MADURAI: Well-known. widely consulted and reputed education-cum-career guidance consultant in India Mr.Jayaprakash Gandhi (0427- 2449482 – based in SALEM- TAMIL NADU) has given very important advise to students and parents on July 30th 2018… about the future of ENGINEERING STUDIES in our country and the changes urgently required in engineering institutions.
THE FOLLOWING IS ARTICLE BY MR.JAYAPRAKASH GANDHI:
Engineering studies – future? Engineering education in the country is almost outdated and seems to have reached a saturation point. It is witnessing a dramatic decline and unless engineering institutions now take some measures. it would be very difficult to convince the students to take engineering as a profession.
Recruitment in IT and software industry which was the backbone for placements for all engineering institutions has completely changed. IT recruitment which was at one time fueling exponential growth of institutes has gone down drastically.
When the IT was at its peak. average engineers were able to find a job which is no longer the case. It is because of this trend that companies restricted to take up high-end projects for product development task. Now with aninslaught of automation backed by artificial intelligence. machine learning. deep leanring and design thinking. they are finding it difficult to remain viable.
REVAMP ENGINEERING SYLLABUS:
Indian IT companies’ current skill and competency sets have become a major issue for moving further into the future. It is a wake up call for institutions to revamp to the entire engineering system in India. The engineering education has to be re-looked from a fresh perspective and work towards bringing a structural change.
We have almost double the number of colleges in the last 10 years without any planning or foresight. I cautioned that the mushrooming of engineering colleges would become a serious issue.Except for very few institutions, most of them have not invested in the right kind of digital infrastructure such as the centre of excellence. advance learning centre and online learning centres to improve the learning outcome of students.
WHAT WE SHOULD DO NOW FOR ENGINEERING?
So, it is time for engineering institutions must realise to invest in future technologies so that students become more employable that in the current scenario. It has been found that 80 per cent of Indian engineering studehnts lack competency and applied skills. The following are my suggestions to improve engineering education in India.
1. The entire engineering faculty has to be re-skilled to teach new and upcoming technologies to the B.E. students.
2. To bring in an expert educational consultant to address the students and faculty about the new / upcoming technologies every now and then.
3. Establishing advance learning centres to enhance the efficiency of various processes and functions in engineering education.
4.The need to stress on the use of digital infrastructure for knowledge management. sharing of study material and assessment.
5. Organizing regular hackathons and competitions to provide exposure to real world programs for students.
6. The syllabus and curriculum content should be relevant and updated time to time as per industry requirements.
7. Only the main core of engineering branches such as mechanical. computer science, ECE, EEE, Civil, chemical. instrumentation. mechatronics, bio-technology etc. should be available to students.
8. Courses such as automobile, production, petroleum. pharma. geo-informatics, etc should be removed from the list of branches by the aicte..
9. The major courses need to be designed in collaboration with the industry and top academicians to cater to the skill requirements of various industries.
10. Engineering institutions need to partner with a particular industry for students’ skill enhancement.
11. Number of subjects in each semester can be brought down to 4 instead of six, thereby giving time for students to learn new technology applications.
12. Entire engineering examination system should be revamped. The studnets’ learning ability should be improved through a continuous assessment model instead of only exams.
13. Recruiters’ expectations is shifting to what you can do rather than what you know. Only practical learning is the solution for students.
14. Acquiring knowledge is a process that should happen both inside and outside the institutions. Students need to be regularly exposed to latest technological events both national and international.
15. Improving school-level education so that engineering colleges could get better quality students.
16. And, finally a proactive approach by all the educational institutions, industries and the Government can go a long way in helping the engineering education get more better and advanced in India.
By JAYAPRAKASH GANDHI
CAREER CONSULTANT
TAMIL NADU.
