According to a study published in The Indian Express on August 18, just 18% of fresh technical graduates possess the right skills to be eligible for jobs in IT services companies. Only 38% of engineering and MCA students are employable, even in a BPO. Less than 26% are fit to do technical support jobs, traditionally done by lesser qualified people. 9.5% are employable in KPO firms. And an abysmally low 4.22% of these students are employable in IT product companies.
The findings largely corroborate a similar study done by Nasscom. So why is the Indian engineering education system finding itself incapable of producing quality engineers? The reasons are many but one can zero down to three: mediocre curriculum, low quality faculty and colleges that dish out an engineering degree if one spends four years and ample money.
Much of our technical education is about gobbling textbooks and puking them in an examination. The process of getting a degree has become so dreary and formulaic that the sheer joy of learning is lost long before a student completes his/her education. The system discourages students to think originally or analyse differently from what is given in textbooks. Inexplicably, the technical curriculum does not make it mandatory for students to spend time in industry. They are largely kept away from the domain for which they are supposedly being prepared. Engineering students in Europe, for instance, have to go through, not one but three internships before they graduate. Students, therefore, learn to connect what they study with what they will eventually do in the workplace. In India, an engineering graduate can get a degree without ever being exposed to industry, because internships are not compulsory. It is similar to a potter getting a degree in pottery without ever having been at the potter?s wheel.
It is ironic that most engineering faculty do not value industry knowledge and would rather that students? knowledge be confined to textbooks. If students start to learn from industry, it may entail a lot of embarrassing questions to the faculty. It could also mean that students would start to see the disconnect between what is being taught and what needs to be learned. More often than not, faculty are so far removed from the real world of industry that they do not realise that they have long become obsolete.
It may sound disrespectful but I would like to know the findings of a survey on what percentage of the faculty themselves could be employed in industry, i.e., can the ?Dronacharyas? of today do basic archery. And unlike archery, technical know-how needs to be constantly honed. The teaching staff in these institutions are well-equipped to produce textbook-memorising-exam-passing pros, which suits the incumbents fine, but not industry-ready professionals.
Additionally, technical education has become a free-for-all, ponzi, money spinning enterprise. People who have no business to be in technical education, like religious trusts and politicians, are doling out degrees like they distribute blankets in the winter. Such degree holders do not have the required knowledge, skill or training to be useful to industry.
Not surprisingly, our expanding high-tech and software industries are faced with a large proportion of engineering graduates not qualified for available jobs. Software companies, like Wipro, invest a good amount of money in remedial training. A few other industry leaders are starting to forward-integrate by setting up their own universities?the chairman of HCL Technologies, Shiv Nadar, is investing Rs 2,000 crore in a university, and there is a proposed university by Bharti Enterprises. Other companies also provide skill upgrade programmes to unemployable graduates?one of my engineering batchmates heads a firm that provides skill-upgradation and certification programmes to young engineering graduates, as does NIIT. Notwithstanding this, graduates from engineering colleges should be industry-ready in the first place.
The HRD ministry under Kapil Sibal has started to take remedial measures by introducing educational reform Bills like Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical, Medical Educational Institutions and University Bill, 2010, and National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill, 2010. The unfair practices Bill aims to penalise private institutes that promise good quality education but do not deliver. The national accreditation Bill seeks to make accreditation mandatory which, at present, is voluntary. Both these measures, if implemented well, can stem the rot to a large extent. Our country?s intrinsic high-quality human resources makes an ineffective technical education system unpardonable. Now that the HRD ministry has got into damage control mode, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. However, that may get switched off, if the powers that be turn a blind eye.
The author, formerly with JPMorganChase, is CEO, Quantum Phinance
