Is Choosing an Engineering Field ‘Safe’ nowadays ?

Here in the article the emerging engineering field is shown compeltely to the students along with the recent reports from AICTE & you will have a peep in to the future of engineering.

So far, we are all familiar with the current state of engineering in India. Therefore calling it 'Safe' (or not) is the most appropriate word that can be used with the related topic.

It has now become unimaginable whether the engineering students can find suitable jobs for themselves because most of the engineering colleges in India are unable to provide an ‘A’ grade education to their students.

Yes! There are some other renowned technology institutes in many Indian regions along with some IITs, or especially talking about Top Engineering Colleges in Punjab who are still at the peak of their best performance in engineering, but only to take these, it is not possible for the whole engineering aspirants to meet the industry requirements or we can say the one and only reason behind the digression in the number of admissions in such degree courses is lack of availability of jobs, resulting in the discontinuation of such engineering colleges.

 

What do recent reports say?

According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), nearly 200 engineering colleges have applied for termination as it is found that there will be more than 80,000 fewer seats in this field and the number will be increased to approximately 3.1 Lac fewer seats in the near future.

Since 2016, the number of engineering seats has declined. According to AICTE, this is approximately 75,000 annually.

In 2018-19, the total intake capacity at the graduation level was 33, 92, 759, in which the total enrolment was 18, 14, 770, which is approximately 53.4 percent (as demonstrated in Fig.1).

In 2017-18 total intake was 35, 52, 377, of which enrolment was 18, 95, 366, which was 53.3 percent.

According to AICTE data, in 2008-09, 30% more students joined engineering colleges than last year which is considered as the highest jump since 2001. More than 700 new colleges were approved in that year.

In 2016-17, half of the 15.5 Lakh BE / B. Tech seats were vacant in 3,291 engineering colleges in the country.

 

What is AICTE’s reaction upon it?

AICTE has approved the closure of more than 410 colleges across India, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

AICTE wants to close about 800 engineering colleges across India because there are no more admissions for their seats, hence the admissions in these colleges are affecting every year.

Due to strict rules of AICTE, about 150 colleges are voluntarily shutting down every year. Actually, in the rules of the council, it has been said that the colleges that lack proper infrastructure and report less than 30% admissions for five successive years will have to be shut down.

Therefore, the crisis of engineering education in India is largely clear from all these reports. Many studies have also pointed out the low employment potential of engineering graduates, except in the case of some esteemed institutes or few of the B. Tech. Colleges in Punjab as well as other regions.

 

What is the status of engineering-employment?

According to the 'Aspiring Minds', an Employment Solutions Company, New Delhi, an employment-focused study based on 150,000 engineering graduates those are graduated in 2013 was conducted and what they found was really shocking.

About 97% of graduate engineers want jobs in core engineering or software engineering. However, only 3% have appropriate skills to employ in software or product markets, and only 7% can handle core engineering tasks.

According to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, there are 6,214 engineering and technology institutes in India, enrolling 2.9 million students and every year, about 1.5 million engineers are deployed in the job market. But the depressing situation of higher education in India ensures that they do not have enough skills to be employed.

How many engineers are unemployed in India?

According to the latest data hosted on the official website of AICTE, only 41.36% of  students who graduated from the Top Engineering Colleges across India, got jobs during the placement of the academic year 2015-16 as shown in figure 2.This number is astonishing as the pass percentage in all engineering colleges was 78.67 percent in that year. Therefore, more students who pass the exams are not directly proportional to the possibility of being employed.

While the pass percentage in engineering colleges has been growing in the last five years, the number of placements has stuck around similar figures with the disappointing 38.17 percent in the academic year 2013-14.

A report by ‘Aspire Minds’ says that about 80 percent of engineering graduates in India are not employable. Most of them are compelled to work in non-engineering areas or to remain unemployed. The main reason for reducing the number of intakes in IT is automation. Experts say that by 2021, four out of every 10 jobs globally will be lost.

To end the discussion, we are left with the question of whether to go in the engineering field or not. But yes, all reports are yet to be an eye-opener for the future of engineering.