<p>The staggering advancement in engineering knowledge and slow adoption of it into curriculum has created a knowledge quality gap, writes Kaustubh Nande <br /><br /></p>.<p>According to results from assessment tests administered by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an estimated 75 per cent of technical graduates are unemployable by India's high-growth global industries, including information technology and call centres. Thus, there is a significant percentage of engineering graduates in India who need substantial training post their basic degrees to be employable.<br /><br />The present scenario of engineering education can be looked at from various perspectives. India today has 1.5 million engineering seats compared to 350,000 in 2000 based on the NASSCOM data. This means approximately 1.5 million degreed engineering students graduate every year. But quality conscious industry employers bring in another perspective and ask how many are really employable? <br /><br />Talking specifically about CAD/CAM/ PLM/CAE industries relying on talented design engineers is a necessity. These fields and industries have increasingly become complex over the years and in addition to the quality and training issues. There is simply more to learn and master for the engineering student today than someone who graduated two decades ago. <br /><br />The staggering advancement in engineering knowledge and its slow adoption into curriculum has created a quality gap. CAD industry is the least complex among the four industries and therefore several public and private institutes offer fee based short courses to make students industry ready. <br /><br />However, the complexity and training required progressively increases and so does the need for quality training institutions. <br /><br />Need for quality training<br /><br />CAD was adopted early on by the engineering community and training needs were assessed well. The Indian government responded by opening up CAD training centres and incorporating such training in engineering curriculum. CAD software manufacturers also responded well to develop and create certification programs which encouraged the adoption of these software programs and made them mainstream.<br /><br />Software solutions in the CAM, PLM and CAE market in particular have developed and become highly sophisticated in the past decade. This has to do with the development of core physics, sophisticated hardware and software talent that has fuelled growth in these relatively niche engineering areas. <br /><br />In short, complexity and training required in these areas progressively increases from CAD to CAM to PLM and CAE and so does the need for quality training institutions and trainers. It is this rise in complexity of software use & development work and availability of quality engineering talent that in the PLM, CAM and CAE market are now a concern to the growth and sustenance of the Indian engineering education system. <br /><br />Qualifications required<br /><br />For development or support positions in the CAE typically an MS or PhD in a specialised area of engineering from a top tier institute are preferred qualifications. Someone who combines strong engineering, physics and software coding skills along with great written and oral skills is a good potential candidate. But this combination of skill-sets is very difficult to find in India. Industry experience corroborates this quality gap sharply and shows the magnanimity of the problem. <br /><br />The problem is so severe in the CAE industry that one of my industry colleagues put it best. He says, “I simply cannot employ an engineer who has little understanding of complex physics. Would you like to fly in a plane knowing that it was designed by a less competent engineer?” Even for non-critical engineering areas the story is the same but pressure eases just a tad bit. This is where training initiatives become crucial.<br /><br />Training initiatives<br /><br />Companies should contribute in a big way to help close this engineering knowledge and skill gap. To address this ever increasing quality issue, initiatives should be taken throughout the year. Students should work on complex problems, get trained on the software and thereby achieve a level of basic competency. <br /><br />Skills can be taught but CAE concepts need to be built into the curriculum for the lab training to be meaningful. The field of CAE is highly complex and needs extensive training. Many high-tech engineering companies are also finding creative ways to attract talent by way of engineering competitions, technical fests, referrals, etc- all these to ensure that a basic level of training is achieved to employ them on projects.<br /><br />Improving quality<br /><br />To improve the quality of engineering education, incorporating industry demands into the curriculum is a must. This not only refers to just skill development, but also for a broader industry academia connect that revamps curriculum every three years. <br /><br />The government can certainly play a role here and in fact the Ministry of Education has a curriculum committee that is doing a decent job. But any change affecting 1.5 million engineering students every year is a daunting task for a committee. In this instance individual institutes - big and small, need to develop some ratio or percentage system of latest concepts to industry skill in the curriculum. <br /><br />For development or support positions typically an MS or PhD in a specialised area of engineering from a top tier institute are preferred qualifications. Someone who combines strong engineering, physics and software coding skills along with great written and oral skills is a good potential candidate for any hiring company. <br />India needs an engineering curriculum 2.0, which will make degreed engineers of today employable engineers of tomorrow.<br /></p>
