During the advent of industrialization and mass production , employment was guaranteed to any one who possess the requisite skill . The problem then was a shortage of skilled people . With the progress of technology , mass customization , the digitization of electronics and the great rate of obsolescence in marketable skills , the table has turned full circle from employment to employable people .
Today , the lead time for preparing an engineer to be ready to take up a job is 4 to 5 years and during this time , the break through in the technological envelope would have made the course content and curriculum partly redundant for the job in hand . This trend brings up the problem of employability to sharp focus . Added to this is the drop in quality of teaching , inadequate infrastructure , absence of qualified faculty , inadequate emphasis on applied research and other factors which produce the mismatch and avoidable overheads on the system .
In a candid admission recently , the Minister for IT , Mr Kapil Sibal of Indian Government admitted publicly that only about 17.5 % of engineering graduates are employable by the IT Industry . The National Skill Development Council -NSDC is addressing this issue seriously through an All India Survey to estimate the Skill Gaps for all industrial segments to increase the employability of students who graduate from colleges . This is a gigantic task considering the complexities involved but it is a good place to start .
The Skills gap needs to be defined keeping in view the future technological trends and the universities needs to adopt a dynamic curriculum for designing the courses . The industry – academia interface is crucial in this endeavor . Colleges should have joint consultancy machinery in place with members from the academia , social sciences and industry to periodically review the concept and conduct of vocational courses to improve the employability percentages and job readiness of students . This is a priority area with deep impact on the overall economy of the country and should be undertaken on war footing .