Are Indian Engineers Really Sub-standard?

Engineering has lost its charm in India. The word ‘engineer’ is creating a lot of fuss lately, which can be attributed to the fact that India has the largest pool of engineers.  

Engineering has been the ticket to a student's success for the past three decades. The case has turned upside down as most of engineers stand employable.

Degrading education quality and outdated curriculum have become more pronounced with automation and emerging technology remodeling businesses.

A McKinsey report has stated that only a quarter of engineers in India were actually employable. Some studies even put it at less than 20 percent. A recent survey by Aspiring Minds assessed and found that 95 percent of Indian engineers cannot code.

Admissions are diving every year and there are no takers for many seats in engineering colleges. According to a rule of AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), colleges that lack proper infrastructure and report less than 30 percent admissions for five consecutive years will have to be shut down. AICTE has approved the progressive closure of more than 410 colleges across India, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

However, engineering graduates from India’s premier colleges like IIT and NIT are still in demand, the problem of employability stands with the million of graduates produced by other engineering universities and colleges, whose employability remains in question.

Employability is a big challenge for the Modi-led NDA government and a change in curriculum and exploring other industry education can help revive the engineering sector.

'Make in India' project is expected to generate 100 million jobs by 2022, but looks very difficult at the moment with the kind of quality of education provided by engineering colleges. The jobs sector is already in stress. If the quality of skilled labour does not improve, latest technology that requires updated learning would cause a huge unemployment crisis.

Rajguru Tandon

BW Reporters The author is a correspondent with BW Businessworld with keen interest in HR and employee welfare.