Improving Employ-ability of Professional Students

In our country it has been observed through many surveys that employability of professionals passing out from engineering and management institutes is very low. Keeping in mind the background and potential of our students we at Mewar University have found following measures.

Training

Students undergo intensive training in reputed training centers at the end of their pre final year of education. Duration is 4-6 weeks. We are very careful in selecting training centers. Most of the training centers of our country are providing ritualistic training and certificate. Interestingly, students also focus on procuring a certificate to fulfill the requirement prescribed by their institutes. What we emphasize that we should select training institutes with proper infrastructure and national/international repute Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Ministry of India is running many such training centers in the nation like Indo German Tool Room, Indo Danish Tool Room, etc. There are many other training centers run by Ministry of Labor and Employment and some private organizations also run good training centers. Of course, they charge reasonable amount for 4-6 weeks training. But it is worth spending money and time in such centers.

In the second phase of training, we call it internship. It is for the whole semester, the last one of their professional education. During this phase, students acquire technical/ management skills by serving as interns for six months in a industrial organization. During this phase, they have to hone their technical/ management skills. Chances are most of the students may get jobs in the organization. The challenge lies with the student to convert internship into jobs through their diligence, hard work and commitment.

But the journey is not so easy for most of the students. We advise students to work on following five factors to improve their employability. The effort should begin right from their first year of education instead of working up in the final year.

1. Functional English: These days all technical and management related communication in industry happens in English. Most of the manuals for plants and equipment are in English. Many corporate have their medium of instruction/ communication in English. Under the circumstances, professional students must have strong hold on at least written English. Ability to speak fluent English gives an added advantage. Most of the students come from non English background they need to put in extra effort in this direction. Suggestion is that they should read English newspaper daily and watch English news on television regularly.
2. Presentability: It is often seen that engineering and management students do not pay attention to their visual appeal. Later is their career in corporate they have a feeling that their subordinates do not listen to them or pay respect. Personal grooming should be taken care of, like proper hair style, sense of dressing, etc. This also calls for concerted efforts for many years. No one can claim to become smart overnight.
3. Subject Expertise: Students need to have clear concept of their specialization in engineering or management field. Only this core competence can take them higher on corporate ladder. They need to study real hard to have basic concepts clear. They should came out of the habit of passing out exams ritualistically.
4. General Knowledge: Apart From the concept of the core area employers look for candidates with good general knowledge. This applies to technical areas also. For example, electrical engineer should have some knowledge about allied engineering subjects like mechanical, civil, electronics, instrumentation, etc. Students need to put in extra effort to acquire this skill. Active participation in seminars, industrial visits, etc. is very important.
5. Self Discipline: This is most important factor enabling students to work on four points mentioned earlier. Everything starts with self discipline which is often neglected in hostel lives. The role of electronic media like smart phones and television has worsen the situation. Most of the youth are virtually slaves of social media which does not add much value to their employability.

If all the students pay attention to the factors mentioned above employability will certainly improve. The points are important for them in their professional career later also.

By: S.K. Das (Director Training, Mewar University)

Email- sk.das@mewaruniversity.org