With the cost of higher education on the rise, there is always a question on the return on investment. Are the educational institutions providing the necessary opportunities? An analysis has been done on the current education system in India.
There are hundreds of educational institutions in India. Starting from the South, we find more than 200 engineering colleges. Are the colleges giving a scope for the students to make a comfortable living after their graduation? The answer can be 'yes' to some level and an obvious 'no' from most of the institutions. There are options lying ahead in the core market for the academic institutions. If the universities are able to work in tune with the market demand, the options are enormous.
In the core engineering industry, the need for skilled engineers is increasing and the academic institutions should have a good industry academia interaction to tap the job market from industries. Institutions which have a centre of excellence setup by industries would enable placements to a greater extent. The leading core companies are ready to hire skilled students who are capable to be immediately deployed for a project. The companies even train the faculty who in turn train the students for a few months before they get into the industry.
Another scope of work is the research aspect. There are institutions working on various research areas. When the research facility is available, the scope of the student increases as many foreign universities work collaboratively. Various level of research funding is available abroad for the scholars to carry out their research work. There are many schemes supported by the government of India wherein the research scholars are entirely funded. Funding is available to buy the latest equipment and software too.
Another interesting career for institutions is the exchange offers available for the Indian students. The IAESTE office helps the students travel to countries of their choice, based on their area of study and spend few months there. During their stay abroad, the students get a stipend which helps them to manage their living expenses in a foreign land. Since the exchange enables foreign students entering the Indian campus, a cross cultural technical exchange happens. This enables the students to be at par in the global market.
With the latest trends in IOT, there is a huge market for embedded engineers. There is a prediction that by 2021, 6.4 lakh IT sector jobs would be lost to automation. Most of the automation is IOT (Internet of Things) based and there are a number of start-ups trying to grab the market. The educational institutions are now proactive in organising entrepreneurship programs. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) funds educational institutions for such programs and there are enough seed funding and training programs to enable a fresher to become an entrepreneur.
With so many opportunities lying ahead, it is in the hands of an individual to look for institutions which would offer all these facilities and would enable them to catch up with the current market.
Dr Shobha Rekh
She has around 20 years of experience of which 8 years were spent in industries. An embedded engineer by profession, she served various industries in different roles. She was heading the Technical writing and training division of Data Patterns, a defence organization in Chennai. With her industry expertise, she bridges the Industry-Institute gap by interacting with various industries and by participating in various industry academia forums.
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