Many reports have recently highlighted an alarming situation where a large percentage of the engineering graduates coming out of India's thousands of professional colleges are not directly employable in the industry or in public infrastructure projects. The numbers quoted were as large as 50%.
A country like India where more than a million engineering graduates come out each year in various disciplines, can't afford such a large percentage of rejection, after their 4 years of engineering education. And it sounds unbelievable.
But, as a matter of fact, the reports are not surprising because the basic design of the engineering program in India do not prepare students for the industry. There is no point blaming the students for the structural problems in education. One needs to look at this issue holistically involving the academicians, industry, policymakers and the governments together.
The Basic Faults
Coming back to the basics, let us ask some pertinent questions as far as the current engineering education in India is concerned.
Where does an engineering student learn about the industry? I am talking about the industry culture to which most engineering students should ideally be a part in the future. Does the industrial environment be available while they are at college? Do students get any opportunity to understand the skills that are actually required in the industry and how to prepare themselves for the same?
Do the professors know what is practically going on in the industry and how many of them have ever worked in it?
So, for generations we are in a situation where the engineering education system had no link with the industry. Look at the irony: a person who never got into the water is teaching swimming, and the students who never got an opportunity to get into water remain oblivious of swimming.
What Is Industry Culture
To make it easy, let me look at another set of students undergoing a different professional course, for instance, medicine. No medical college is possible without an attached hospital —the healthcare industry. From the second year of the graduate course onwards, a medical student is in and out of the hospital, and on a daily basis, what he or she hears, learns, discusses the issues related to that industry.
Almost all the professors and teaching staff are practicing doctors within that sphere and are up-to-date with the industry. Students also see, understand and interact with the associated activities of the supporting team of the industry, like nurses, technical staff, hospital management teams, surgery divisions, emergency and casualty departments.
By the time these medical students complete their course, they know exactly what is going on in the particular 'industry'. To make it simple, they are immersed in their industry culture and learn from various aspects of the same, apart from what is taught in their class rooms. Eventually, they evolved as a medical doctor totally fit for that profession.
However, the engineering students have had only classrooms and may be a lab with mostly outdated machines compared to the current industry standards. And, someone teaches them with no idea about industry and has never been immersed in that industry's culture.
As a result, neither the faculty nor the students are practically aware of what the industry needs are, for generations. So, are we really training students to become engineers to work in an industry, and will they be able to understand what are the practical skills required? If not, where do these students learn the industry culture? How do they evolve to be a professional engineer?
What are the solutions?
One must accept the fact that learning and preparing themselves to get adapted to the industry culture is as important as learning from the classroom. We must also accept the fact that part of classroom learning is slowly shifting to the online mode. This is especially so with large and excellent online learning materials from classrooms taught by renowned professors of world-class universities and the associated discussions are freely available today. Technological advancements will make such materials more effective in the future with the support of artificial intelligence, etc.
But, to gain the industry culture, one has to be physically present in the industry. There are many aspects that the industry needs to look into before it implements or installs the same. The industry has to spend its valuable time and resources and also needs to go through a lot of other procedures, including safety aspects, downtime, etc.
Since I have worked in the industry, academies and research institutions both in India and abroad, I'm fairly familiar with the whole scenario.
As per the ideal educational standards and practice, the time spent by engineering students in the industry is highly valuable both in terms of their skill-assessment as well as their future in the profession. So sufficient recognition has to be given to the industry for providing internship and training for students. Financial and other incentives must be a part of this package for two reasons — industries incur downtime because of this training and the return on the investment as well. Ultimately, a country gains enormously out of such education and training, especially in India with the largest young population.
Industry Training After Hiring
It is well known that extensive training is provided by many companies for fresh graduates once they are hired. These companies also provide excellent training facilities. While this takes place post their graduation, what we really need is industry exposure during their studies. That will help them understand more about their inclinations and the various opportunities available with the industry and take informed decisions based on their own abilities and interests, rather than moving with the crowd and end up in the wrong place.
From the students' side also, one needs to realise that industrial training is to their best advantage, and it cannot be taken lightly. Once the student is in the industry, they must accept the routines, including the shift hours, at work as they are part of the particular workforce and they are there to learn every aspect of it.
As an appreciation, governments must provide various incentives to the industries which undertake the fresh graduate training. These activities can be included as a part of the industry’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as well, and more such schemes can be included.
For the university side, make the academic boundaries porous so that the teaching and industry staff can move between academics and industries more freely. They also have to recognise that industrial experience is a major contributing factor towards the students’ learning. Similarly, industrial experience must be given sufficient weight during the selection processes of their teaching staff.
Finally, any industry which is employing fresh engineering graduates must also understand the fact that the students have limitations because of the system, and they cannot expect to be industry ready on the first day itself. Since the fresh graduates need extensive training, the industry needs to factor in various resources associated with it.
—The author, Dr. V. Premachandran, is a member of the working group in the Kerala State Planning Board, and was a Senior Fellow at the Solar Energy Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Read his previous articles here
