"Agility In Reskilling Is Of Utmost Importance"

ADITYA KOHLI, CHRO, Orient Electric, explains the factors behind employability concerns of engineering graduates and how engineering colleges and students can brace for the impact of Al

- Meha Mathur

Concerns have been raised in several reports regarding the unemployability of engineering graduates. What is at the core of the problem?

The core underlying problem behind the lower employability of engineering graduates in India can be attributed to a combination of factors which include saturation in the job market, gap between industry requirements and the skills imparted in the education system, inconsistent standards of quality of education in certain cases, and oversupply of graduates in certain engineering disciplines.

Furthermore, engineers need to commit to life-long and continuous learning and one cannot just depend on a degree to secure a job. For engineering graduates to stay relevant in the job market, they must stay on the top of emerging and relevant tech and digital skills such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, etc.

Engineering grads may have theoretical knowledge but lack hands-on experience and exposure to real-world scenarios in most cases, making them less attractive to employers.

"As technology continues to disrupt businesses and job roles, the half-life of a skill, that is the time taken for a skill to lose 50 per cent of its relevance is shrinking fast"

There have been layoffs in several sectors in the last one year. What challenges does this pose for fresh engineering graduates, and how can they brace for this challenge?