The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

prime concern Technical education
Not engineered for jobs
Not too far back in time, an engineering degree was a sure-shot guarantee for employment. Now it’s changed. Poor knowledge of English and skills that don’t match the market standards are coming in the way of the employability of graduates.
By Aditi Tandon

Few years ago, no one would have imagined that engineers could use their edge in English to pip competitors to top industry jobs. Today this is fast becoming a reality. An increasing body of evidence from the field is suggesting that verbal and written communication, coupled with etiquette, has become as much of a hiring norm for the employers of fresh engineering graduates as the conceptual knowledge of engineering domains.

The National Employability Report for Engineering Graduates published recently by Aspiring Minds, a company that tests job seekers’ employability, revealed that around 60 per cent of engineering graduates fail to get jobs because they lack the required level of English. Add to that another finding — only 17 per cent students who graduate from engineering institutions annually have the skill-set the booming information technology (IT) sector is looking for.

These findings echo the concerns contained in the NASSCOM-McKinsey’s recent report on the state of employability of India’s engineers. It says while worker requirement in the IT and business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry in India will increase from seven lakh to 2.3 million until 2013, a shortfall of five lakh workers will remain, not because of dearth of engineering graduates, but because of their lack of employability.

Only one in four engineering graduates and one in 10 general graduates are employable by MNCs, says the National Association of Software and Service companies-McKinsey document which haunts policy makers. So what is going wrong?

Not adding up

Technical education institutes annually produce around five lakh engineers. This includes those graduating from the 15 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other Centrally funded institutes along with the 1,500 private institutions approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulates 90 per cent of technical education.

With accreditation of technical courses still a far cry, the quality of instruction continues to falter across levels, resulting in a poor pool of engineering talent not fit to meet industry requirements. In 2003, a report submitted by former ISRO chairman UR Rao had questioned the mad rush for new technical institutions, urging the AICTE to stop approving colleges mindlessly.

The report had warned that the rate of increase of engineering graduates was around 15 to 25 per cent as against only 5 to 8 per cent growth rate of the economy. Naturally, they would not be absorbed into jobs.

“A serious situation has arisen because of the mushrooming of private technical institutions. Barring some exceptions, there is scant regard for maintenance of standards in these places,” Rao had said.

The advice went unheeded and the government continued to back new institutions to boost the poor gross enrollment ratio in higher education (18 per cent as against 24 per cent, the global average). As a result, while the colleges kept producing the numbers, the quality suffered on account of lack of mandatory accreditation, back-breaking faculty crunch in technical colleges (the sector is short of 1.5 lakh teachers) and wide gap between academia and industry collaboration.

“One of the major problems has been the dilution of core engineering streams by universities. This has led to a decline in the level of domain knowledge being imparted to students. The industry-academic collaboration is lacking. We are stressing active practical industrial training sessions as part of the curriculum. We recently circulated a model to bring the courses in line with the changing market and industry requirements,” says SS Mantha, AICTE Chairman.

Losing out

But the industry is not convinced. Top software firms based out of Gurgaon are struggling to hire the right candidates, with most managing to hire an average of two out of every 100 applications.

President of the Apeejay Stya Group, Sushma Berlia, explains, “Apart from domain knowledge, we are also looking for soft skills. An engineer today has to communicate with the client, engage with the organisation and its goals, work in a team and understand the dynamics of workplace better. Finding the right candidates is a challenge. Also, there is shortage of mechanical and civil engineers even though there is huge requirement of civil engineers.”

A research by the group shows civil engineering programmes had the capacity to enroll 13,500 students in 1990s while computer science and IT departments could accept 12,100. By 2008, the IT and computer science programmes ballooned to 1,93,500 while civil engineering programmes climbed to only 22,700.

Another problem is lack of core skills in emerging sectors such as Big Data business. Berlia admits, “NASSCOM has pointed out how software firms are facing shortage of skilled engineers. India’s biggest software firms are looking for more business from areas such as Big Data but there is shortage of engineers to analyse data. We have only 50,000 engineers to undertake such projects whereas the requirement is five times more.”

The market for Big Data (decoding huge chunks of information) in India will grow at about 38 per cent a year from $58.4 million in 2011 to $153.1 million in 2014, according to a study by technology researcher International Data Corp, which estimated that the world generates 1 petabyte of data every 11 seconds.

Brushing up

Jobs are surfacing in new-age sectors while classrooms are caught in a time warp. Another major challenge for the ministry is addressing faculty crunch. “Employers on campus hunts look for students who have done projects. And project outcome is directly related to the availability of faculty,” says a senior professor at the IIT Kanpur. The IIT system itself is short of faculty.

Another suggestion which the industry keeps repeating to the HRD Ministry is to make it mandatory for institutions to identify skills a student must have at the end of every semester. “That will make it easy to measure outcomes and help students assess their employability,” experts say.

Students admit that the fixation with IT streams is a problem. Sushant Parmar, a passout from an AICTE-approved college in Haryana who failed to get a job, says, “I studied computer science but could not get a job. Mechanical, civil and project engineers are more in demand but the obsession with IT and computer science streams continues.”

