As I Google ‘Indian Navy’ on the internet, the hyperlinks to Naval College of Engineering and Sixth Pay Commission catch my eye. I wonder at the timing of my college’s Golden Jubilee being in news, at the same juncture, as hectic parleying for the Sixth Pay Commission is peaking in the media. Is it irony then, that their paths-meet? Pay Commission trying to attract best talent into it’s fold and NCE grooming the aspiring talent standing at it’s portal? So, while these current issues grab eyeballs of opinion makers, I feel tempted to steal mind’s of decision makers in Navy.
The technological and intellectual milieu, for places of learning, are churning and changing at breakneck speed. The Naval College of Engineering, as a feeder establishment for armed forces cannot remain insulated from the winds of change. If we reflect and take cue from the paradigm shift in the society we will see the gulf in our approach to the two concerns, firstly the NCE requirement to adapt to job relevance of the ever changing Navy and secondly it’s ability to live up to the aspiration of it’s budding engineers. These out of ordinary times, call for out of box thinking!
Fundamentally, relevance to job profile of a graduating engineer, is driven by HR concept to balance domain expertise and domain experience. Is there adequate work experience or exposure to Engineering standards like ASME, ASTM, BIS and ISO to budding engineers? Is there not a disconnect between the practicals in college and the practices onboard ships that need to be bridged and need not wait till MESC.?
Further, an engineer in the making, at any other premiere institute, burns midnight oil to add skill sets to his resume by learning and applying industry tools for PDMS, PID, ERP and SCM. Our new corps of Engineer Officer have to be armed by NCE with skills beyond the smoke-stack technologies of the industrial age, available in abundance with our army of dockyard foremen and armada of artificers. As the saying goes ‘if the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems will look like a nail’.
Alvin Toffler in his book Revolutionary Wealth states: ‘Educationists who attempt to redesign old institutions face resistance and innovators who seek to create new institutions face skepticism. Nineteenth century gave us Universities, Twentieth century gave us Research, Twenty first century combined research and university to give us Think Tanks’. The halo of awe around all great institutions is built on combined excellence in Teaching, Training, Research and Consulting. I may sound like I’m ‘spoiling the party’, but why is Research assigned to the Design/Professional Directorates only and Consulting the exclusive preserve of Trial/Workup teams, in this era of seamless integration of resources? Naval College of Engineering has to question whether its audience is confined to fellow academicians, Indian Navy, or both? By involving in research and consultancy for contemporary shipbuilding/ship-repair issues NCE can evolve into ‘Think Tank’ and break into the Brand of Indian Ivy leagues.
The concept of NCE as a Brand brings the compass needle of discussion, back to the original teaser question raised; Naval College shares burden of Pay Commission-Is it a Pipedream ? The current focus on tangibles like pay, perks and service conditions, as the only way to attract young impressionable minds of this nation is a skewed approach. In this media savvy era where brand-building as an art has surmounted evangelism, even God cannot be sold to people if not packaged and branded properly. In the formative years at NCE, the college not only makes us an engineers, but also lays the foundation to the mettle, that forms the core of an officer’s self belief and self worth. This self worth, exuded by our sub-lieutenants and midshipman along with their parents and the image thus perceived by peers in society, is the most credible emissary of NCE. Hence the question, how does the College administration hasten this process of building up it’s brand image? The five pronged approach for increasing presence in the circles of aspiring engineers can be seen as:
· Set a target to feature within top ten ranking engineering colleges shoulder to shoulder with IITs. After all, if AFMC can do it in field of medicine why can’t we at NCE do so?
· Consistent publications by faculty staff and students in peer-reviewed journals, conferences outside Navy needs to be given impetus.
· Increase the collaboration between college and intelligentsia from industry and professional societies for sake of advancement in contemporary knowledge and practices.
· Set a milestone for being recognized as an Engineering college as per ‘Washington Accord-1989’ of developed nations. At present only a select few colleges in India satisfy the QRs. If we can adhere to STCW, why not Washington accord parity?
· When we will build a coalition of the willing, the alumni network has to be nurtured and strengthened to link past, present and future students on same level field. An officer with single nelson ringed on his shoulder should be able to relate/connect to an admiral with a double braid on his peak cap.
