – a world that has been turned into a level playing field by globalisation and new technologies. Win in a flat world is one of their straplines, linked to the title of Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat (2005); Friedman describes in his book the company’s Bangalore campus as impressive, with world-class facilities. We were taken on a tour of the landscaped grounds by motorised buggy and saw for ourselves the extensive range of architect-designed buildings, some of which housed up-market food courts offering different types of cuisine.

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Powered by intellect, driven by values is another strapline, and it was evident that Infosys takes pride in building strategic long-term client relationships as well as investing in the professional development of their staff. The training of new recruits and existing employees is largely undertaken in Bangalore and at the leadership centre some 90 miles away in Mysore. They train staff to provide a complete range of services - business and technology consulting, application, systems integration, product engineering, custom software development, maintenance, re-engineering, independent testing and validation, IT infrastructure and BPO. Over the years they have moved strategically from a hardware to a software-driven, transformation and innovation approach, and are now expanding into KPO and LPO. They have achieved this by leveraging domain and business expertise, forging strategic alliances with leading technology providers. Infosys pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM), which is based on locating work wherever the best talent is available at the most economic rates and least risk, and this model has resulted in increasing offshore outsourcing practices. Infosys has a global footprint with over 50 offices and development centres in India, China, the UK, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Japan. Worldwide its employees total approximately 113,800, working in a global 24-hour market and specialising in local customisation. Infosys India has weathered the economic downturn by turning to growth in the domestic market, where they stated there was lots of government business to be won. Graduate recruitment They hire a year in advance, from the third year of 4-year degrees. 70% of Infosys workforce is recruited at entry level with most of the recruitment taking

place in India. In 2008 18,000 offers were made to fresh graduates. Entry level is from Engineering, Business and BSc or BTech degrees. Most hires are from all types of engineering degrees – they are confident that they can

shape people with the right background into software engineers, including moulding the mindset and beliefs of the individual.

60% of the offer is based on academic grades achieved in standards 10 – 12 (the final school years). This is followed by a written test and interview.

There is no shortage of applicants but there is a lack of work-readiness: the requisite values, beliefs, technical and soft skills.

Induction and entry-level training is held in Mysore to bridge the gaps and bring everyone to the expected standard in terms of skills and attributes.

Roughly 50% of their recruits are below the age of 25, 50% are aged 25 – 29. To help develop the requisite skills they work with academia in multiple ways:

o establish links with about 500 colleges (Campus Connect); o create an ‘e-school chain’, using a ‘training the trainer’ concept. o offer sabbaticals to create synergy o use technology to deliver courses through webinars and video conferencing.

20,000 staff were hired for the 2010; this is an increase compared to 2009 levels indicating gradual growth in the market.

All offers and commitments were honoured, even in the past year of economic recession, except that new recruits were absorbed more slowly into the firm.

In 2005 for the first time they looked to hire overseas and form multinational teams, to leverage the benefits of diversity and international exposure. They first looked at top universities in the US, and researched this process for 6 months as they had no prior knowledge or experience of hiring overseas. The first batch from the US came to India in 2006, to undertake 4 months with the Education and Research units, then 2 months with the Business units.

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Next they looked at the UK – 25 people came in the first batch. They maintain a presence at careers fairs but do not offer information sessions. There is a good conversion rate from offers made in the UK. The advantage of a diverse mix of skills is evident in people who bring an understanding of the British culture and project management skills into short-term assignments. They look for academic ability and engineering skills, an analytical mind, communication, team working, attention to detail and ability to function in context – all recruited through an elaborate behavioural competency interview and technical assessment. There was a perception that UK HE offers the advantages of practical application of knowledge, critical thinking, engaging more vocally with instructors, international and diverse exposure and therefore better adjustment to diversity. However UK graduates could do with improvement in analytical mathematical ability and customer-facing skills. They also may have location issues and unrealistic salary expectations. Comparatively, graduates in India are generally better able to work in situations of ambiguity, and have a better understanding of IT careers and the outsourced model. They are likely to consider Infosys as an employer of choice. For Indian students who are applying from the UK, the London office of Infosys should be the first point of contact. Vacancies are advertised on the website, direct applications and discussions are welcomed. Additional information: The training and development process is described in detail in the accompanying slides, kindly supplied by the Bangalore office. 12. Edu Overseas (India) Pvt Ltd Meeting: Mr Anthony Thankappan, Director, 5 February 2010 Overview of Edu Overseas

• Work with a range of universities overseas. Provide education counselling service via 1:1 information and advice.

• Mainly work with clients in Bangalore. • One of 24 agents approved by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and also approved by

the British Council. • The only centre in Bangalore authorised to offer IELTS testing.

Perception of UK education

• The UK remains a popular destination for education, particularly for MBAs, with nearly 40,000 Indian students applying to study in the UK every year.

• UK taught Masters are attractive as they can be completed in one year. • A key factor influencing the choice to study in the UK is possible employment

opportunities after the course. • There is an impression that the US has more graduate job opportunities, especially in

the current economic climate. • It was suggested that there are three categories of students:

o Category 1 – Students who come just for studies in the UK and have every intention of returning to India. These students usually come from wealthy

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families and there is no pressure to recover tuition fees. Some students in this category are high performers. They are usually government sponsored for specific short courses related to an area of work, looking to undertake research. This cohort makes up 5% of students in the UK.

o Category 2 – Students from middle class families who have not succeeded in getting into Tier 1 HEIs such as the Institute of Management or Institute of Technology, which are very competitive. They are usually interested in securing work in the UK to recover tuition fees and pay back family loans. According to Education Overseas 70% of tuition fees are paid through family loans. This cohort makes up 20% of students in the UK.

o Category 3 – General category of student, usually in a non-tiered university often with poor academics. The motivation is to enter the UK for economic reasons. This cohort makes up 65% of students choosing to study in the UK.

Perceived benefits and disadvantages of UK education

• UK MAs are seen as a selling point as they can be completed in one year; however the quality of education is often questioned in comparison to the Indian two-year MA.

• Students from Category 2 would have to pay to secure a place in an Institute of Technology or Management; this is usually more expensive compared to UK education.

• Admission in the UK as seen as easy particularly among the lower ranking universities. Some students strategically target these universities as a way to enter the country.

• Students fall out of touch with their networks making it difficult to job hunt in India. • UK education does not command the same level of credibility compared to ten years

ago, and is also competing with HE qualifications gained in the USA, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

• UK MBAs in particular are not perceived as being of a high standard, mainly due to the lack of pre-entrance exams such as the GMAT in many universities.

How are jobs advertised?

• Online on jobsites such as Naukri and Monster India. • Applicants can cold-call or walk in to companies with their CVs; however this is time

consuming and yields little success. • Placement agencies are a good option to secure jobs but they charge for their

services. • The most effective way of securing employment is through personal referrals and

family networks.

Other points of note:

• Indian Institutes of Management and Institutes of Technology (equivalent to Tier 1 universities such as Oxbridge) have now secured permission from the Indian government to allocate 5% of seats to overseas students.

• Graduates from the Institutes are highly sought after by employers.