Most engineering graduates lack in skills: Study

India produces more than five lakh engineers annually, but only 2.68 per cent of them meet skill requirements of the IT products sector, said a report.

According to a report by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds, nearly 92 per cent of engineering graduates lack computer programming and algorithms skill required for IT product companies whereas 56 per cent show lack of soft skills and cognitive skills.

"For a sector that has seen around 1,282 start-ups between 2008 and 2012, this exposes a huge dearth of talent and a pertinent risk," the report said.
The study covered more than 55,000 engineering students from over 250 engineering institutions and Employability was gauged by testing these students on the basis of standardized employability tests -- AMCAT.

"There is a clear and measurable distinction between the talent required to develop IT products vis-a-vis typical IT services talent. While we observe employable talent is spread across all kinds of colleges, building India's prowess in IT Product would require significant focus and investment in training and evaluating students in core technology," Aspiring Minds CEO Himanshu Aggarwal said.

Top cities with regards to percentage of employable talent in IT Product sector are Delhi at 10.91 per cent, Kolkata at 4.51 per cent and Bengaluru at 2.93 per cent.
This report further found that a very small percentage of engineers show competence in applying engineering mathematics to solve problems as only 24 per cent engineers can apply probability and permutation-combination to solve complex problems.