Employment and Employability of Engineering Graduates in India

Abstract

While higher education system in India produces the second largest number of engineering graduates in the world every year, the employability of the graduates is questioned both in the domestic and international labour markets.  Many rightly observe that India is overproducing engineering graduates with poor quality, who are not suitable for changing labour markets, as a result large numbers of graduates are either unemployed or mal/under employed.  Globally, the interface between technology and labour market is changing rapidly, making new demands on skills of the graduate engineers. The recent National Education Policy 2020 has clearly acknowledged this fact, and accordingly, proposes a variety of reforms for strengthening technical education in the country.  In this short paper, an attempt is made to examine a few specific aspects relating to the unemployment and employability of engineering graduates, along with implications for engineering education.