Are engineering graduates ready for R&D jobs in emerging countries? Teaching-focused industry-academia collaboration strategies

Dhruba Borah, Khaleel Malik and Silvia Massini ()

Research Policy, 2019, vol. 48, issue 9, -

Abstract: Most Engineering and Technology (E&T) graduates in emerging countries are not educated to the same quality level as E&T graduates in advanced countries, and this may require firms to make significant on-the-job training investments to prepare these graduates for R&D positions. In this paper, we present research findings from a study of 10 firms located in India (both multinationals and local firms), through 65 interviews and extensive secondary data, to establish how these firms form teaching-focused collaborations with universities to train students with the pre-requisite skills necessary for R&D operations while simultaneously reducing on-the-job training investment. We suggest the viability of teaching-focused industry-academia (I-A) collaborations as a talent recruitment strategy in emerging countries. We also demonstrate the potential of such collaborations to provide an alternative to the traditional graduate recruitment and development model: ‘on-the-job training’. Through the identification of different forms of teaching-focused I-A collaborations aimed at enhancing both theoretical knowledge and industry and firm-specific practical and applied skills in graduates, along with their associated drivers and challenges, this paper strengthens a much-neglected dimension of the I-A collaboration literature: the role of collaborative activities for teaching between industry and university.

Keywords: Industry-academia collaborations; Teaching; Human capital; Talent; R&D; Emerging economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:48:y:2019:i:9:37

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2019.103837

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