<p>The staggering advancement in engineering knowledge and slow adoption of it into curriculum has created a knowledge quality gap, writes Kaustubh Nande <br /><br /></p>.<p>According to results from assessment tests administered by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an estimated 75 per cent of technical graduates are unemployable by India's high-growth global industries, including information technology and call centres. Thus, there is a significant percentage of engineering graduates in India who need substantial training post their basic degrees to be employable.<br /><br />The present scenario of engineering education can be looked at from various perspectives. India today has 1.5 million engineering seats compared to 350,000 in 2000 based on the NASSCOM data. This means approximately 1.5 million degreed engineering students graduate every year. But quality conscious industry employers bring in another perspective and ask how many are really employable? <br /><br />Talking specifically about CAD/CAM/ PLM/CAE industries relying on talented design engineers is a necessity. These fields and industries have increasingly become complex over the years and in addition to the quality and training issues. There is simply more to learn and master for the engineering student today than someone who graduated two decades ago. <br /><br />The staggering advancement in engineering knowledge and its slow adoption into curriculum has created a quality gap. CAD industry is the least complex among the four industries and therefore several public and private institutes offer fee based short courses to make students industry ready. <br /><br />However, the complexity and training required progressively increases and so does the need for quality training institutions. <br /><br />Need for quality training<br /><br />CAD was adopted early on by the engineering community and training needs were assessed well. The Indian government responded by opening up CAD training centres and incorporating such training in engineering curriculum. CAD software manufacturers also responded well to develop and create certification programs which encouraged the adoption of these software programs and made them mainstream.<br /><br />Software solutions in the CAM, PLM and CAE market in particular have developed and become highly sophisticated in the past decade. This has to do with the development of core physics, sophisticated hardware and software talent that has fuelled growth in these relatively niche engineering areas. <br /><br />In short, complexity and training required in these areas progressively increases from CAD to CAM to PLM and CAE and so does the need for quality training institutions and trainers. It is this rise in complexity of software use & development work and availability of quality engineering talent that in the PLM, CAM and CAE market are now a concern to the growth and sustenance of the Indian engineering education system. <br /><br />Qualifications required<br /><br />For development or support positions in the CAE typically an MS or PhD in a specialised area of engineering from a top tier institute are preferred qualifications. Someone who combines strong engineering, physics and software coding skills along with great written and oral skills is a good potential candidate. But this combination of skill-sets is very difficult to find in India. Industry experience corroborates this quality gap sharply and shows the magnanimity of the problem. <br /><br />The problem is so severe in the CAE industry that one of my industry colleagues put it best. He says, “I simply cannot employ an engineer who has little understanding of complex physics. Would you like to fly in a plane knowing that it was designed by a less competent engineer?” Even for non-critical engineering areas the story is the same but pressure eases just a tad bit. This is where training initiatives become crucial.<br /><br />Training initiatives<br /><br />Companies should contribute in a big way to help close this engineering knowledge and skill gap. To address this ever increasing quality issue, initiatives should be taken throughout the year. Students should work on complex problems, get trained on the software and thereby achieve a level of basic competency. <br /><br />Skills can be taught but CAE concepts need to be built into the curriculum for the lab training to be meaningful. The field of CAE is highly complex and needs extensive training. Many high-tech engineering companies are also finding creative ways to attract talent by way of engineering competitions, technical fests, referrals, etc- all these to ensure that a basic level of training is achieved to employ them on projects.<br /><br />Improving quality<br /><br />To improve the quality of engineering education, incorporating industry demands into the curriculum is a must. This not only refers to just skill development, but also for a broader industry academia connect that revamps curriculum every three years. <br /><br />The government can certainly play a role here and in fact the Ministry of Education has a curriculum committee that is doing a decent job. But any change affecting 1.5 million engineering students every year is a daunting task for a committee. In this instance individual institutes - big and small, need to develop some ratio or percentage system of latest concepts to industry skill in the curriculum. <br /><br />For development or support positions typically an MS or PhD in a specialised area of engineering from a top tier institute are preferred qualifications. Someone who combines strong engineering, physics and software coding skills along with great written and oral skills is a good potential candidate for any hiring company. <br />India needs an engineering curriculum 2.0, which will make degreed engineers of today employable engineers of tomorrow.<br /></p>
