In every conceivable field, introduction of computers has made a huge difference and the engineering industry isn't an exception. This puts students and professionals through a steep learning curve which, of course, also comes with the promise of a handsome reward.

Traditionally, product lifecycle had to have more prototyping in order to see if a design can actually stand the wear and tear of the real-time environment. With the advent of the computer-based Virtual Product Development (VPD's) and other methods of simulating the designs in a virtual environment, companies manufacturing engineering products like automobiles or machineries have found the perfect way of cutting down the number of prototypes used to test the efficacy of a design, whereby they saved a lot of money spent for developing those prototypes and brought down the time taken for a product to be manufactured and marketed.

This means there is more work for students and professionals, who find the need to stay abreast with the sweeping changes computers have wrought to the engineering industry.

"After all, they have to possess the necessary skills for jobs and professionals need to move up the career ladder faster," said V S Mahadevan, Vice President, CSM software, who provides Services, Training, Products, Process Consulting and Onsite Design of VPD tools. "These days, CAD/CAM and CAE have also become a career option in itself, as engineering companies abroad look at India for outsourcing engineering services."

CSM's technology learning centre, which is one of the divisions at CSM Software, is an attempt to bridge the growing need for trained workforce and students searching for means to enhance their career. Mahadevan says that training offered at the centre is comprehensive, as they use almost all popular tools used for real-time product designing, testing and analysis in the industry. Besides focussing on domain information, students, who vary from individuals to employees of different organisations, are given hands on training on the tools, some of which are accepted as standards by the world's leading manufacturers.

As for getting students for the programme, Mahadevan said CSM reaches out to them directly by conducting contact programmes at colleges and universities. The contact programmes explain how students can enhance their career by learning to work with VPD tools. "Once they understand that CAD/CAM and CAE are important value additions, students approach us and register for training," he said.

Needless to mention that this isn't the ordinary computer training that opens its doors for anyone interested. A firm understanding of engineering concepts and a basic level of mathematics and analytics are expected of students applying for training at the CSM learning centre.

Mahadevan explained that the training is more or less like the graduate apprenticeship: "They will be taught of various aspects of designing, modelling and simulation, sufficient for them to get an over all understanding of how these tools are applied in testing designs in industries such as automobile and aircraft manufacturing."
Of course, those interested in specialisation are also encouraged to learn the specific area of interest, such as BIW (Body In White) in automobile engineering - which is nothing but designing and assembling the shell of a car.
The course for professionals is held separately and has been designed keeping in mind the unique and different challenges they face as persons with considerable work experience. Mahadevan gives the example of someone working in CAE wanting to learn advance concepts like Finite Element Analysis (FEA).

"The training programme for professionals can sometimes be demand-driven," Mahadevan explained. "For example, a company that gets a project in Catia, a 3-D modelling tool, may approach us to re-train their own employees working with CAD/CAE instead of recruiting candidates from outside."

He mentioned that training modules are designed in conjunction with organisations and people who have an in-depth knowledge of the domain and tools and are taught by experts. "Given our closer partnership with the industry for several years, we get to know about job vacancies quite frequently and it isn't therefore difficult for students to get placements," Mahadevan said.

For more information on the programmes, log on to:  www.csmsoftware.com/training