A Study of Technical Employability of Engineering Graduates in India

This study examines the technical employability of engineering graduates from tier-II engineering colleges in India. This involved mapping the students’ skill sets across different streams against the skill sets required by recruiters, to identify and reduce the skill gap between the required and actual skill sets. The primary data was collected via assessment tools to capture the aptitude of the students. The dependent variable for the study was the student’s ‘technical employability’ status or suitability for the role. Discriminant analysis was employed for the analysis. The results of the study suggest that aptitude explains almost 80% of the variation in employability among the students. Thus, engineering colleges must place more emphasis on aptitude development. The results of the study also suggest that the low level of employability of engineering graduates is due to lack of adequate soft skills training in engineering colleges. In fact, it could be inferred that soft skills play a much more important role in employability than technical skills. This is an issue which tier-II engineering colleges must address on an urgent basis.