The technological and intellectual milieu, for places of learning, are churning and changing at breakneck speed. The Naval College of Engineering, as a feeder establishment for armed forces cannot remain insulated from the winds of change. If we reflect and take cue from the paradigm shift in the society we will see the gulf in our approach to the two concerns, firstly the NCE requirement to adapt to job relevance of the ever changing Navy and secondly it’s ability to live up to the aspiration of it’s budding engineers. These out of ordinary times, call for out of box thinking!
Fundamentally, relevance to job profile of a graduating engineer, is driven by HR concept to balance domain expertise and domain experience. Is there adequate work experience or exposure to Engineering standards like ASME, ASTM, BIS and ISO to budding engineers? Is there not a disconnect between the practicals in college and the practices onboard ships that need to be bridged and need not wait till MESC.?
Further, an engineer in the making, at any other premiere institute, burns midnight oil to add skill sets to his resume by learning and applying industry tools for PDMS, PID, ERP and SCM. Our new corps of Engineer Officer have to be armed by NCE with skills beyond the smoke-stack technologies of the industrial age, available in abundance with our army of dockyard foremen and armada of artificers. As the saying goes ‘if the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems will look like a nail’.
Alvin Toffler in his book Revolutionary Wealth states: ‘Educationists who attempt to redesign old institutions face resistance and innovators who seek to create new institutions face skepticism. Nineteenth century gave us Universities, Twentieth century gave us Research, Twenty first century combined research and university to give us Think Tanks’. The halo of awe around all great institutions is built on combined excellence in Teaching, Training, Research and Consulting. I may sound like I’m ‘spoiling the party’, but why is Research assigned to the Design/Professional Directorates only and Consulting the exclusive preserve of Trial/Workup teams, in this era of seamless integration of resources? Naval College of Engineering has to question whether its audience is confined to fellow academicians, Indian Navy, or both? By involving in research and consultancy for contemporary shipbuilding/ship-repair issues NCE can evolve into ‘Think Tank’ and break into the Brand of Indian Ivy leagues.
The concept of NCE as a Brand brings the compass needle of discussion, back to the original teaser question raised; Naval College shares burden of Pay Commission-Is it a Pipedream ? The current focus on tangibles like pay, perks and service conditions, as the only way to attract young impressionable minds of this nation is a skewed approach. In this media savvy era where brand-building as an art has surmounted evangelism, even God cannot be sold to people if not packaged and branded properly. In the formative years at NCE, the college not only makes us an engineers, but also lays the foundation to the mettle, that forms the core of an officer’s self belief and self worth. This self worth, exuded by our sub-lieutenants and midshipman along with their parents and the image thus perceived by peers in society, is the most credible emissary of NCE. Hence the question, how does the College administration hasten this process of building up it’s brand image? The five pronged approach for increasing presence in the circles of aspiring engineers can be seen as:
· Set a target to feature within top ten ranking engineering colleges shoulder to shoulder with IITs. After all, if AFMC can do it in field of medicine why can’t we at NCE do so?
· Consistent publications by faculty staff and students in peer-reviewed journals, conferences outside Navy needs to be given impetus.
· Increase the collaboration between college and intelligentsia from industry and professional societies for sake of advancement in contemporary knowledge and practices.
· Set a milestone for being recognized as an Engineering college as per ‘Washington Accord-1989’ of developed nations. At present only a select few colleges in India satisfy the QRs. If we can adhere to STCW, why not Washington accord parity?
· When we will build a coalition of the willing, the alumni network has to be nurtured and strengthened to link past, present and future students on same level field. An officer with single nelson ringed on his shoulder should be able to relate/connect to an admiral with a double braid on his peak cap.
I sing the last lullaby to my pipe dream narrated here, taking strength from what I read in an editorial of USNI Proceedings, ‘the pages of this magazine are open to all, no senior officer holds title of any real estate in pages of Proceedings’. Arundhati Roy, the writer, has said ‘Take a position, have a point of view, I am all for being circumspect, discretion, prudence and tentativeness. But history has had episodes where discretion was euphemism for pusillanimity to changing status quo, when caution was actually cowardice to face change, when circumspection was really a kind of espousal of turf.’ The grooming of intellectual audacity of a thinker and kindling the controlled aggression of a doer is a soft skill that no pay commission will provide. But our alma matar definitely can inculcate it in our fresh crop of engineers, that’s my pipedream for Naval College of Engineering.
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