NASSCOM:Only 25% Graduates in India are Employable

The AICTE, Chairman SS Mantha came down on the surveys done by the the NASSCOM and other firms. Recently National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) and other private firms surveyed that only 25% graduates in India are employable. SS Mantha questioned the vary basis of these surveys, stating those were limited to very few people.

SS Mantha said, "Around 1.5 million engineering degree and 1 million diploma seats are present in India. In which, every year 1 million graduates come out for jobs and higher studies. If we considered survey figures, then about 7.5 lakh engineers should be rendered unemployed. If cumulative average of five years is taken into account then it will have 35 lakh unemployed engineers,"

He said that, this situation would have led to civil war but the reality was in complete contrast. This is certainly not the case and maximum of them are getting jobs. The only reason is they are underemployed and not getting the deserving salary. These surveys were conducted without any logical background and thus create confusion.

The AICTE chief states that NASSCOM had taken database of candidates coming for the interviews in 500 IT companies and arrived at these conclusions. "But India is vast country and these findings are far from reality," he said, this is for the first time that any apex body had come out openly against NASSCOM survey.

Mantha rechecked AICTE's stand of improving quality education, stating that it had started an e-governance project under by collecting date from all the states. He admitted that no survey was conducted on the actual number of jobs in engineering and other professional sectors in India and their demand-supply gap.

"For an important branch like mining, having tremendous demand in the market, there are only 654 seats in the entire country, Similarly, for architecture, only 7,000 seats are available, " he regret.

The former pro-Vice Chancellor of SNDT University admitted that there were concerns on the quality of engineering entrance examinations conducted by the states. MHT-CET entrance conducted by the Maharashtra government for admission to engineering, medical, pharmacy and veterinary courses has qualifying marks of just 1/200.

"This is literally the reason we have brought the concept of joint engineering examination (JEE) which will test the candidate's skills, " he said.

He rediculed the present school system, terming it as "redundant" as marks of Class 10 and 12 were not considered fro the admission to professional courses. "The students have completely lost the focus on the board examination and started ignoring it. We therefore have decided to give 40% weightage to the class 12 board examination and 60% to JEE exam so that students should focus equally on both."

Mantha said they had started acting tough on the criminal and illegal colleges and had closed down 25 of then for death of facilities. "We also issue notices and advertisements from time to time, warning students and parents to fully check institute's approvals on AICTE website."