If you have spent time around any of India’s 6,214 engineerings (and technology)-education circuits, perhaps you may have noticed two things.
One–the distance between the best colleges (IITs) and the third-tier colleges is vast, but that is not always a reflection of the students’ competence.
Instead, what we call the culture of education is vastly different. Yet, the curriculum and the things supposed to be taught within the curriculum are almost the same.
Two—you may have noticed the job-hungry sentiments of students. A lot of it also comes down to how the Indian society exhibits its norms across classes. The job-first approach fails to work for many students, and they end up in the wrong place.
Is Engineering Industry Doing Anything to Help Students?
If we go by what we see around us, then yes, the engineering industry is taking steps to help students. For example, many colleges around us are organising bootcamps and workshops to give students industry exposure.
The internship market has opened up, and even undergraduate students are actively working for money. Compared to how things were a decade or two ago, we can see noticeable changes (and improvements) in the engineering industry.
Times dictate our fate
We happen to be living in a very prosperous time. Yes, vast unemployment exists in India and the rest of the world. You can ideally argue against the fact that the world right now is in a healthy state. What I am trying to get at is the fact that opportunities today are more accessible than ever.
Engineering students can now earn anywhere from 5000 rupees to lakhs working as interns or freelancers from their homes. This alone has enabled many to fund their careers. Opportunities to make money are also more than ever. Yes, competition has increased at par.
Some of the improvements and developments in the engineering industry are also results of living in such prosperous times. In the last 20 years, engineering, particularly computer engineering, has achieved more than humankind had centuries before.
From getting groceries delivered to our homes to learning about AI, all you need is a smartphone and internet connection to do almost everything. Changes in the engineering sector result from changes in the world at large.
What are the Challenges, and Why do they Still Exist?
Sorry to bring you back if I was painting a very positive picture of the country’s engineering sector. Yes, there are reasons to be optimistic. But, at the same time, the need of the hour is to address the challenges that lie ahead of us. We have been dealing with similar challenges for a long time yet have failed to eradicate them repeatedly.
Learners not being fit for a job after graduation is the most pertinent problem in the engineering sector in India. The topic has even made its way to debates in Parliament. Across regions, we have seen students not exhibiting any readiness for a position in a high-pressure corporate environment after graduating. For instance, a recent poll said only 7% of all engineering grads are capable of handling core engineering tasks!
There’s no straightforward answer as to how this happens. Part of the reason is the culture of rote learning that is persistent in the country’s education system. That issue has to be addressed at the school level.
Another problem is the learning model of the lower-tier engineering colleges. What the curriculum wants and reality can offer often do not match. As a result, both students and faculties suffer from this fundamental mismatch.
There are many other challenges that we can talk about. So instead of doing that, let’s discuss what steps can potentially curb these problems.
Integrated classroom courses
Coaching or tuition are common talking points among Indian students. The problem with coaching is that it increases the burden on learners instead of decreasing it. Now there’s twice the load for the student, which in many cases is also redundant.
Integrated classroom courses are the answer to this problem. Blending in with the learner’s classroom time and space can teach more without burdening more.
With CodeQuotient Academy, we are introducing the concept of integrated classroom courses for engineering undergraduates. This is a new approach to providing learners hands-on training that does not require the learner to apply from a third-party entity.
CodeQuotient has already partnered with several top colleges and universities to provide learners with hands-on training at no cost.
What CodeQuotient Academy Aims to Do?
We build an organisation that can act as the meeting ground for learners and employers. We handpick candidates and train them for the positions they can excel in.
Our goal is to make CodeQuotient Academy a win-win platform for learners and companies hiring them. As we slowly gain traction, we hope to address some of the most pertinent issues in the country’s engineering sector.
