A report published last year by an Employment Solutions company stirred a controversy. The report stated that more than 90% of engineering graduates are not employable. Many stalwarts from different organizations rubbished the report while there were some who did not hesitate to endorse it too.
If not 90% but a large part of the engineering graduates are unemployable. Let us look out for the reasons behind this.
1.The sudden boom in the market for Engineering graduates
India saw a sudden rise in the demand for the engineering graduates in the late 90’s and early 2000. With limited colleges providing Engineering education the demand remained too high while the supply yet quite less. The demand for engineering kept on going high which led to more students opting for Engineering. With a lot of students aspiring to become an engineer, lots of new colleges started coming up. Slowly the engineering colleges became a way of earning for many rather than creating a talent pool of engineers in the country. With easy access to admissions, students started taking up engineering irrespective of their interests. Which resulted in low-quality engineers in the market. This sudden boom was good to an extent but then propping up of colleges like mushrooms misled this boom to a wrong direction to such an extent that more than 50% remained vacant in UPSEE.
2. Lack of monitoring and inspection by the Govt agencies
With so many new colleges coming up it was the responsibility of the MHRD, GOI to arrange and track the standard of the colleges through its agencies. But lack of proper inspection and strict norms the quality of amenities in private colleges kept on going low. Lack of proper inspection was because of a lack of vision which in turn created incompetent policies. All this led to less qualified teaching staff, poor laboratories and hence the poor quality of graduates.
3. An engineer by Chance not by Choice
Not only GOI but also Indian society is to blame. The aspiration to get a job soon made students start choosing career sidelining their interests. This step leads to only short-term success but in the long run, people tend to fail when they are expected to perform in the industry. These engineers are called ‘Engineers by Chance’ and not by choice. There were multiple reasons for this 1. Easy admissions to Engineering colleges, 2. Easy to clear the exams and get the degree. But when it comes to getting a job then the problem starts and it becomes tough to get one.
Not all but a large part of Engineers graduating every year are not upto the mark. The aim of education should not be to somehow get a degree rather it should be to gain knowledge and expertise. There are still some very good Engineering Colleges in the county. We as a society will have to come together to solve this issue. GOI, Educational fraternity, Students and others will have to join hands to create a more productive environment so that we as a country keep on creating the best engineers in the world.
Image Credits: un-employable from fizkes/Shutterstock