The Hindu : Front Page : Even diploma holders in demand

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Thursday, Sep 14, 2006
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Even diploma holders in demand

Karthik Madhavan

Those who have opted for Civil Engineering are a happy lot

BRIGHT FUTURE: Civil Engineering students of Kongu Polytechnic College learning to read measurements during a practical session. — PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

ERODE: Civil Engineering diploma students are on a rock-hard foundation. Even if they scrape through the three-year course with arrears, they land a job. The platform of the successful and bright ones is much better.

"Many of our failed students, too, have secured jobs, with a few of them earning up to Rs. 3,500 a month. The bright, though, have walked away with Rs. 10,000-plus worth job offers," says G. Thangavel, principal, Kongu Polytechnic College.

In this college not a single student who wanted a job remains unemployed. Most of them got placed in their second-last semester itself.

And, what more, the companies come in search of them. And, this is true of most colleges that offer civil engineering diploma here.

"Long gone are the days when we went to companies. Now they are after us, asking for more and more students. In the past two years alone, several well-known names in the industry have knocked at our doors," says the principal.

He and his colleague, P.S. Kothai, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, reason that the good job market is because of a booming construction industry, driven by the exponential growth in IT.

"It is IT driven, for mostly Bangalore-based companies have recruited our students. National Highways projects have also contributed to it," she says.

That apart, the faculty say companies fish for diploma holders in large numbers because graduate civil engineers are not available, as almost all of them move towards IT.

"For today's construction companies to find good civil engineers is next to impossible because all of them prefer the cosy, air-conditioned cubicles to dusty construction sites."

The other reason, they cite, is it is difficult for construction companies to offer the same salary package as IT companies. They fill the void with diploma holders, who are not paid as much as graduate engineers, and hence the boom, she points out.

What is unfortunate is most students and parents do not understand this.

Majority of the diploma aspirants prefer IT and Computer Technology course, even though this does not take them anywhere at the diploma level.

"Students, and particularly, their parents are convinced that only an IT course can fetch a job, which is sad. In the diploma level, it is the core engineering branches that provide immediate jobs," the principal explains.

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