The field of engineering was initially meant to make the lives of human beings comfortable; and as the world developed, there were many important changes seen in how engineering was perceived and in the importance of the field as a career. As a result, today, a high percentage of school pass-outs see IIT-JEE as the ultimate option. Lakhs of youngsters appear for engineering entrance exams, like the JEE and AIEEE, with a hope to get admission into one of the elite engineering colleges in India, such as the IITs, NITs, and others.
Engineering education started during the British era in India and the first engineering college in India was established in Roorkee, called the Thomson Engineering College. Then, there was more emphasis laid on Civil Engineering. However, engineering has seen tremendous growth since then, and both, the number of students and the number of colleges have grown massively today.
The present scene
The recent growth in engineering colleges in India has been overwhelming, because of the privately funded educational institutions that have been popping up like mushrooms all across the country. There are hundreds of national, state, and university level exams for admissions to engineering courses, which see millions of students appearing for them every year. AIEEE alone sees about 4 lakh students appearing for the exam, inviting heavy competition among the students.
India has almost emerged as the largest producer and the single largest pool of engineering talent. According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) stats for 2013, there were around 4,01,791 engineers completing their courses from different engineering colleges and institutes, and the number increased to 4,64,743 the following year.
Engineering colleges in the country have been growing at swift rate of 20% per year. The five Indian states –Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, alone, produce 69% of India’s total engineers, while another 14% are from Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, combined.
What is happening?
So, when the population is so large, it unfortunately creates a situation where most of the youth does not get jobs, causing dissatisfaction and serious instability in the country’s economic and social conditions.Though the quantityof programmes, universities, and engineering colleges in Indiais increasing, there are a few areas that still lack. Students are taking their degrees for granted and collecting their graduation degrees despitenotbeing fully skilled for the industry.
So, what can be the factors that would help an engineer increase the chances of his employability? Well, the ability of an engineer to apply the learned concepts andconstantly findingresolutions to complex problems and developing innovative things has to be the first consideration.
The state’s economic condition plays an important role too. In strained economic conditions, which are common in the country, companies often hesitate to spend much on training individuals and instead prefer candidates who have some skill sets and can be made billable soon.
Then, location is another strong factor in our country. While candidates from Tier-1 cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are given better opportunities as compared to those who belong to the lower tier cities, they tend to develop more confidence and secure better jobs too. So, even if a candidate from a low tier city possesses equal qualifications and skills as the other, there are lesser chances of him finding a job and earning a high per-year salary.
Having soft skills is another important factor that determines employ ability these days, and unfortunately, it is among the most ignored in engineering colleges in India.The institutions and the students themselves need to sit up and take notice of these issues that are threatening the very stability of our country’s future and their personal careers.