A Study of Technical Employability of EngineeringGraduates in India

Abstract

This study examines the technical employability ofengineering graduates from tier-II engineering collegesin India. This involved mapping the students’ skill setsacross different streams against the skill sets requiredby recruiters, to identify and reduce the skill gapbetween the required and actual skill sets. The primarydata was collected via assessment tools to capture theaptitude of the students. The dependent variable forthe study was the student’s ‘technical employability’status or suitability for the role. Discriminant analysiswas employed for the analysis. The results of thestudy suggest that aptitude explains almost 80% ofthe variation in employability among the students.Thus, engineering colleges must place more emphasison aptitude development. The results of the studyalso suggest that the low level of employability ofengineering graduates is due to lack of adequate softskills training in engineering colleges. In fact, it couldbe inferred that soft skills play a much more importantrole in employability than technical skills. This is anissue which tier-II engineering colleges must addresson an urgent basis.