Nasscom says 50% of engg graduates unemployable

The country might be feeling proud about churning out maximum number of engineering graduates every year in the world, but if one goes by a recent Nasscom study, it is a case of quantity over quality.

According to the report by the apex body of software firms, almost 50% of the engineering output in India is unemployable.
“In India, there are many engineering colleges of different ranks. There are IITs and NITs on one hand and also many private engineering colleges in different cities and states. The employability problem does not lie as much with the former as it is with private colleges in Tier II and Tier III cities,” said Sangita Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom.

Data from the statutory body, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), is equally starling.

It states that number of engineering seats has gone up to 13 lakh in 2010-11 from nearly five lakh in 2005-06. The number of engineering programmes more than doubled to 3,241 last academic year from 1,475 in 2005-06.

“What is the use of increasing seats rapidly if the graduates are incapable of entering the job market,” asks a HR official from an IT firm in Bangalore.

Amit Bhatia, CEO, Aspire Human Capital Management, an education services firm, said there is a wide gap between the skills needed by employers and those possessed by the applicants, thus increasing the unemployability figure.

“The youth have to be skilled to suit the requirement of the industry and training programmes have to be devised to bring out the competencies which are needed by the industry,” said Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO, National Skill Development Corporation, which is under the Union finance ministry.

Some experts believe that no matter from where the fresher is, three to six months go in training him.

Industry experts say nearly half of the firms will have apprehensions about employability of prospective candidates and don’t want to hire and train someone who might just quit within a short duration. “However, 30-40% firms want to hire and train,” says Sunil Goel, director, GlobalHunt India, an executive search firm.

Also, apart from technical knowledge, for which companies are anyway prepared to impart training, students often lack ‘soft skills’.

Experts say that there are many aspects of soft skills which go beyond spoken English. “Teamwork, integrity and communication with opposite gender are skills which companies expect in a person when he is hired. However, with freshers lacking these skills, companies are left with little choice,” said Vinod Prabhu, CEO, Orbinet Technologies, a firm involved in delivering technical education.

Also, because of the highly competitive environment in colleges, it has been often found that freshers face difficulty when they are asked to work in a team.

“Placement offers are made based on marks of an individual. So, it might happen that his marks are good, but he lacks technical knowledge,” Prabhu said.

Often the faculty is not aware of latest industry practices,and hence students end up learning stuff which is not even relevant.

Realising this, companies are tying up with universities to
train the faculty. For instance, Wipro has launched an initiative called Mission 10X, wherein faculty members are empowered with innovative teaching techniques and tools to enhance employability skills of engineering graduates.