A professional degree no guarantee for plump job

If you are in an engineering or MBA institute that is not among the top 100 in the country, chances are you might not get a placement or might have to settle for a very average pay. This is irrespective of the economic situation and the hiring plans of companies.

A survey covering 200 engineering colleges and 200 MBA institutes beyond the top 100 shows that, on an average, only 15-20% engineering students, and about only 30-40% management students get placed.

Moreover, the average salaries for the engineering passouts range between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per month, while for MBA graduates, they are in the Rs 12,000-15,000 band.

The survey by Elements Akademia, a talent and training company, covered 20 cities including Kanpur, Bhopal, Indore, Coimbatore, Madurai and Ahmedabad over two years from 2008. It evaluated placements and salaries over the previous three years.

Nishant Saxena, CEO, Elements Akademia, said placements are poor in smaller colleges owing to low industry networking by these institutes and low employability of students.

There are over 3,000 engineering institutes and over 1600 MBA colleges affiliated with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Barring the top institutes, the rest face a dearth of good faculty and facilities. There is thus limited scope for students to improve their employability.

“It’s a myth that engineering or MBA students automatically get dream jobs. It all depends on students’ institute and ability to get trained beyond the curriculum,” Saxena said.

“Several students from small institutes lack good communication skills, general knowledge, corporate exposure, often even domain knowledge. Unless these skills are built upon, prospects of getting a good job are very low,” he added.

Kavita Iyer, CEO, Minglebox, a Bangalore-based online education company, said, with employability standards low, only the top students from smaller institutes get placed.

The situation gets worse as companies are not keen to hire students who have to be extensively trained, said Amit Bansal, CEO and founder, PurpleLeap, a Bangalore based skill enhancement company. “Companies are seeking those who they think can deliver quick results, without much training.”

Recruiters also seek students from familiar institutes. Hence, colleges have to do a lot of networking with employers to establish the credibility of the institute and students, said Ashok H Chachadi, a management faculty with a Karnataka-based
institute.