JOIN USRising global demand complemented by India setting the stage for becoming a manufacturing hotspot has led to a long run of happy days that are here for engineering students. For five years in a row now, demand and pay packets for engineers have risen globally. And this rise is not limited to one or two streams but for a large bouquet of conventional engineering accomplishments coupled with demand for new age qualifications such as environmental engineering and green energy.
The World has not seen this kind of spurt in the last three decades and the good news is that the current spell of high demand for engineers is expected to last long, really long – more so in India.
In 2010, UNESCO’s landmark study “Engineering: Issues, challenges and opportunities for development” had cautioned that the world was heading towards a serious shortage of engineers, which would impact economies and corporate competitiveness. The voluminous report – an effort of more than 120 experts – had come to this conclusion after analysing engineers’ demand and supply situation against the projected global and region specific economy trends.
By next year, regular news about the scarcity of engineers started pouring in from the Eurozone, Australia, Africa and few Asian economies. The UK, Germany and Scandinavian countries appeared to have been particularly hit. The US though faced no real shortage but pressure mounted on it to take preemptive measures to dodge any future crisis-like situations.
Home scenario
Rolling over to the domestic scenario – even before the current dispensation laid bare its vision of ‘Make in India’, independent human resource agencies have been predicting acche din for engineering grads. Take for example a 2013 employment outlook by the Indian arm of global consulting major Hay Group: “The engineering sector representative of manufacturing, chemicals, oil and gas, natural resources and high technology has turned out to be good paymasters, attracting campus talent. There is a positive momentum in salaries of non-IT engineering roles that largely reflects the sentiment of the industry. With pay hikes expected to be 11 per cent this year, this trend will reflect in the salaries of graduate engineers.”
Another analysis by Aon Hewitt India pointed out that, “Sectors largely reliant on the domestic economy such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering, services and consumer goods are projecting the highest salary increases, typically above 10 per cent for 2013-14.”
Yet another study by Randstad India pointed out: “In the last few years, industry segments like IT, EPC, Renewable energy, Oil & Gas, Infrastructure and Manufacturing have shown increased appetites for hiring fresh and experienced engineering graduates. Engineering streams like Computer Science, Mechanical, EEE/ECE, Civil and Chemical are in high demand among employers.”
These forecasts were made much before India rolled out the turbo charged version of the ‘Make in India’ programme which seeks to transform country into frontline global manufacturing hub. This will be complimented by pumping in of one trillion USD plus into the economy to bridge the infrastructure deficit. Thus, India’s next phase of growth strategy centres around manufacturing and infrastructure, which translates into humongous and exciting opportunities for well qualified engineers.
Right after independence, it was our engineers who laid the foundation of basic industries in the country, something which still holds us in good stead and something which brought much glory to the profession. Now that India is poised for new phase of hyper development, engineers will again rule the roost and higher qualified engineers will be rewarded higher. The good run has just begun!