Another new academic year is about to begin for all young Engineering aspirants. A colourful and imaginary phase of life is going to commence from second week of August as per JNTUH convener of Eamcet Exams. Every year around 3-4 lakh engineering graduates are sent into the market from 700 + engineering institutions spread all over Andhra Pradesh. The critics say that though the number of engineering graduates has multiplied enormously, the quality of education imparted to these students is not proportionate to the quality demands of the Industry.
As per NASSCOM, of all the three and half lakh engineering students every year put into the market, only 25% students are found eligible for placements after completion of the course. In order to improve the percentage from 25% to 50% or even to 90%, the suggestions given below need to be implemented unitedly by the managements, principals, training officers, facilitators, teachers, parents and students:
The quality of the engineering education has become a big question mark because approximately 80% of the students leave their colleges without learning employability skills. Being Engineers, technical skills are of utmost importance. Technology is the base platform. Students are expected to get 10 out of 10 in technical skills after spending four years in Engineering College. In addition to the best technical skills, students are supposed to have some of the life skills, process oriented skills, English proficiency skills, quality-related skills, domain skills.
Given below are some of the tips/suggestions for a successful engineering education with necessary skills for employment. Out of the four year course, a guidance based on what some students need to do in their first year, second year, third year and final year in order to get some of the these employability skills while they are still in their colleges pursuing their academics. This document is prepared in the mode/framework of just-do-it-yourself (JDIY) implementation of some of the tips/suggestions to the students. It is the Student alone who can be more than enough to bring in the desired change management towards touching peoples’ lives and making them more and more effective in day to day interactions/transactions.
Expectations of the Industry
Industry expects proficiency in employability and soft skills from the students. They want the student to be industry-ready. However, these skills are not inclusive of the syllabus at B.Tech level. Students can be trained to meet the needs of the industry, provided this training becomes a part of the curriculum. In this context, the writer would like to suggest the following methods:
Writer’s perspective:
The role of the English teacher plays a significant part in imparting training to the students at all three years of B.Tech course. She/He should assume the role of a mentor, soft skills trainer, counsellor, strategic language learner, motivator etc. The English teacher should be exposed to good training in soft skills which would in turn motivate the students. She should conduct the sessions very interestingly and activity-based to interest the students. Hands-on experience makes the students learn faster. The basics of the language must be taught thoroughly to master the language. Industry-Institution interaction plays a major role in giving good exposure to the students. Every software company makes it a point to train their candidates before assigning any work. They spend a lot in such trainings as most of the candidates still have a wrong opinion that corporate is an extension of campus.
English should be made compulsory in the first three years of engineering course as most of the rural students are aspiring for engineering courses. These students do not have a good level of exposure towards the language and in addition to that they develop a phobia against learning the language though they would love to master it. Conduct a skill test and then divide them into three categories, namely:
1. Students from English medium but poor marks in English
2. Students from regional medium but average marks in English
3. Students from regional medium with poor marks in English
Categorizing and training in the respective groups improves the students’ levels of participation as it involves individual attention and also pulls the confidence levels of the students. It further, improves not only their speaking and writing skills, but also their inter-personal skills. This training at the end of the year will make them reach a level of language proficiency. At this stage, all the students are put to common level of syllabus in 2nd & 3rd year. However, the aim of the writer is to provide data to enhance the students’ placement success rate, and employability skills at the end of the course. Some simple/practical suggestions/tips to college students, managements, faculty members, training and placement officers (TPO), parents, stake holders are given by the researcher after doing a great research in this field.
Skills needed in first year B.Tech
Let the students realize that more than 65% of marks every year of engineering is very important, so that they will be eligible for major company’s interviews and selection process. Also the students must realize and propagate among their youngsters or juniors that first class percentage in class X, and intermediate is compulsory to be eligible to get a job in most of the companies. Organize awareness programmes, conduct frequent seminars, debates, panel discussions, career awareness workshops once in three months.
vAptitude Tests: Organize tests like aptitude with fill in the blanks question type than multiple choices. Categorize them into six sections like, verbal, non-verbal, synonyms, antonyms, comprehension passages, critical logical reasoning, arithmetic, data insufficiency, data interpretation, puzzles etc. This develops students’ critical thinking, problem solving nature and algorithmic nature.
v Mock Interviews: Face-to-face assessment, HR interviews, good practice in interview facing skills, video shooting of each student’s interview process- and provide them with some such clippings by 3rd yr to minimize their lapses.
