Indians job losses cast a shadow on study abroad programmes?

Hyderabad: Should series of Global Education and Admission Fairs be given a break? This is the general feeling among the parents and students keeping in view of the fact that many companies in US are resorting to lay offs on large scale and similar situation may arise even in UK soon.

Over 45 global universities will participate in the fair on January 28 where students are offered information about scholarships from State Government Funding agencies for their overseas education etc.

The GECF will assist the students in waiving the processing fees; free online IELTS coaching; waiver of SOP editing charges; ELQ Scholarship (subject to graduating from GECF member institution in Telangana); free support service to process bank loans; free student visa support services, said Lakshmi Narayanan.

But speaking to Hans India, Pulakit Goyal, a software engineer from the United Kingdom, said, "currently, the layoffs are not in full steam in the UK. But I am sure, soon the layoffs are around the corner and will start impacting businesses and families."

I don't see any alternatives other than finding another job or switching to other sectors," he adds.

Explaining further, G Sindhuri from the USA points out that if the layoff employee is on Visa like H1B they need to get a job in 60 days, including holidays. They get 15-day buffer days to leave the country.

Voching the current precarious situation the Indians facing on account of job losses, Sonam Kapoor, another software professional says, people have a lot of loans here causing deep impact on the families. The market and economy right now are fragile and volatile, and there is a lot of instability.

Ishan Agarwal, who sifted from Malaysia back to India, said so far, no one in his circle has reportedly been impacted by the tech layoffs. However, everyone is very cautious with their position and work.

But certainly, these developments create fear for students to go abroad to study and work, says Nandita Reddy, from Hyderabad who has completed her B.Sc in computer sciences and aspires to pursue her master's in the USA.

She said one can go with a fully funded scholarship. But under the present circumstances, earn-while-learn mode looks tougher proposition. Further, her inquiries revealed that there are fewer on-campus job offerings and the funding for scholarship from the universities and the governments are coming down.

Lakshmi Narayanan, Secretary, The Global Education and Careers Forum (GECF) allays the fears, saying, "most of these job losses and fears associated come from and worries those from the CSE and IT." He said there are more than three lakh jobs unfilled in the field of Cyber Security.