In 2008, the World Bank had estimated that India would need to train three times as many civil engineers as it does to meet its infrastructure requirements, considering a planned investment of $500 billion in infrastructure over the next few years.

The question is — are India’s colleges ready to alter the content design, styles of delivery and infrastructures? For this to happen, all institutes must first put industrialists on their board of directors, says Mantha, admitting that the AICTE is struggling to enforce accreditation.

The council has still not cleared the hurdle in India’s way to becoming a member of the Washington Accord, a multilateral agreement representing agencies that accredit engineering programmes in a select grouping of nations and certify as equally acceptable the programme of each grouping of 12 countries. India’s bid was rejected in 2005. It is trying again with the government recently making accreditation for all technical institutions mandatory. Only 10 per cent of institutes are accredited.

Fact of the matter

Engineers produced annually: 5 lakh

Jobs in IT, BPO industry by 2013: 2.3 million

Shortfall: 5 lakh

Reason: Lack of employability

Employable by MNCs: One in four graduates

Graduates lacking level of English required for a job: 60%

Those with required skills: 17%

In short supply: civil, mechanical engineers

Where are the jobs

Big Data business

Software firms

Civil engineering

What is wrong

Poor pool of engineering talent

Private technical institutions mushrooming, but quality not up to mark

Lack of mandatory accreditation

Faculty crunch

Wide gap between academia-industry collaboration

Dilution of core engineering streams by universities

Obsession with IT, computer science streams

In losses, colleges scrap BTech courses
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Placement claims by engineering colleges are exaggerated as companies only visit select colleges. File photo, for illustrative purpose only

Indicating the trend of diminishing rush in over 100 engineering colleges affiliated to Punjab Technical University (PTU), more than 35 colleges have sought reduction in admissions from the current academic session onwards. They are offering fee concessions in the name of scholarships and not even 50 per cent seats, out of about 19,800, were filled after the second counselling till July 18.

Official data revealed that only about 10 per cent admissions were done in the first counselling. A majority of them did not manage even a single admission. After the second and final counselling by the PTU, colleges were asked to manage the admissions on their own. The total admission figures will be released after August 31.

The situation is dismal. Atam Vallabh Jain College, Hussainpur (Ludhiana district), and Indo Global College, Abheypur, have sought the closure of their BTech courses in information technology (IT). The GS College of Modern Technology, Kharar, has also sought the scrapping of its BTech (IT) course and a reduction in electronics and communication engineering (ECE) seats from 120 to 60.

Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Institute of Management and Technology, Dhudike (Moga), has sought reduction in BTech (IT) seats from 90 to 60 while the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhaddal, has sought closure of its electronics and instrumentation course. It has also asked for a reduction in ECE seats from 120 to 60 and BTech (IT) seats from 90 to 60. There are over two dozen more such colleges.

Colleges offering MBA courses may not be directly related to engineering colleges, but these were house to many engineers who wanted to pursue MBA courses. A number of colleges offering MBA and MCA courses, particularly in the periphery of Chandigarh, have sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the closure of certain cases.

At least 35 colleges are learnt to have sought an NOC from the Directorate of Technical Education and Industrial Training in this regard. These colleges were witnessing dwindling admissions over the past couple of years.

Mohanbir Singh Sidhu, Additional Director (Technical Education), says: “The colleges have been issued an NOC by the department, but the final approval would come from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) after the institutes confirm that students had been adjusted in alternative colleges for completion of their courses.”

“A number of colleges had been opened by people who had nothing to do with education. Some small-time businessmen are learnt to have also pitched in their finances to make fast money. Education is not a business and students are smart. They have many options to change their courses. Many of these colleges were losing students,” he points out.

The director of an engineering college says: “Besides a recession in the job market, the process of sieving has started. Only the best will survive. There aren’t too many jobs in the market and wrong claims, about placement, by many institutions have been exposed. During placement, companies visited only a handful of colleges.”

Things are so bad that an institute of engineering and technology in Patiala has sought complete closure. Official sources say: “Certain colleges are faring very bad financially and are thinking of winding up. They were not into it for public service, but to make quick money.”

At the moment, mechanical and civil engineering courses are slightly better placed.

Fake scholarships

Faced with empty seats, colleges have started offering engineering seats in the name of scholarships. Instead of any entrance examination, these are largely based on percentage secured in the plus two examination.

The Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Landran, offers a seat in the engineering course for Rs 43,000 per semester, besides Rs 4,000 as admission charges. At the same time, an institute is offering the same course at Rs 30,000 per semester as part of the special fee offer. The students would also get free laptops, an advertisement claims. There are a dozen colleges offering 100 per cent scholarships for SC and ST students, and other attractive offers like a company sponsoring their education.

The director of an institute, requesting anonymity, says: “What do you expect us to do in the wake of the falling strength of students? Instead of a seat going vacant, what is wrong in giving admission to a needy student?”

Dr HS Gill, chairman of Adesh Foundation, shares the sentiment. “Colleges are offering scholarships only to fill seats. There is nothing wrong in providing opportunity to deserving students,” he says.

Mohanbir Singh Sidhu said government colleges affiliated to the PTU have done well. Seats in Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda; Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur; and Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, were filled easily.