“Across the entire engineering education spectrum, the focus should be on learning and not on completing the curriculum. The changes should be made in pedagogy. The emphasis should be more on field-based learning or project-based learning. Hence, there should be more activities encouraging the industry-academia association. The student should focus on adapting to constantly changing industrial requirements. Ability to learn should not be confined to the classroom. Apart from imparting technical knowledge, institutes should also focus on ways to find information about the right job/company; how to acquire skill sets for it; and how to communicate effectively and present the required skill sets in front of the employer.”
Sreevats Jaipuria, Vice-chairman, Jaipuria Institute of Management
“The problem of unemployability of our educated youth is not a function of higher education alone, though it manifests itself at that stage simply because that is when students start looking for jobs. From an early age we limit the choice provided to students and force them to follow pre-defined paths in search of an established set of answers. We need to encourage students to ask the right questions before they begin looking for the correct answers. It becomes crucial then for educators to focus more on developing their ability to learn, than arming them with technical knowledge; high-quality education has never been only about skill development. If we can work on building their self-confidence, nurturing their creativity, exposing them to multi-disciplinary perspectives, and cultivating in them a sense of fairness and equity for all, we would have done our part well, making these youth more employable.”
Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Provost, Anant National University and Founding Dean, Indian School of Business
“The incessant complaint from the industry that a majority of engineering graduates in India come out of four years of education having little or no practical knowledge or experience, and a weak grasp of theory. Yes, the quality of engineering graduates in India is a big and systemic problem. It may be because of the fact that society is not in need of good engineers. For instance, given the enormous amount of infrastructure being created in India, one would think there would be a line of employers outside departments of civil engineering. But of all the engineering streams, civil engineering students have the hardest time finding a core job. Given the current trend of outsourcing government functions or even outright divestment, it does not seem likely that governments at any level in India would be looking for large numbers of skilled, technical personnel any time soon. So, even if engineering colleges train their students to become good engineers will they get the job they are trained for? That’s a question that needs to be answered first.”
Dr. Girish Agrawal, Associate Director (Strategy and Planning), School of Engineering, Shiv Nadar University
“ For engineering students, the poor employability skills have been the biggest constraint identified in their career growth. The curriculum they are taught during the period of higher studies focuses more on delivering information which is redundant in context to that of the industry they chose to work in. Currently, the higher education focuses more on the development of subject-specific skills rather than skills such as leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking and entrepreneurship. To ensure career growth of engineering students, there is a need to focus on improving employability skills by integrating and improving vocational education, by recreating curriculum which is in the context of current market needs and by focusing on the practical delivery of the curriculum.”
Aditya Natraj, CEO, Piramal Foundation of Education Leadership
“Unemployability among engineering graduates is not due to lack of jobs but lack of skills. In our country, we have numerous engineering colleges which are teaching age-old syllabus with the less practical approach. Unfortunately, traditional engineering colleges are not updating their curriculum at the pace of technological advancements across the globe. So, the gap between the skills required in industries is nowhere near to the knowledge given by engineering colleges. Students are not exposed to the tools software and instruments hardware used in industries for designing products. The second factor is that there is a lack of communication, collaboration, and trust between industries and universities.”
Dr. Devang Shah, Principal, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, ITM Vocational University