vCommunication Skills: The urgent need to improve the technical students’ communication skills has been emphasized by educationalists as well as employers. AVIV (2007) in her article “Don’t be shy” states “Because speaking well is often crucial to getting a job—and sounding educated - nearly half of American colleges, and Universities require a public speaking or communications course, according to NASSCOM. The components of communication consist of: 7% words, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language.
vNewspaper reading: Inculcate the habit of newspaper reading in front of the mirror. Encourage story telling, skit, small plays in English, help in improving presentation skills, JAM sessions, diction, body language etc. Show them Oscar winning English movies regularly once a month and ask them to prepare movie reviews as a critic and they need to present the same in the class.
vSoft skills: Every class should be viewed as a technical session and soft skills session. Focus on soft skills, technical skills, process orientation skills, domain skills, quality related skills, e-language proficiency skills and promote the use of English 24x7x365. Inculcate leadership qualities by allotting five of their classmates to every student and make him/her responsible for four years. This way, students will be responsible and will start exhibiting leadership skills, a sense of ownership and accountability. They are the future leaders. The responsibility and accountability, and exhibiting the leadership skills should start from their first year of Engineering college. They should be aware that they are the part of solution providers’ team rather than problem creators’ team.
vPerformance tracking: Track the students assessment and performance as per the below table regularly in all their degree college duration in all technical, aptitude, interview skills, etc. provide the feedback to students, parents, fellow teachers continuously. Do it month after month in all four years.
Table No: 17 Performance Record
Performance Month1 Month2 Month3 So On….
No of A Grades (80% or above)
No of B+ Grades (75% to 79%) No of B Grades (65% to 75%) No of C Grades (55% to 65%) No of D Grades (less than 55%)
The students should make it a point to practice the test papers of the first five companies kept on their websites. Also must have thorough awareness on the 60 soft skills given in website and try to improve them by using it as a checklist.
Skills needed for B.Tech 2 year
•Expose the students to a variety of self instructional, learner friendly modes of language learning. Take the help of software which provides reading passages and exercises to cultivate the habit of reading passages from the computer monitor. Also exercises on phonetic sounds, stress on word accent, intonation and rhythm. More emphasis should be given to practices in mock interviews, group discussions, and public speaking to use the language effectively. Students should also be initiated into greater use of computer for plasticizing on resume preparation, report writing, and format making.
•10 minutes watching English news like, NDTV, NDTV-profit, CNBC, CNN-IBN channels in the class room. Try and imitate some of the news readers.
•Visit industries and spend at least one day in a month in your aspiring domain area, if not possible, Google search, internet searching
•Soft Skills trainers to adopt innovative methods like change the pattern of chairs arrangement in class room and also conduct classes effectively outside the class room
•Avoid using the Hi Fi (stylish) language
•Inculcate habit of appreciating dress sense among students, it is not about expensive clothes, it is about inexpensive, neat, clean clothes. Preferably students need to attend interviews in neat and clean formal cotton clothes
•Cool mindedness: For example, 18 out of 10 interviewees were unable to tell about the tie colour or dress colour & some details of interviewers when they came back from the interview as they were nervous or not in a normal mode or they were in a stress mode. Kindly advise them to be as cool as possible during the interview process.
•Show them the company interviews video recordings of successful and failed ones. Let students brainstorm on dos and don’ts in interview process, practice on different patterns of drafting resumes, sample HR questions and how to answer them correctly. Show various presentations on Life skills. Indicate the importance of Model question papers and practicing them. Invite industry experts, CEOs, Project managers, data base administrators apart from HR, University, Govt. officials to colleges and make them interact with students and faculty members which will enhance hands-on experience for the students.
Skills needed for B.Tech III and final year students
•More aptitude tests and face-to-face interviews, video recording of students. By the time they are about to face companies interview process, each and every student would have written at least about 15 sample aptitude tests and 15 times faced mock interviews
•Live projects in domain/technical areas. 70 live projects data/specifications are there in www.campusconnect.infosys.com including student kits, faculty kits, project guidelines for the students to download free of cost. These projects can be done by students forming teams on their own without much external support.
•Some colleges, faculty members, students are under a wrong assumption that, life skills or soft skills are only about 5 % or 10% of their content, curriculum of their four-year duration. Every single hour spent in the college is to be considered or viewed as combination and part and parcel of Technical skills + Life skills + Process Orientation skills + English language proficiency skills + Quality related skills + Domain Skills. This kind of enterprise view brings in global perspective to one and all. As they live their days they craft their own careers & lives. However, how every single hour spent in college by the student must be utilized to develop employability skills should be the motto of every engineering student.
