Course correction for smaller colleges

THESE ARE DIFFICULT times for engineering students in India's tier-II and -III cities. The last few placement seasons have been disappointing with the bigger IT companies Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra - largely staying away from these college campuses. 

- MANU KAUSHIK

These days, IT majors as well as start-ups are looking for specialised skills, which students in small-town engineering colleges lack. By one estimate, at least a million students have been waiting for job offers.

At the Government Engineering College (GEC), Thrissur, for instance, only 35 companies have visited the campus so far compared to 125 last year and of the 2024 batch of 700 students, just about 200 students found jobs so far.

Abhiyanshu Sinha, a fourth-year BTech (computer science) student at the government-run Gaya College of Engineering (GCE) in Bihar, told FE only about 30 students in his class have been placed so far.

"Students are not getting the desired job profiles and are not able to work with reputed companies," he said, attributing the problem to poor knowledge of technical skills. A few months back, the AIdriven advertising platform Deltax was looking to hire from GCE but just one student made it past the first round of selection.

From the looks of it, hiring by either the IT or the e-commerce sectors, from the campuses of smalltown engineering colleges, is unlikely to pick up meaningfully in the immediate future. Having realised this, colleges are now working to equip students with specialised skills that are in demand.

Courses and curriculum are being upgraded as they rush to add short-term certifications and full-stack degree programmes that will make students more qualified.