[Idonnaink]

BANGALORE, India—Call-center company 24/7 Customer Pvt. Ltd. is desperate to find new recruits who can answer questions by phone and email. It wants to hire 3,000 people this year. Yet in this country of 1.2 billion people, that is beginning to look like an impossible goal.

So few of the high school and college graduates who come through the door can communicate effectively in English, and so many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension, that the company can hire just three out of every 100 applicants...Yet 24/7 Customer's experience tells a very different story. Its increasing difficulty finding competent employees in India has forced the company to expand its search to the Philippines and Nicaragua. Most of its 8,000 employees are now based outside of India.

In the nation that made offshoring a household word, 24/7 finds itself so short of talent that it is having to offshore...Business executives say schools are hampered by overbearing bureaucracy and a focus on rote learning rather than critical thinking and comprehension. Government keeps tuition low, which makes schools accessible to more students, but also keeps teacher salaries and budgets low. What's more, say educators and business leaders, the curriculum in most places is outdated and disconnected from the real world.

"If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys," says Vijay Thadani, c India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire - WSJ.com

[GVsdJZ2H]

India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire - WSJ.com

Unsurprisingly 90+% of their engineering schools are total ****. This falls in line with my professional experience.

[IteseFrusty]

I've managed several large IT projects where the development has been offshored to India. From my experience, most of the good Indian IT people are already over here. The "rote learning vs critical thinking" aspect is the root of the problem there.

[medio]

I've managed several large IT projects where the development has been offshored to India. From my experience, most of the good Indian IT people are already over here. The "rote learning vs critical thinking" aspect is the root of the problem there.

That was my daughter's critique of the situation. And those that can, will cheat.

[Blellurgews]

And those that can, will cheat.

You don't mean that's unique to India, i assume.

[ringtonesmannq]

I go into the 7-11 for a small coffee.
It's $1.40....

I hand the hindi a $5 bill and 40 cents in change.....

He rings it up on the high-tech electronic register.....
And STILL scratches his head trying to FIGURE OUT WHAT CHANGE TO GIVE ME BACK!

WTF?

[snunsebrugs]

As I was reading the story, I thought, will US company outsourcing be affected by this info?

[botagozzz]

I knew aggie wasn't as smart as he looks.

[lierro]

That was my daughter's critique of the situation. And those that can, will cheat.

Having recently gone back to school for and completing my masters in engineering, I can agree with this.

You don't mean that's unique to India, i assume.

And this.

[welihiedginly]

I've said it before "These kids in the hood need to get some direction so they can fill these jobs because being from India does not equate with being a braniac, as many companies tend to think"...

[Ad0i89Od]

I can also attest to the notion that Indian schools teach memorization, not critical thinking. It's most apparent (to me) with sites that focus on .NET languages, as the Indian "programmers" often just paste code snippets that have nothing to do with the problem at hand.

One of my teachers at Temple is from India and simply uses online, multiple-choice exams for everything. I have a feeling that's how everything is there.