Life Beyond The Drawing Board

If many students in India join engineering courses out of passion for the subject, there is an equal number—maybe more—who take up engineering out of pressure from families or peers, or just to join the bandwagon. And yet only a few regret it later in life. Most don’t since an engineering degree also opens up other avenues where their mastery of numbers comes into play and their perspective tends to change as they grow during the four-year course. The passionate ones, of course, pursue higher studies, if circumstances allow, for going deeper into the subject; a few are lucky enough to get placement in their core areas.

Ideally, an engineer is expected to be at the shop floor. But ITI and polytechnic diploma holders overshadow them there as they have the skills required and more physical exposure, whereas undergraduate engineering students have more book-based experience. Also, industries prefer to hire those who are exposed to their real needs. Since lack of exposure becomes a negative factor in the job sector, many engineering graduates end up pursuing MBA, sales, marketing, civil service, journalism, UN jobs, policy advocacy and so on. Many, indeed, are excited by white-collared, supervisory roles that also help them carry a fat salary packet back home.

Last year, former Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chairman E. Sreedharan expressed his disillusionment over the kind of engineers coming up. “Engineering institutes in the country are producing sub-standard engineers,” he said. Is the system accountable for this and what should be the way forward? There is no denying that technical institutes have mushroomed over a period of time and many of those lack infrastructure and faculty. Some do not even have the required number of students. But they have all been allowed to operate. Therefore, while the quality is compromised and the curriculum lopsided in engineering institutions, it is the ITI and polytechnic graduates who fill the vacuum. So should India have more engineering colleges or polytechnics?

Former HRD secretary Vibha Puri Das strongly believes there can be no short-cuts in the pursuit of quality. “Engineering colleges are of all standards and it is not fair to paint them with one brush,” she says. “It is not fair to blame the education system for not meeting job requirements. A bachelor’s degree is expected to qualify a student to meet with generic requirements of the job market, but cannot be so narrow in focus as to be expected to meet the needs of each potential employer. If engineering colleges are falling between the two stools of excessive emphasis on theory but not meeting the highest benchmarks of research, on the one hand, and remaining removed from the practical realities of work life, on the other, then some remedial steps would be called for.”

A skilling framework is necessary to ensure the polytechnics and ITIs play the necessary role without stunting the capacities of the students who enter their portals, says Das, who believes this framework should enable students to enter, but not limit their options at the end. While ensuring market-ready skills are imparted to those who would take up main positions on the shop floor and retail, there must also be options available for those who wish to pursue further education and enhance their opportunities before joining the workforce.

Nine years ago, Pallav Kumar Singh graduated in aerospace engineering from SRM University. In college, he had realised 80 per cent of the students were not there out of passion for the subject and their perspectives on engineering were shallow. Pallav, who was keen in getting a job in his core area, could not succeed and then sat for the civil services examination. He was fascinated by small and cottage industry policyadvocacy and today he has his own venture and works in think-tank in the sector.

Hemant Gopinath, who finished ­mec­hanical engineering at TKM College of Engineering in Kerala, did a 25-month stint with L&T Construction Limi­ted in his core area through campus ­placement. But, he soon realised that what he was doing in the company could also be done by a diploma holder. Not very enthusiastic about gaining deeper knowledge in engineering, Gopinath decided to pursue what was closer to his heart—managerial-supervisory work. So he decided to do MBA, which could open up more avenues, whereas engineering would have res­tricted him to one stream only.

“It is not true that engineering graduates are all below standard bec­ause alumni from my college are working in ISRO, DRDO and so on,” says Gopinath. “But, over the years, engineering colleges have mushroomed that don’t follow quality standards. Besides, undergraduation in engineering is more book-based knowledge, whereas ITI and polytechnic students are more exposed to hands-on roles.”

Datta Kuvalekar, director of Forbes Marshall in Pune, agrees that ITI polytechnic diploma holders are equipped with direct “doing” skills, which add dir­ect value to the manufacturing process, and are, therefore, needed by industry to run machines and equipment. But he feels engineers too tend to look down upon these assignments as being labour-oriented. Sales and marketing jobs are considered “glamorous” and are known to boost career prospects.

“Sales and marketing job roles have a more attractive image, while manufacturing jobs are seen as being ‘low on returns’. That needs to be tackled,” he says. “Many engineers also tended to turn to IT many years ago, during the IT boom, for higher salaries and glamorous exposure to foreign lands.”

Another factor is that there is no compulsory long-term internship in industries for engineering graduates. According to a former IIT professor, engineering students have a limited exposure to real life and internships are mostly on paper. While industries are perhaps not enthused by the idea of apprenticeship as the apprentices may move on to other jobs elsewhere, many students too find the six-week training lacklustre as it usually has few linkages with what they have been taught.

How do we rectify this? Gujarat Technical University vice-chancellor Navin Seth is emphatic that internship in various industries should be made compulsory for engineering students, on the lines of the mandatory one-year hospital internship for medical students. Agreeing with the IIT professor that the internships today are mostly “symbolic”, Seth says, “Unfortunately, there is no real exposure, no hands-on training for the students.”

While industries require engineering graduates who can serve their purpose, they are managing with diploma holders since there is a void of good engineers. “Industries require engineering graduates who can serve their purpose, but are managing with diploma holders as there is a dearth of good engineers. Polytechnic diploma holders and ITI students are technicians more than anything else,” says Seth.

Another reason many point out for India not producing enough qualified engineers is the basic fault of having multiple-choice questions. “It is bad for students as they are not able to think logically. In multiple-choice questions, marks are given for ticking the correct response, which need not be the result of correct reasoning,” says Prof K.D. Joshi, formerly with IIT Bombay, who adds that countries such as France follow multiple layers of imparting engineering course.

There are also those like Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman, Hero Corporate Service, and chancellor of BML Munjal University, who feel India needs a thoughtful regulatory system in higher education that monitors the quality and output of engineering with a relatively hands-off approach.

Ultimately, what is needed is not either/or, but all. India needs ­qualified engineering graduates as well as ITI and polytechnic diploma holders because if the former can meet the need for intellectual jobs in R&D, the latter may be better suited for jobs in manufacturing.