Outlook

Behind the shortage of industrial software talents is the difficulty in cultivating talents, poor "blood production", and low industry remuneration.

Many universities now only teach the use of well-known foreign software, and that's it. For example, primary school students are supposed to learn computing skills, but instead they are asked to learn how to use calculators

Industrial software vendors should work with industrial enterprises to explore a standardized and process-based training mechanism and build an industrial software training center , assisting the cultivation and team building of interdisciplinary talents

In the software industry, industrial software is a niche industry, but it is the brain and nerve of industrial manufacturing. It plays a key role in the industrial chain and can be called industrial software. Crown of the realm. High-end industrial software is the crown jewel.

Many industry insiders said that my country’s industrial software has a low degree of autonomy and lacks both crowns and pearls. Behind this is the grim reality that the supply of industrial software talents has been cut off. Specifically, the training of industrial software talents in my country faces bottlenecks such as difficulty, long cycle, and low remuneration.

In June this year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of Characteristic Demonstration Software Colleges (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Construction Guidelines"), focusing on the cultivation of industrial software talents. Will the shortage of industrial software talent be alleviated?

The supply of industrial software talents is "cut off"

The problems this company encountered during recruitment reflect, to a certain extent, the talent dilemma currently facing the industrial software industry. The "Construction Guide" shows that the number of employees in my country's software and information technology service industry reached 6.73 million last year, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. However, there is still a large gap overall, and structural contradictions are prominent. Among them, the talent shortage is particularly serious in the two fields of critical basic software and large-scale industrial software.

Industrial software includes three major areas: R&D design (EDA, CAD, CAE, etc.), production scheduling and process control (MES, SCADA, etc.), and business management (ERP, SCM, HRM, etc.). Among them, the R&D and design category is the most core and critical. According to a research report by Founder Securities, there are currently about 1,500 people engaged in electronic design automation (EDA) software research and development in China, and only about 300 people are actually serving local EDA research and development.

The extreme shortage of industrial software R&D talents makes it difficult for domestic industrial software to be developed independently, and foreign giants almost monopolize my country's industrial software market. According to the research evaluation of the Institute for Intelligence, in my country's computer-aided design (CAD) software market, Dassault of France, Siemens of Germany, PTC of the United States, and Autodesk of the United States account for more than 90% of the market share. In the CAE simulation software market, American companies such as ANSYS, ALTAIR, and NASTRAN occupy more than 95% of the market share.

R&D personnel of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Company are discussing technical issues. Photo provided by Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Company

Talent training encounters three difficulties

First, training is difficult. According to industry insiders, industrial software talents need to have both the ability to master industrial knowledge and the ability to software-ify industrial knowledge.

Wu Aibin, Chairman of Luculent Smart Technology Co., Ltd., said that the development of industrial software requires the integration of information technology and operational technology. In the software design and development process, it requires people who understand both informatization and industrial mechanisms. Comprehensive talents, "But the current situation is that factory business personnel understand industrial processes, but do not understand software design. IT talents understand software design, but do not understand industrial manufacturing business."

Second, "hematopoietic "Difference. When it comes to cultivating industrial software talents, university research institutes are supposed to teach R&D knowledge such as industrial software theory, algorithms, program design and implementation. However, many universities now only teach the use and operation of well-known foreign software, making it difficult to cultivate qualified industrial software R&D talents. Yang Chunhui, director of the Software and Systems Research Department of the Fifth Institute of Electronics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that this is like primary school students who were originally supposed to learn computing skills, but instead they were asked to learn how to use calculators without mastering real computing skills.

Huang Yunbao, 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 underlying equations, which is the hardest nut to crack.

"The teachers introduced by the school now neither understand nor are interested in this field. Everyone prefers fashionable fields such as artificial intelligence and big data, and is unwilling to deal with the hard nut of industrial software." Huang Yunbao said.

Furthermore, if industrial software designers want to acquire industrial knowledge, they can accumulate it over a long period of time in the industrial field. However, turning knowledge into software tests whether software designers can truly understand the mechanisms and models of the industrial field. "It is difficult to cultivate industrial software design talents who can get started directly by relying on school teaching alone. It also requires relay cooperation from the industry. However, the integration of industry 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 domestic software talent training is mostly focused on upper-level application software. There is little interest in the most basic areas such as algorithms, operating systems, and software development environments. It is difficult to build a system from algorithm to software to application. Part of the reason for the good ecology is that companies that make upper-level application software can provide better treatment.

The person in charge of an industrial software R&D-related unit said that the annual salary of newly graduated master's degree graduates in his unit is between 120,000 and 150,000 yuan, and developers after working for seven or eight years can only earn It can reach 200,000 yuan. Some Internet and game companies can easily poach people with several times their annual salary. The loss of experienced developers is a feeling shared by many companies.

"Providing a good platform can retain talents in the short term, but after accumulating to a certain level, they will definitely leave because the salary level makes it difficult to retain people." The person in charge said.

Universities and industries need to work together

Experts interviewed believe that in order for our country to cultivate its own industrial software talent team and achieve independent controllability of industrial software, it needs to reform the student training system , deepen the integration of industry and education, and guide the investment of talents.

First, reform the way industrial software talents are trained in universities. Liu Yufeng, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Software Co., Ltd., a CAD software company, said that the fresh graduates recruited by his company often need to be trained for 6 to 18 months before they can really produce results. This shows that the training of industrial software talents in universities is of great significance to "industry". It is not targeted enough, and we should focus on interdisciplinary training. For example, in terms of curriculum design, students studying industrial software research and development must not only be able to make software, but also understand certain basic industrial knowledge, and must thoroughly study both majors.

In response to the problem that some colleges and universities turn basic theoretical training 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 using industrial software. .

Second, deepen the integration of industry and education and work together to cultivate talents. Zhang Pengcheng, director of the Software Engineering Department of the School of Computer and Information Science of Hohai University, suggested that the university should try its best to have in-depth industry-education cooperation with benchmark companies with independent intellectual property core technologies, design a full-cycle and all-round training model, and jointly cultivate professional talents with companies. . Wu Aibin suggested that industrial software vendors should work with industrial enterprises to explore a standardized and process-based training mechanism and build an industrial software training center to assist in the cultivation and team building of interdisciplinary talents.

The "Construction Guide" also proposes to highlight professional characteristics and build and improve courses and practices for new software technologies, new models, and new business formats around the unique needs for talents such as key basic software and large-scale industrial software. Ability teaching system.

Third, encourage more talents to join the industrial software industry. Huang Yunbao suggested that the state should strengthen guidance, especially let large state-owned enterprises take on their responsibilities, so that a group of people would be willing to sit on the bench and do a solid job in industrial software research and development. At the university level, encourage more professors to participate in industrial software research and establish joint scientific research laboratories between enterprises and schools.

In addition, China has about 5 million IT employees and 40 to 50 million engineering and technical personnel. We should fully mobilize the enthusiasm of existing industry talents to carry out industrial software research and development. For example, by opening up communication channels between industrial enterprises and the software R&D industry, government departments and large industrial enterprises have set up bonuses to encourage talents in the software industry to tackle industrial software projects.

In order to increase the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in industrial software research and development, the person in charge of an automation company in Jiangsu expressed the hope to provide more support to private enterprises in the introduction of talents. For example, in terms of talent identification standards, more emphasis is placed on identifying talents that are needed by the company, have actual results and practical utility, and do not necessarily have to have a doctorate or overseas background.

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