Telangana: 58 per cent engineering graduates still jobless

Hyderabad: Nearly 58 per cent of engineering graduates who passed out this year are unemployed, according to AICTE data. The other 42 per cent were mostly hired via campus placements. This is a better percentage than in recent years — 38 in 2017, 25 in 2016 and 31.95 in 2015.

The increase in percentage is said to be because there are fewer technical institutes left, resulting in lower enrolments. Telangana state was among the many from where a petition was submitted against opening new institutions. Education minister Kadiam Srihari had announced that all institutions without good teaching will be closed down. Another announcement made was to cut down the engineering seats from 1.4 lakh to 1.25 lakh.

The decision was lauded by teachers who felt that only those who really want to study engineering would join the course, thereby leading to skilled engineers. The presence of too many colleges was resulting in a lot of students staying unemployed, and looking for alternatives.

“During the formation of Telangana state, we had more than two lakh seats which meant that anybody could join engineering. I believe that the seats will be further cut down to 70,000 this year. There are no specific colleges in mind but we will keep a check on colleges that have not been following rules, that do not have good faculty,” said JNTU Vice-Chancellor A.  Venugopal Reddy.

With fewer students, the university is planning on having skill development courses along with engineering which will improve employment opportunities, Prof. Venugopal Reddy said.

The increase of internships has also helped employability, states AICTE data. Ms Laxmi Rao, an educational expert, said, “The education department should stress more on internships. Most employers are looking for candidates with good experience in handling deadlines and work pressure. Moreover, basic training needn’t be given which saves time and resources of the employer.”