Employability and Skill Sets of Newly Graduated Engineers in India: A Study

Abstract

Shortage of skills remains one of the major constraints to continued growth of the Indian economy. This employer survey seeks to address this knowledge-gap by answering three questions: Which skills do employers consider important when hiring new engineering graduates? How satisfied are the employers with the skills of engineering graduates? and In which important skills are the engineers falling short? The results confirm a widespread dissatisfaction with the current graduates. After classifying all skills by factor analysis, the authors conclude that employers perceive soft skills (core employability skills and communication skills) to be very important. The findings suggest that engineering education institutions should seek to improve the skill set of graduates, recognize the importance of soft skills, refocus the assessments, teaching-learning process and curricula from lower-order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding, toward higher-order skills, such as analyzing and solving engineering problems, as well as creativity, and interact more with employers to understand the particular demand for skills in that region and sector.