Choose engineering courses in tune with job trends, advise experts

For fresh school graduates, every summer bringswith it a cloud of confusion regarding which course they should take andwhich courses will ensure that they have good chances of securing ajob soon after college. This scenario appears to be especially true forthose trying to pick an engineering course.

Academic and industry experts advice that, students should also consider other parameters such as salary, growth opportunities, industry environment and, future prospects before taking up an engineering course. At present, there are over 100 engineering courses (B. E and B.Tech) available in various universities and colleges across the state.

According to survey released in December 2018 by RecruitX, one of the big recruiting firms, the IT sector—which wasn’t among the top five sectors for recruiting in the recent past—picked significant pace in the middle of 2018. The survey claimed the automobiles sector topped the hiring list in the same year.

It also stated undergraduate courses on IT, Automobile, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Biotechnology Engineering are that are likely to ensure job opportunities include.

Former Vice Chancellor of Anna University E Balagurusamy said that currently, admissions to the top engineering colleges are based only on the marks scored by the students in their Class 12 exams.

He said that parents should try to identify the natural interest of their children who want to pursue engineering courses and help them pick the right course accordingly. “It is not fair for students to take up a course only because it is popular. All courses have their advantages and disadvantages,” Balagurusamy said.

The former Vice Chancellor also pointed out some of the courses such as Computer Engineering, Electronics, Mechanical and even Agricultural Engineering among offer good opportunities to the students. “Choosing a college or a university is also an important factor for the students,” he said. Balagurusamy added that all the courses offered by universities and colleges have job opportunities provided how the students approach it.

Meanwhile, former professor of Anna University, B Lakshmanan, pointed out that All India Council for Technical Education, which is the monitoring agency for higher education across all the States, should scrap certain courses like engineering in power systems, computer networks, mechatronics and among others, as they offer limited job opportunities to students.

He said that these courses look attractive, but do not produce employment opportunities. “Mining engineering also has only a few job opportunities,” said Lakshmanan adding that after graduates of this course get placed only in mining companies, which are few in number in the country.

He said that students can also consider looking up courses in the fields of science, defence-related technologies and basic innovative research offered by reputed and internationally popular research centres.

“The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have more than 60 research and development focusing in the areas of military technology, aeronautics. Similarly, Department of Science and Technology, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, BARC, IGCAR, Kalpakkam also produces lots of job opportunities. There are a lot of other centres too. Parents and students only need to broaden their horizon to make the most out of these courses,” said Lakshmanan.

“I completed my chemical engineering from a leading college in Chennai in 2016. Though I got a decent job in a painting company, many of my friends, who studied computer science, received better job offers than me,” said B Akashiya Kumar. He said that even after he got a masters degree in Chemical engineering, the availability of job did not change.

S Gayathiri, who graduated with Instrumentation few years ago, got a job in BPO. But, completed a small computer course while she was at the BPO and is now working with HP with a considerably fatter pay check. “It was a wise move to shift from instrumentation to IT sector on time,” she said.

Similarly, K Sidharth did his research before settling for automobile engineering in 2015. After graduating, he landed a decent job in a leading car manufacturing company at Oragadam. “The salary growth is high in automobile sector. This is my third company in less than three years,” he said.

Zairus Master, the CEO of shine.com, a leading recruitment company, said that 2018 was a year of many changes for the Indian IT sector. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics have become more embedded within the day- to-day operations of IT/ITES companies,he said.

According to him, however, this growth is yet to fully translate into gains for Indian IT/ITES professionals. “This disparity is not because of a lack of jobs. As per a recent report, there are around 50,000 vacancies in data science and machine learning profiles in the country at present,” Master said.

Pointing out that a large segment of the country’s IT/ITES workforce is simply not equipped with the skill sets needed to avail newer and better professional opportunities, he said that as a result, while the demand for new-age skills has never been higher, most professionals in the domain find their long-term career prospects severely limited by a lack of relevant skills.

“Currently, the biggest challenge facing jobseekers is the disparity between the demand and supply of skills. Most new professionals joining the workforce are armed with generic skills. The industry demand, however, is for specific Skill sets and specialisations,” Master said.

He said professionals equipped with advanced communication and cross-functional skills are also much sought-after, but such talent too is in short supply. This is adding to the growing problem that jobseekers face.

Sanjay Goyal, the business head of TimesJobs and TechGig said that leading IT firms in the country are diversifying their offerings and showcasing innovative ideas in new-age technologies like Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence and hence their talent needs are changing accordingly.

He said automobiles sector is presently witnessing rapid developments with the advent of electric vehicles and entry of big foreign players in the Indian market. “These are changing the configuration of the auto sector and its workforce requirements,” Goyal said.

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 Computer Science Engineering

 Automobile Engineering

 Artificial Intelligence

 Civil Engineering

 Aeronautical Engineering

 Aerospace Engineering

 Mechatronics

 Power Systems Engineering

 Instrumentation

 Food processing Engineering

 Bio-technology

 MiningTechnology