When the system lets you down...

Tamil Nadu's engineering graduates are least employable. This is one of the shocking findings of the National Employability Report (NER) 2011, compiled by the employability assessment company Aspiring Minds. Conducted across 16 States, do these findings truly reflect the failure of our education system? Are our colleges focused only on quantity rather than quality? What can we do to make ourselves more employable? Youngsters and industry professionals speak out…

Our country produces the largest number of brilliant engineers and yet, only about a minor percentage of them are employable. The situation is just sad. At the end of the day, it all boils down to the effect of the education system. The entire journey ends up being a race with no learning involved but merely a battle to see who emerges at the top.

Coaching centres teach the syllabus and stop there. There is too much of a demand for them in any case so it becomes a great way to make money. Finding yourself in a good college does not require you to be one of the best but rather it is a process of random elimination with a lot of luck involved.

The reasons for this state can be distilled down to — the bad education system because of too much competition, the focus on performance and marks only and the lack of hands-on skills, communication and creativity. In our system today, it has become the norm to need to win and so, when we leave the system, we are left floundering. - DHEERAJ CHOWDARY, II Year, Mechanical Engineering

Statistically, the figures may seem appalling, but don't blame the student for this one. They are the victims here; victims of a horrendous system that places way too much importance on academic scores, ignoring the need for hands-on experience, communication skills and holistic development. But being an engineering student of this state, I don't see why we cannot compete with the best the country produces. Set the system right and watch the statistics turn on its head. - ANAS ASLAM, Final Year, ECE

If the authorities had done their homework before letting so many colleges spring up, we could have avoided this embarrassment. Politicians and bureaucrats are bribed into approving colleges that don't even have the necessary infrastructure in place. And then there are a few so-called lecturers. They seem to have taken up the noble profession of teaching because all other career doors were shut for them. When there is an old, outdated and corrupt system, coupled with incompetent professors, I don't see how we students stand a chance. Don't blame the companies for not wanting to recruit students who aren't good enough. - SHRAMANTH VARMA, Final Year, Engineering

According to the present system, a student is rated based only on his/her academic scores. Students here study only to pass and not to gain knowledge. Doesn't that defeat the very purpose of education? Take the way exams are conducted, for example. Every subject has a blueprint and more often than not, we end up with a paper that has questions from exams conducted over the last few years. So instead of learning a concept, all one has to do is mug the answer up and get away with it at the school/college level. It is only when they enter into the industry do they realise how much of a disadvantage they are at compared to others who did things the right way. - SURAJ MOTHILAL, Final Year, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Industry's take: Srikantan Moorthy

The widening skill gap between the quality of graduates passing out of engineering institutions and the industry's expectations continues to be a cause for concern for Indian IT companies. Critical thinking and the ability to apply concepts learnt in the context of a problem continue to be among the major gaps that need to be bridged. There is a strong need for a two-way relationship between the industry and academia to collaborate and address this expanding skill gap. Taking a step towards addressing these issues, Infosys works with educational institutions through the Campus Connect programme. In addition, there is a need to conduct programmes for employees throughout the lifecycle of their careers to keep their competencies current and relevant to their job.

Srikantan Moorthy is Senior Vice President and Group Head, Education & Research at Infosys.

Academic angle: Dr. Kathir Viswalingam

Nearly 1, 50,000 engineering graduates are being produced every year in Tamil Nadu through different disciplines. The analysis accounts that 60 per cent of them are from rural background, 20 per cent from semi urban background and 20 per cent are from urban background. Naturally, the above classification of backgrounds plays a vital role in the job search process since awareness of the job opportunities among the students of rural background is less in earlier stages of study in the institutions and they think of the same only after completion of the engineering courses. Hence, the entry level background is to be the main yardstick for training the students in the Institutions.

The expectation of the employers during interviews are: Smartness including dress code, communication skills, intellectual reply with the technical depth, team spirit and collegiality, problem solving skills and crisis overcoming and readiness to accept the task and responsibility.

The short duration of four years degree programme, mushrooming of engineering colleges, employment unawareness among the students during the college days, less priority for the employment-based training in the colleges and third language problem other than Tamil and English are some of the factors which limit employment opportunities in Tamil Nadu. A separate syllabi including practical training must be included in the engineering curriculum. A separate placement cell should work in each and every institution run, not by a single person but a team equivalent to an engineering department

Kathir Viswalingam, Ph.D, is Dean Engineering/ Principal of Bharath University.

Key findings

The percentage of ready-to-deploy engineers for IT services is 17.45 per cent; Knowledge Process Outsourcing is 9.22 per cent; Hardware Networking is 36.57 per cent; Business process Outsourcing is 40.69 per cent; and for IT Product it is the lowest at 2.68 per cent;

Concentrating on increasing quantity of engineers has impacted quality drastically.

The report found that the top 100 colleges have higher employability as compared to the rest of the colleges (as much as two to four times). Despite this, more than 70 per cent of employable candidates for any sector are in campuses other than the top 100.

The quality of education varies drastically, with only very few colleges at the top of the quality ladder.

For the complete report and methodology, log on to: www.aspiringminds.in

Source: Aspiring Minds : thehindu dtd 16/03/2012 : sapost