Why are so many engineering and management graduates out of jobs? To address the issue of low employability, technical institutes’ regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is preparing a ‘perspective plan 2030’.
The Council will hire a private firm to analyse the demand and supply gap, geographical imbalances, and redundancy of certain courses in view of the fast technological changes and vacant seats in technical institutes, official sources said, adding this analysis will take into consideration the requirements until 2030.
Once the study is complete, suitable changes will be made in the curricula.
Placement of fresh graduates from new engineering institutes has been declining over the years. Currently, India produces an estimated 700,000 engineers from 3,000 institutes but barely half of them get jobs.
Job offers for fresh management graduates witnessed a five-year low in 2016-17, with only 47% of MBA graduates being hired during campus placement drives — a dip of 4% compared to the previous year. At 12%, the drop was far sharper for postgraduate diploma holders.
According to a senior AICTE official, a report by a committee formed to prepare the terms and references of this study is being submitted. “This is the first time that a perspective plan is being prepared for technical education. We need to draw plans keeping the future in mind to ensure these institutes are able to provide better placement opportunities to the students who have the skills required by the industry,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}According to a senior AICTE official, a report by a committee formed to prepare the terms and references of this study is being submitted. “This is the first time that a perspective plan is being prepared for technical education. We need to draw plans keeping the future in mind to ensure these institutes are able to provide better placement opportunities to the students who have the skills required by the industry,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}The terms and references have been prepared by a retired professor of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. It will cover all technical subjects such as engineering, management, and architecture, among others.
“An agency will be identified that will carry out the survey. Some of the courses have become redundant and barely have any takers. The firm will also look into fast technological changes and the market response to the curriculum. We have prepared a model curriculum and this plan will give more inputs for the future,” another senior AICTE official said.
Issues such as faculty quality of teaching and learning processes will also be addressed through this study.
A timeline will be fixed to ensure the study is completed in a time-bound manner.