Talent Crunch, Or Jobs Crisis?

India churns out more engineers than most countries around the world, yet Indian industry complains of a talent crunch. BW Education explores this tragic paradox

- Prerna Lamba

India churns out more engineers than most countries around the world from as many as 3,500 engineering colleges. The number of engineering colleges has tripled in the last decade and the multitude who leave their portals every year have grown in numbers too. Yet corporate India complains of a talent crunch – and thereby hangs a tale!

The growth in the number of engineering colleges has been particularly astounding among institutions that qualify as tier-2 (top-ranked private institutions and state-sponsored government colleges) and tier-3 (private institutions, not categorized specifically). The number of tier-1 (or premium central colleges like the Indian Institutes of Technology - IITs and National Institute of Technology - NITs) have grown too, but not quite at the same pace.

A survey conducted by Aspiring Minds found engineering graduates from the tier-2 and more particularly tier-3 colleges wanting in “industry readiness”. Corporate India finds most of these engineering graduates “unemployable” either because they lack skills relevant for a job, or are unable to adapt to new-age technologies. Of the 1.5 million engineering graduates turned out by the bourgeoning institutions around the country, only seven percent qualify as ‘employable’, according to the survey.