Nitin Vaidya (name changed) completed his B.E (Information Technology) from a reputed college of engineering in Goa some years back. After unsuccessfully looking for an engineering job for over a year, he began preparations for MBA. Today, he is a qualified engineer, but works in a non-technical field.
Like this there are many Nitin’s in Goa. Out of the 1,200 engineering graduate students which are produced from the 5 engineering colleges from state, 20 to 30 per cent of them do not find jobs, and many others do jobs which are well below their technical qualification. And yet some others are bound to take up jobs which have noting to-do with their education while the rest travel abroad for further studies as they are not able to find jobs.
Experts and educationists have said that there are factors which are responsible for this tendency one being the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) who gives easy permissions to set up engineering colleges of which many do not have the perfect faculty to train the students while the other experts says that another reason they say is that the curriculum is not in sync with the growing industry.
Also, the fourth edition of the National Employability Report for Engineers by Aspiring Minds, an employability evaluation and certification company, found that only about 18 percent of engineers were employable for the software services sector.
But the major question lies why there is a major decline in students getting jobs or is it their skills which acts as failure in fetching those jobs?
Anil Powar, educationist and former director of Education department of Government of Goa said that the market for jobs has been going down that is demand is more and supply is less.
“The market for engineering jobs has been declining in Goa as the demand is more and the supply is less. Also another reason is that the merit level is gone down while also the skills. Also due to the paid seats many people take up engineering but they do not have the actual skills. There are engineering colleges but the industry is not there” said Pawar
Though the quantity of universities, colleges and programmes are going on increasing in the state, the lack of quality education persists. Profit-hungry managements, lack of skill education, shortage of faculty are the major issues plaguing higher education. Graduates are collecting their degrees despite not being skilled enough to be a productive part of the Indian economy.
Speaking to Herald, Shree Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology- Chairman, Subhash Shirodkar surprisingly said “Who said there no jobs or there is no less market for engineering, it is a global opportunity. The world is getting technologically advanced and one has to move out if one needs the opportunity. Also in our college we have been receiving maximum companies for campus placement and the number is only increasing”
Meanwhile, Another educationist- Prabhakar Timblo “As far as engineering graduates from Goa are concerned, most of them get absorbed in the metros of Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Madras and Hyderabad and quite few in Goa. Graduates taking up self-employment opportunities are rare. What has to be done is that the renovation of curriculum focussed on skills to respond to changing requirements of job market”
