From building pyramids in the 27th century BC to designing modern day smart cities, automatic cars, human robots, engineers have always been an “Engine of innovation and progress”. Engineers have always fascinated societies and contributed tremendously to the growth of the human race.

Therefore, engineering education has always amused and attracted the attention of young and curious minds as a career because it indirectly gives you the assurance of your successful life in the future.

It won’t be an exaggeration if we say that we are a nation of engineers because out of every 10 graduates, 3 are engineers. In our country, we produce 50 Lakhs graduates annually out of which 15 lakhs are only engineers.

Considering all the success stories of the past, most of the young student wish to sail in the same boat for greener pasture.

However, nowadays engineering as a branch is somewhere losing its shine (for various reasons as discussed here). We are at the cross road and thus situation demands a close look at the local and global scenarios before one embarks on this journey. It’s time to do some rational thinking. We must take a good look at past present and future. We must check whether it is the reality or hype in the present context.

My intention is to put forth few learning’s before students so that they take a judicious call before they put their parent’s investment and their own efforts at a stake. This blog (I hope) will act like a North Star for you. Hence, I am penning this blog with three elements… Then, Now and Next!

THEN

National Knowledge Commission (NKC) says that “Engineering education is among the key enablers of growth for transforming India’s economy”. And it is undoubtedly! Since independence engineers have significantly contributed to the vertical and horizontal growth of the Indian economy. They not only build large corporations as intrapreneurs but also build a very strong MSME segment as entrepreneurs.

Engineering education as a career has provided a tremendous advantage of growth, prosperity, and happiness to the individuals. Growth opportunities started thriving throughout industrial development.

During the start of the globalisation period especially in the 1980’s we witness huge migration opportunities in the field of electrical, mechanical, electronics, computer, and IT engineering. Thanks to ERP (Enterprise resource planning) development and Y2K. We witnessed huge migration epidemic to the developed countries like USA, UK, Australia, Canada to name a few.

Even folks who showed their solidarity to the motherland also become the beneficiaries of better jobs, good perks, ESOP’s and entrepreneurial opportunities. Therefore, this stream of education always looked like an elite opportunity and hence takers were many

NOW

However, with the advent of rapid technological growth things started to change. Disruption due to rapid growth in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning has created new challenges which are impacting future jobs and the skill sets. Few challenges (as listed below) which were in the nascent stages earlier started to surface prominently as the time passed and their ripple effect started to haunt us.

The disparity in Engineering Education

There has been a glaring disparity between leading technological institutions such as the IIT’s, State Technological universities and other engineering colleges in the country. Other engineering colleges (except few) which had produced engineers in large numbers clearly lacked higher learning engaged in teaching, research, and innovation. Hence the quality of engineers suffered (However, system absorbed them due to great demand). They lacked industry exposure, the culture of internship and hence they lacked practical exposure.

Also, there has been a disparity between academia and industry requirements. What is been taught in academia is not so adequate as industries are working on the latest technologies and platforms. As a result, in the last couple of years, we have witnessed huge employability challenges in the computer and IT sectors.

Quality of Production

We are facing a huge challenge on the quality of engineers we are producing. Though we are producing more engineers than America the quality of 80% of engineer’s population is in question (e.g. America produces 2.3 lakh engineers for 19 trillion economy where as India produces 15 lakh engineers for 3 trillion economy) However, they are short of required skills. As a result of which industry is confirming only 20% out of them as the job ready. There will be around 80,000 fewer seats in engineering in the year 2018 in the country (ET Online, June 4, 2018). According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), nearly 200 ‘substandard’ engineering colleges have applied for closure. Since 2016, the number of engineering seats has been on the decline. According to AICTE, it is around 75,000 annually. In 2016-17, total intake capacity at undergraduate level was 15,71,220, of which total enrollment was 7,87,127, which is just around 50.1 per cent. In 2015-16, total intake was 16,47,155, of which enrollment was 8,60,357, which was 52.2 per cent. AICTE wants to close down about 800 engineering colleges across India. 

Lack of essential employment skills

In one of the surveys by AMCAT, 2016 it is observed that majority of the population lack desired domain skills (e.g. programming skills, analytical skills for software engineers), soft skills, cognitive skills like critical thinking, problem solving, analytical abilities and English comprehension and expression skills. The survey suggested that only 20% of the candidates were having the right type of employability skills. This situation is quite alarming because 80% of the population do not possess the right degree of knowledge, skills, and aptitude BUT they have an engineering degree. Therefore, JUST DEGREE alone is not providing the right employability opportunity.

It is very sad to see engineers working in the field of insurance, banking, pharma etc for survivals.

Therefore, it is important that all the aspirant must take cognizance of these facts.

WHAT IS NEXT?

We are in the industry 4.0 revolution. There will be rather more demand for engineers. BUT for the RIGHT one. Therefore, it is very important for all aspirants to understand or take cognizance of the following factors. 

1. Is engineering a right career for me? Do I have the necessary cognitive ability to pursue engineering?
2. What kind of engineering branch am I fit for? Whether I have necessary abilities, orientation, personality, intelligence to pursue this particular engineering branch?
3. Engineering education is all about critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, and innovation. Am I using these skills in my day to day life?
4. Engineering is being offered in more than 130 different branches. And we are also witnessing the emergence of a new type of engineering courses. Do I know more about them and how they will be in demand in the future?
5. What criteria’s do I need to put forward while selecting the right engineering institute? There are new edge universities who are offering the state-of-the-art courses. Do I know enough about them?

The engineering education in India is at the crossroads today. It’s a chance to take the country on the next high growth trajectory by having the right manpower. Students need to ensure they are industry-ready by the end of their program.

In the end, I would like to request all the parents to stop pushing their children towards this field of education until and unless they really have an interest in pursuing it. They may start it physically but lack of accepting it mentally will always be the reason for their failure. There are million career options who guarantee’s the successful life, please serve them in their plate of life and let them pick their favorite.

I would like to conclude this blog with a wonderful saying, “life is the most difficult exam… most people fail because they try to copy others not realizing that everyone has a different question paper…”