A staggering 80% of engineers in India are unemployable: Report

• According to the report, Indian engineers still lag the relevant digital skills that companies nowadays are looking to hire for
  
• This includes advanced tech skills such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and wireless technologies among others
  
• Merely 2.5% of engineers in India possess skills in artificial intelligence while only a handful of engineers (5.5%) are qualified with basic programming, the report assessed.
  

While the Indian government and IT firms have been busy launching various programs to bring emerging tech skills in the country, the state of employability among the latest graduating class of engineers remains in question.

The ‘National Employability Report for Engineers 2019’ put out by a job assessment platform Aspiring Minds, has shown that over 80% of engineers in India are unfit to take up any job in the knowledge economy.

According to the report, Indian engineers still lag the relevant digital skills that companies nowadays are looking to hire for. This includes advanced tech skills such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and wireless technologies among others. Merely 2.5% of engineers in India possess skills in artificial intelligence while only a handful of engineers (5.5%) are qualified with basic programming, the report assessed.

This means, overall, only 1.5% of engineers in India have the required skills for new-age jobs.

The findings match other reports about the shortage of digital skills in India. The emerging sector has nearly 4,000 vacant jobs in India due to lack of qualified talent.

This may be because of the education system imparting theory-based knowledge. The data collected has revealed that only 40% of the total graduate engineers opt for internships for hands on experience with 36% taking up projects other than their coursework. While 47% of students attend industry talks to boost their knowledge.

"We find that a low proportion of engineers take up projects beyond curriculum and do internships. Also, there is a lack of faculty talking about industry application of concepts in class or students getting exposure through industry talks," Varun Aggarwal, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Aspiring Minds told PTI.

The report analysed engineers across India, China and the US. As per the conclusions drawn, US job applicants were found to be ahead of Indians in terms of good coding skills, while China and India compete almost at the same levels.

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