The problem of non-employability
Valentine Jesudoss
Our engineering graduates are brilliant and acquire the necessary technical skills during their studies. Some of them are successful at campus recruitments. Of these, a good number are shown the door during training.
In a real case situation, a batch of graduates from a well known engineering college was recruited by a prestigious IT company.
The individuals of this batch were consistently scoring above 85 per cent from Class X onwards and later graduated without arrears in any semester. Two weeks into training, they were rejected.
Why were they rejected? The basic reason was they were not adequately groomed to move from campus to corporate life. The skill sets required from students include an attitude to learn, ability to work in teams, ability to work around obstacles and analytical skills.
Employers demand employable professionals who could start bringing in the dollars as early as possible. In short, they want “industry-ready” candidates.
A teacher teaches and a trainer trains. This is the most basic concept. Unfortunately this is not understood by many. At the adult level, a teacher can only impart knowledge that is technical or otherwise but it requires something more to bring about the right mind-set and synergies for corporate life.
People who have not been through corporate life or large government run organisations cannot deliver the goods when it comes to higher level preparation and grooming.
To draw an analogy, a doctor with an MBBS degree is both a physician and a surgeon. He is empowered and licensed to perform surgeries. Will any patient in his senses approach such a doctor for an open heart surgery?
The lesson drawn from the above is that, if you want goods and services of a high quality, you have to pay for them.
Colleges should produce engineers who would be successful in corporate life. This has become an absolute necessity in today’s employment scenario.
Today leading IT companies are finding that B.A., B.Com., B.Sc., and BCA graduates are more suitable for employment in the IT sector than engineering graduates.
Commerce, Arts, Science and Computer application graduates are emerging as qualitative employees who can handle clients’ requirements better.
Their process of education is more wholesome and they are taught to interact with people and develop what are called “people skills.”
Engineers are taught to interact with machinery and electronic gadgets without emphasis on people. This affects them later in their life and career.
Corrective action is the need of the hour and it is incumbent on the engineering colleges to produce employable engineers. The statistics will prove that there is an increase in demand for IT and Communication related engineering seats. The fast buck syndrome is the only driving force.
The irony, however, is that low cost education (B.A., B.Com., B.Sc., BCA, etc.) is generating better employability.
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