Engineers And Employability

The NASSCOM-McKinsey report “Perspective 2020: Transform Business, Transform India” (2009) said that only 26 percent of India’s engineering graduates were employable. This report was also backed by CP Gurnani, CEO & MD of Tech Mahindra, who has said that 94% of engineering graduates were not fit for hiring.

This staggering percentage is an indication of the fact that colleges are churning out engineers by the minute; yet the talent hardly meet the skill requirements of the industry. While the quantity of talent has considerably gone up, the quality of talent has been on the downward spiral. As Mr. Gurnani has matter-of-factly stated, “We have a skills shortage”. This has led to many corporates either setting up training sectors or depend on establishments involved in training and skilling fresh graduates.

Many factors contribute to the falling employability component of engineers; substandard education, absence of knowledge of the current job scenario among students, lack of involvement of corporates in educational institutions, basic personality and life skills and a poor grasp on the English language.

Every corporate establishment looks for the following qualities in a candidate: Domain skills, aptitude, attitude, language and personality. While our education strives to fulfil the domain aspects of a job, the other factors remain untouched and underdeveloped.

The need of the hour is that every student self-analysis and determines areas of improvement and look for guidance to fill the employability gaps and move forward in a career of his/her choice. Training institutes are, therefore, playing a vital role in making a major chunk of engineering graduates employable by providing vocational training in niche skills and contribute in overall personality development as well.