Engineering is one of the most popular streams that students choose to pursue. So much so that we Indians train around 1.5 million students in this field per annum. This huge supply of engineers and lack of demand has led to a skewed ratio in the number students being employed. And hence it is the IT Corporate companies that are coming to the rescue of such engineers who fail to get a job as per their qualification.
Due to the grim job market situation,
several engineer graduates with their subject specialisation as mechanical,
electrical, chemical, telecom, bio-medical and other streams opt for jobs in
the IT sector. This is despite the fact that it does not have any link to the
subjects that they have studied during their graduation years.
However, their academic performance is
taken into consideration only as a cut-off mark. “The key talents that is
looked out while hiring an engineering graduate is based on communication
skills and aptitude levels,” says a senior human resource (HR) manager with
Infosys.
“Not all engineers from information
technology (IT) are good in their subject.
Irrespective of the stream of an engineering graduate, it is mainly the
English communication skills and aptitude of the candidate that we take as
criterion while hiring. It is essential for communication with our business
clients. The necessary technical and soft skill trainings are provided by the
company,” added the senior HR manager.
The competition levels for engineering
students is high given the number of recruitment that the corporate do.
“We scout in a number of colleges during
our campus selection process and we get talented employees. Of the 100
engineering students we screen, we choose about three to five of them based on
their scores in the entrance tests that is conducted,” said an HR head with
Tata Consultancy services (TCS).
As per the reports of National
Association of Software and Services Company (NASSCOM) over 50 per cent of
engineers churned out from Indian institutions are absorbed in the IT sector.
Due to too much reliance on the IT job
market, this mismatch in hiring is expected to widen further. NASSCOM predicts only 26 per cent of
employability of engineers in technology service in its NASCCOM Perspective
2020 outline. (source link:
http://www.nasscom.in/NASSCOM-PERSPECTIVE-2020-Outlines-Transformation-Roadmap-for-The-Indian-Technology-and-Business-Services-Industries-56269).
The situation has worsened in last six
years.The growth in the number of engineering colleges in the country
hasdoubled leading to nearly 15 lakh engineers graduating every year. According
to reports of the of All India Council of Technology Education(AICTE), the total
number of engineering colleges stood at 1,511 in 2006-2007, rose to an astoundingly
high 3,345 in 2014-2015. (source link:
http://www.ese.iitb.ac.in/~rb/Research/EnEdu.pdf, http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/Approval_Process_Handbook_2015_16.pdf)
The state of Andhra Pradesh alone has
more than 500 engineering colleges producing over 2.6 lakh graduates every
year. “Of the 2.6 lakh graduates passing out from the state engineering
colleges every year, only 1 lakh of them are getting employment,” says Dr
Chukka Ramaiah, an Indian educationist, popularly known as IIT Ramaiah. This
doesn’t even calculate to 40%.
Mr. Sudheer Kumar Allam, who studies
employability of engineers and also is senior project manager (telecom) with
Sony Ericsson, says, “The scenario is likely to continue in coming years
and will get better only after 15-20 year given the ‘Make in India” policy
of Modi government is implemented honestly which will increase foreign investment
in manufacturing sector. China, which is known as “Mecca of Manufacturing
sector” attained this level after a period 25 years of its continuous
efforts.”
Such is the kind of scenario in today’s
job market with the IT industry playing a major role in the employment situation of the engineers.