What’s the future of engineering education in India?

India has currently over ten thousand engineering institutions which send out fifteen lakh students every year. This is a huge chunk of global engineering talent which is attracting leading global companies to hire top talent from India. The best engineering colleges in Telangana have their own share of engineering pools generated every year actively being placed in top management roles of tech giants and most IT Product Development teams. While some suggest there is an excess supply of engineers who are left unemployed, we think, there still lies a huge scope for well trained and skilled engineers if every engineering college focuses skill training based on changing trends. So is there an excess supply? If yes, how is this going to change for the future of engineering in India for 2020 and beyond?

A good move from AICTE

All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has taken into account various institutions with poor infrastructure, no industry exposure, stagnant enrolment and absence of a technical ecosystem in their classrooms after which they've made a great decision. A government committee headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman BVR Mohan Reddy recommended having no new engineering colleges from the academic session 2020-21 & generation of capacity once in 2 years, to which the council passed the acceptance. This new regulation will cut short the excess supply of unskilled engineering graduates, making a way for skilled talent. Traditional engineering courses like Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Electronics engineering capacity utilization is around 40% compared to Computer Science and Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mechatronics being in the high 60%. Taking this into account AICTE will now only grant approval for additional seats in existing institutions based on their capacity utilisation which is a great move. BVR Mohan Reddy committee has also advised AICTE to introduce undergraduate engineering programmes in advanced areas like artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, data sciences, cybersecurity, 3D printing and design. Looks like the future of engineering is headed for a good start from 2020.

Role of engineering colleges

Most B.Tech & M.Tech colleges in Telangana have state of the art facilities on the campus that allow students to come up with innovative ideas. The faculty also encourages students for prototype building and also nurtures growing entrepreneurship. VEC, reputed among Warangal engineering colleges has frequent workshops on data analysis, data crunching and capturing data using IoT, artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is important for every engineering institution to adopt these technology-enabled learning, and project-based learning built into the coursework to enable skill enhancement in students. It is the responsibility of engineering institutions nationwide to enrich traditional domains like EEE, IPE, Mech with additional courses like IoT, Robotics and Automation, Programming techniques which provide a unique edge to graduates so that they are preferred by companies during the hiring process. The future of engineering in India will be secure if all engineering institutions deepen their industry engagements to create ‘Industry-ready’ graduates.

Emphasis on soft skills

Apart from technical knowledge, our graduates need impeccable soft skills to move further in their career. Corporates no longer want engineers who only know how to code, they want someone who is a great team player and an assertive individual who can communicate clearly & crisp. What's the point if a graduate is a brilliant student yet can't communicate what he/she knows? The inability of a candidate to deliver his or her views effectively during the interview leads to the rejection in the hiring process. To address this issue, all the top engineering colleges in Telangana, including VEC has specialised programs designed for students from diverse backgrounds to overcome their inhibitions. Students are trained and assessed on their communications and personality development so that no one is left behind. Internal training modules are then designed accordingly. They are given many opportunities to interact with the corporate world through internships, workshops with industry people to hone their soft skills and develop leadership abilities in them.

The engineering education in India is at a point of high growth trajectory by harnessing the right manpower. It is the responsibility of students & institutions to work hand in hand to ensure graduates are industry-ready by the end of their programme. As discussed earlier quality over quantity is the focus for every institute backed by new regulations from AICTE which will hopefully ensure that all the graduates are gainfully employed. For those concerned with the excess supply of engineers, I need to realize that a large number of graduates also migrate abroad. This will further make way for job scope for those in India. The full potential of India with the latest technology to access is yet to be seen. To any student reading this and wondering if engineering has a future in India. Well, with innovative ideas and the right college to guide you, we'd say the future looks bright and clear.

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