As per NASSCOM, of all the three and half lakh engineering students every year put into the market, only 25% students are found eligible for placements after completion of the course. In order to improve the percentage from 25% to 50% or even to 90%, the suggestions given below need to be implemented unitedly by the managements, principals, training officers, facilitators, teachers, parents and students:
The quality of the engineering education has become a big question mark because approximately 80% of the students leave their colleges without learning employability skills. Being Engineers, technical skills are of utmost importance. Technology is the base platform. Students are expected to get 10 out of 10 in technical skills after spending four years in Engineering College. In addition to the best technical skills, students are supposed to have some of the life skills, process oriented skills, English proficiency skills, quality-related skills, domain skills.
Given below are some of the tips/suggestions for a successful engineering education with necessary skills for employment. Out of the four year course, a guidance based on what some students need to do in their first year, second year, third year and final year in order to get some of the these employability skills while they are still in their colleges pursuing their academics. This document is prepared in the mode/framework of just-do-it-yourself (JDIY) implementation of some of the tips/suggestions to the students. It is the Student alone who can be more than enough to bring in the desired change management towards touching peoples’ lives and making them more and more effective in day to day interactions/transactions.
Expectations of the Industry
Industry expects proficiency in employability and soft skills from the students. They want the student to be industry-ready. However, these skills are not inclusive of the syllabus at B.Tech level. Students can be trained to meet the needs of the industry, provided this training becomes a part of the curriculum. In this context, the writer would like to suggest the following methods:
Writer’s perspective:
The role of the English teacher plays a significant part in imparting training to the students at all three years of B.Tech course. She/He should assume the role of a mentor, soft skills trainer, counsellor, strategic language learner, motivator etc. The English teacher should be exposed to good training in soft skills which would in turn motivate the students. She should conduct the sessions very interestingly and activity-based to interest the students. Hands-on experience makes the students learn faster. The basics of the language must be taught thoroughly to master the language. Industry-Institution interaction plays a major role in giving good exposure to the students. Every software company makes it a point to train their candidates before assigning any work. They spend a lot in such trainings as most of the candidates still have a wrong opinion that corporate is an extension of campus.
English should be made compulsory in the first three years of engineering course as most of the rural students are aspiring for engineering courses. These students do not have a good level of exposure towards the language and in addition to that they develop a phobia against learning the language though they would love to master it. Conduct a skill test and then divide them into three categories, namely:
1. Students from English medium but poor marks in English
2. Students from regional medium but average marks in English
3. Students from regional medium with poor marks in English
Categorizing and training in the respective groups improves the students’ levels of participation as it involves individual attention and also pulls the confidence levels of the students. It further, improves not only their speaking and writing skills, but also their inter-personal skills. This training at the end of the year will make them reach a level of language proficiency. At this stage, all the students are put to common level of syllabus in 2nd & 3rd year. However, the aim of the writer is to provide data to enhance the students’ placement success rate, and employability skills at the end of the course. Some simple/practical suggestions/tips to college students, managements, faculty members, training and placement officers (TPO), parents, stake holders are given by the researcher after doing a great research in this field.
Skills needed in first year B.Tech
Let the students realize that more than 65% of marks every year of engineering is very important, so that they will be eligible for major company’s interviews and selection process. Also the students must realize and propagate among their youngsters or juniors that first class percentage in class X, and intermediate is compulsory to be eligible to get a job in most of the companies. Organize awareness programmes, conduct frequent seminars, debates, panel discussions, career awareness workshops once in three months.
vAptitude Tests: Organize tests like aptitude with fill in the blanks question type than multiple choices. Categorize them into six sections like, verbal, non-verbal, synonyms, antonyms, comprehension passages, critical logical reasoning, arithmetic, data insufficiency, data interpretation, puzzles etc. This develops students’ critical thinking, problem solving nature and algorithmic nature.
v Mock Interviews: Face-to-face assessment, HR interviews, good practice in interview facing skills, video shooting of each student’s interview process- and provide them with some such clippings by 3rd yr to minimize their lapses.
vCommunication Skills: The urgent need to improve the technical students’ communication skills has been emphasized by educationalists as well as employers. AVIV (2007) in her article “Don’t be shy” states “Because speaking well is often crucial to getting a job—and sounding educated - nearly half of American colleges, and Universities require a public speaking or communications course, according to NASSCOM. The components of communication consist of: 7% words, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language.
