Engineering as a career is losing its charm

It is time to revamp the curricula and raise the quality of education offered by the engineering colleges in India

The engineering stream is fast losing its charm among students. While it was the most favoured stream till a few years back, students today are no longer willing to study engineering. The shift in preference is due to the low-quality education in engineering colleges, which are producing unemployable engineers with substandard skills. The engineering colleges are still running on outdated curricula, which are not in accordance with the need of the industry today. With the advancement in technology, businesses have transformed and now require talent that is up-to-date with relevant skills.

The All India Council for Technological Education (AICTE) is concerned about the employability of the engineers and is making efforts to improve the quality of education in engineering colleges. India has thousands of engineering colleges but the quality of education and the infrastructure in these colleges is dismal.

AICTE has made stricter rules now. Engineering colleges that lack proper infrastructure and have less than 30 per cent admissions for five years in a row have to be closed mandatorily. This rule has led to the closure of around 150 engineering colleges every year voluntarily. The regulator had approved closure of over 410 colleges across India over the period of 2014–15 to 2017–18.

There are several reports about the employability of engineering graduates, which raises questions about their capabilities. According to a McKinsey report, only one-fourth of the engineers in India are employable. An Aspiring Mind survey on employability says that 95 per cent of the engineers can’t code.

Only some of the premier engineering institutes, such as IITs and some NITs are producing relevant talent. The rest of the colleges are producing millions of engineers, who are unemployable and lack relevant skills.

As part of the measures to raise the standard of engineering colleges in India, every engineering student is now required to compulsorily complete two internships during the course. And, it is mandatory for colleges to arrange these internships for them.

AICTE is revamping the curricula for these colleges, which will come into effect in a few weeks.

Given the advancement in technology, and most of the work being automated, the need of the hour is to produce engineers who are equipped with the latest skills and are job ready.