Factors
that are Hurting the Employability of Recent Engineering Graduates in
India
Dr.
Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya
BCE
(Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil
) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE,
FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata
Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM,
MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI,
MIAENG, MMBSI, MBMSM
Chairman
and Managing Director,
MultiSpectra
Consultants,
23,
Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata
– 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.
E-mail:
dramartyakumar@gmail.com
Website:
https://multispectraconsultants.com
My
finding is that a lot of recent engineering graduates in India are
unemployable. Why? Because they lack key skills.
To
start with, when I was a student, there were only five Indian
Institutes of Technology and only five engineering colleges in West
Bengal. Getting admitted to an engineering course was very tough and
very prestigious. I actually got a higher rank in the medical
entrance examination than in the engineering entrance examination but
naturally opted to study engineering because my dream was to study
engineering, not to study medicine.
Nowadays,
with the proliferation of engineering colleges, the standard of
engineering graduates has declined. Basic problem-solving skills are
lacking. In our times, the Internship was considered a necessary -
and vital - part of education and getting a stipend for doing the
Internship was unthinkable. I did not get any stipend for doing my
Internship. Nowadays, students want stipends to do Internship
although a company actually spends time and resources on Interns.
Supplementary
education has become necessary for engineering students. Why? Because
engineering curricula have become degraded in India. Take for
example, a basic subject like Fluid Mechanics. By and large, this
subject has remained unchanged over the past quarter century.
Typically, simple problems are discussed and taught like the motion
of a fluid between concentric cylinders. What will happen if the
cylinders are not concentric is not discussed, not even
qualitatively.
Now,
such ideal cases are rarely to be met with in practice. In Fluvial
Hydraulics, rivers, being formed by nature, do not have simple
geometries. To model rivers mathematically, some sort of idealisation
of the geometry is a must. These things are not taught to engineering
students, again underlining the need for supplementary education for
engineering students.
In
practically every subject, idealised scenarios are taught to
engineering students giving them no clue as to how more complex
scenarios are to be handled in practice. All these hurt the
employability of recent engineering graduates and also make
supplementary education for engineering students a must.
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MultiSpectra Consultants, 2020.