Nowadays, many universities only teach the operation of well-known foreign software, just like primary school students want to learn to calculate, but they are taught how to use calculators.
Industrial software manufacturers should cooperate with industrial enterprises, explore standardized and streamlined training mechanisms, build industrial software training centers, and help cultivate compound talents and build teams.
In the software industry, industrial software is a niche industry, but it is the brain and nerve of industrial manufacturing, which plays a key role in the industrial chain and can be called the crown of industrial field. High-end industrial software is the jewel in the crown.
Many insiders said that China's industrial software has a low degree of autonomy, lacking both crown and pearl. Behind this is the grim reality that industrial software talents are in short supply. Specifically, the training of industrial software talents in China is facing the bottleneck of great difficulty, long period and low treatment.
In June this year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Guide to the Construction of Characteristic Demonstration Software Colleges (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Construction Guide"), focusing on the training of industrial software talents. Will the phenomenon of "off supply" of industrial software talents be alleviated?
Industrial software talents "cut off supply"
The problems encountered by this company in recruitment reflect the talent dilemma faced by the industrial software industry to some extent. According to the Construction Guide, there were 6.73 million employees in the software and information technology service industry in China last year, up 4.7% year-on-year. However, the gap is still large and structural contradictions are prominent. Among them, the shortage of key basic software and large-scale industrial software talents is particularly serious.
Industrial software includes R&D design (EDA, CAD, CAE, etc. ), production scheduling and process control (MES, SCADA, etc.). ) and enterprise management (ERP, SCM, HRM, etc. ), in which R&D design is the core and key. According to the research report of Founder Securities, at present, there are about 1.500 people engaged in electronic design automation (EDA) software research and development in China, and only about 300 people actually serve the local EDA research and development.
The shortage of industrial software R&D talents makes it difficult for domestic industrial software to develop independently, and foreign giants almost monopolize the industrial software market in China. According to the research and evaluation of the Institute of Information, Dassault, Siemens, PTC and Autodesk in China have a market share of over 90%. In the CAE simulation software market, American companies such as ANSYS, ALTAIR and NASTRAN account for more than 95% of the market.
R&D personnel of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Company are discussing technical issues. Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Company
Three difficulties in personnel training
First, it is difficult to cultivate. According to industry insiders, industrial software talents need both the ability to master industrial knowledge and the ability to know software industry.
Wu Aibin, chairman of Lang Kun Smart Technology Co., Ltd. said that the development of industrial software needs the integration of information technology and operation technology. In the process of software design and research and development, we need compound talents who understand both informatization and industrial mechanism. "But the current situation is that the business people in the factory know the industrial process, but they don't know the software design. IT talents understand software design, but they don't understand industrial manufacturing business. "
Second, "hematopoiesis" is poor. In the aspect of training industrial software talents, research institutes in colleges and universities should talk about the theory, algorithm, programming and implementation of industrial software, but now many colleges and universities only teach the operation of well-known foreign software, so it is difficult to train qualified industrial software R&D talents. Yang Chunhui, director of the Software and Systems Research Department of the Fifth Institute of Electronics, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that it is like primary school students should learn computing skills, but they are taught how to use calculators instead of mastering real computing skills.
Huang, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Guangdong University of Technology, said that the core content of industrial software is the solution of the underlying equations, which is the most difficult bone to chew. "Now the teachers introduced by the school don't understand or are not interested in this piece. Everyone prefers fashionable artificial intelligence, big data and other fields, and is unwilling to smash the hard bone of industrial software. " Huang said:
Furthermore, industrial software designers can accumulate industrial knowledge from industrial fields for a long time, but the test of transforming knowledge into software is whether software designers can really understand the mechanism and model of industrial fields. "It is difficult to directly cultivate industrial software design talents by school teaching alone, and it needs the relay cooperation of the industry, and the integration of production and education is not smooth at present." Yang Chunhui said.
Third, the treatment is low. Chen Liping, director of the CAD Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, believes that most domestic software talents are trained as upper-level application software, and the most basic fields such as algorithms, operating systems and software development environment are neglected, so it is difficult to build a good ecology from algorithms to software to applications, partly because enterprises that make upper-level application software can provide better treatment.
A person in charge of an industrial software R&D-related unit said that the annual salary of newly graduated master graduates in their unit is between 1.2 million yuan and 1.5 million yuan, while the annual income of developers can only reach 200,000 yuan after working for seven or eight years. Some internet and game companies can easily hire people who earn several times the annual salary. The loss of experienced developers is a common feeling of many companies.
"Providing a good platform can retain talents in the short term, but after accumulating to a certain extent, it will definitely leave, because the salary level is difficult to retain people." The person in charge said.
Universities and industries need cooperation.
The interviewed experts believe that in order to cultivate our own industrial software talent team and realize independent control of industrial software, China needs to focus on reforming the student training system, deepening the integration of production and education, and guiding talent investment.
First, reform the training mode of industrial software talents in colleges and universities. Liu Yufeng, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Software Co., Ltd., a CAD software company, said that it often takes 6 ~ 18 months for the new graduates recruited by his company to really produce output, which shows that the training of industrial software talents in colleges and universities is not targeted enough for the "industry", and attention should be paid to interdisciplinary training. For example, in curriculum design, students studying industrial software research and development should not only know how to make software, but also know the basic knowledge of an industry, and both majors should be thoroughly studied.
In view of the problem that some colleges and universities have changed the cultivation of basic theory into teaching students how to use foreign industrial software, the interviewed experts believe that it must be resolutely corrected, and at the same time, attention should be paid to educating engineering students on the basic principles of industrial software use.
Second, deepen the integration of production and education and work together to cultivate talents. Zhang Pengcheng, director of the Department of Software Engineering, School of Computer and Information Science, Hohai University, suggested that colleges and universities should cooperate with benchmark enterprises with independent intellectual property rights as much as possible, design a full-cycle and all-round training mode, and jointly train professionals with enterprises. Wu Aibin suggested that industrial software manufacturers cooperate with industrial enterprises, explore standardized and streamlined training mechanisms, build industrial software training centers, and help cultivate compound talents and build teams.
The Construction Guide also proposes to highlight the professional characteristics and build and improve the curriculum system and practical ability teaching system of new software technologies, new models and new formats around the characteristic needs of talents such as key basic software and large-scale industrial software.
Third, encourage more talents to join the industrial software industry. Huang suggested that the state strengthen guidance, especially let large state-owned enterprises play their responsibilities, so that a group of people are willing to sit on the bench and do a good job in industrial software research and development. At the university level, more professors are encouraged to participate in industrial software research, and joint research laboratories are established between enterprises and schools.
In addition, there are about 5 million IT employees and 40-50 million engineering and technical personnel in China, so we should fully mobilize the enthusiasm of existing industry talents and carry out industrial software research and development. For example, open communication channels between industrial enterprises and software R&D industry, and government departments and large industrial enterprises set up bonuses to encourage talents in the software industry to tackle industrial software projects.
In improving the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in industrial software research and development, the person in charge of an automation enterprise in Jiangsu expressed the hope to give more support to private enterprises in talent introduction. For example, in terms of talent identification standards, talents who affirm the needs of enterprises and have practical achievements and practical effects do not necessarily have doctoral degrees and overseas backgrounds. □