Graduate Attributes vis-à-vis IT Employers’ Expectations: A Study on Undergraduate Engineering Education in India

Abstract

The engineering profession plays an exceedingly significant role in the growth and development of a country. To understand and address today’s global issues and challenges the world demands an energetic and innovative engineering workforce well-equipped to think, act and solve real-life problems. The objective of the present study is three-fold. First, is to examine the extent to which the engineering programmes prepare the students to acquire the 12 graduate attributes identified by National Board of Accreditation, India, and, second, is to identify the knowledge and skills expected to be acquired by engineering students to get jobs in IT companies, and third is to recognise the needs and expectations of the academia from IT companies and vice-versa. To achieve these, a transversal study was conducted among engineering colleges affiliated to a technical university, and among employers of 15 IT Companies. The study participants at the college level were final semester undergraduate engineering students, teachers handling engineering classes, academic heads of the colleges, such as Directors, Principals, Deans, Training and Placement officers, and alumni of the study university. Questionnaire was used as the study instrument, and data were collected from the participants by visiting the locations, in addition to a web-based survey that was opened for a stipulated period for data collection. The results show that the engineering programmes affiliated to the study university do not prepare the students to acquire all the 12 graduate attributes as mandated by the National Board of Accreditation. The common teaching-learning method being practiced by faculty members of the affiliated colleges of the study university was found to be lecture-based, using the chalk and talk method, which fails to interest or attract the students to the teaching learning process. The curriculum of the engineering programmes fails to instil technical and soft skills among the students, with the exception of project-related assignments and seminars. Adaptability, lifelong learning, teamwork and stress management are required to be acquired by the fresh engineering graduates as these are demanded by the IT companies.
Besides, oral communication, commitment to work, knowledge on discipline-specific technology and tools, discipline specific knowledge, knowledge on ethical issues, and knowledge on social and business context are the additional knowledge and skills expected by IT employers from fresh engineering graduates to be able to work as successful engineers. Employers emphasise that the engineering academia should prepare the engineering graduates with better technical knowledge in related topics, and also train them in soft-skills. Officials from academia have asserted that industries must provide professional exposure to the students through internships and summer jobs, as well as extending expert knowledge to research cells functional at college levels.