vNewspaper reading: Inculcate the habit of newspaper reading in front of the mirror. Encourage story telling, skit, small plays in English, help in improving presentation skills, JAM sessions, diction, body language etc. Show them Oscar winning English movies regularly once a month and ask them to prepare movie reviews as a critic and they need to present the same in the class.
vSoft skills: Every class should be viewed as a technical session and soft skills session. Focus on soft skills, technical skills, process orientation skills, domain skills, quality related skills, e-language proficiency skills and promote the use of English 24x7x365. Inculcate leadership qualities by allotting five of their classmates to every student and make him/her responsible for four years. This way, students will be responsible and will start exhibiting leadership skills, a sense of ownership and accountability. They are the future leaders. The responsibility and accountability, and exhibiting the leadership skills should start from their first year of Engineering college. They should be aware that they are the part of solution providers’ team rather than problem creators’ team.
vPerformance tracking: Track the students assessment and performance as per the below table regularly in all their degree college duration in all technical, aptitude, interview skills, etc. provide the feedback to students, parents, fellow teachers continuously. Do it month after month in all four years.
Table No: 17 Performance Record
Performance Month1 Month2 Month3 So On….
No of A Grades (80% or above)
No of B+ Grades (75% to 79%) No of B Grades (65% to 75%) No of C Grades (55% to 65%) No of D Grades (less than 55%)
The students should make it a point to practice the test papers of the first five companies kept on their websites. Also must have thorough awareness on the 60 soft skills given in website and try to improve them by using it as a checklist.
Skills needed for B.Tech 2 year
•Expose the students to a variety of self instructional, learner friendly modes of language learning. Take the help of software which provides reading passages and exercises to cultivate the habit of reading passages from the computer monitor. Also exercises on phonetic sounds, stress on word accent, intonation and rhythm. More emphasis should be given to practices in mock interviews, group discussions, and public speaking to use the language effectively. Students should also be initiated into greater use of computer for plasticizing on resume preparation, report writing, and format making.
•10 minutes watching English news like, NDTV, NDTV-profit, CNBC, CNN-IBN channels in the class room. Try and imitate some of the news readers.
•Visit industries and spend at least one day in a month in your aspiring domain area, if not possible, Google search, internet searching
•Soft Skills trainers to adopt innovative methods like change the pattern of chairs arrangement in class room and also conduct classes effectively outside the class room
•Avoid using the Hi Fi (stylish) language
•Inculcate habit of appreciating dress sense among students, it is not about expensive clothes, it is about inexpensive, neat, clean clothes. Preferably students need to attend interviews in neat and clean formal cotton clothes
•Cool mindedness: For example, 18 out of 10 interviewees were unable to tell about the tie colour or dress colour & some details of interviewers when they came back from the interview as they were nervous or not in a normal mode or they were in a stress mode. Kindly advise them to be as cool as possible during the interview process.
•Show them the company interviews video recordings of successful and failed ones. Let students brainstorm on dos and don’ts in interview process, practice on different patterns of drafting resumes, sample HR questions and how to answer them correctly. Show various presentations on Life skills. Indicate the importance of Model question papers and practicing them. Invite industry experts, CEOs, Project managers, data base administrators apart from HR, University, Govt. officials to colleges and make them interact with students and faculty members which will enhance hands-on experience for the students.
Skills needed for B.Tech III and final year students
•More aptitude tests and face-to-face interviews, video recording of students. By the time they are about to face companies interview process, each and every student would have written at least about 15 sample aptitude tests and 15 times faced mock interviews
•Live projects in domain/technical areas. 70 live projects data/specifications are there in www.campusconnect.infosys.com including student kits, faculty kits, project guidelines for the students to download free of cost. These projects can be done by students forming teams on their own without much external support.
•Some colleges, faculty members, students are under a wrong assumption that, life skills or soft skills are only about 5 % or 10% of their content, curriculum of their four-year duration. Every single hour spent in the college is to be considered or viewed as combination and part and parcel of Technical skills + Life skills + Process Orientation skills + English language proficiency skills + Quality related skills + Domain Skills. This kind of enterprise view brings in global perspective to one and all. As they live their days they craft their own careers & lives. However, how every single hour spent in college by the student must be utilized to develop employability skills should be the motto of every engineering student.
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