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| Thursday, Jun 29, 2006
Projected shortage of engineering manpower rings alarm bells
- Up to 3,00,000 engineering graduates may be needed over the next couple of years
- NASSCOM and CII must set up a task force, in collaboration with universities, institutions
Chennai: Given the rate at which the Information Technology sector and IT Enabled Services (ITES) are drawing the cream, if not a majority of the engineering graduates passing out this year and the next, it is time for manufacturing and construction sectors to take note.
They may be left with a very small percentage of fresh graduates to recruit over the next few years. The same situation may apply to the other technical and engineering industries.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), and the Human Resource managers of IT majors have projected a requirement for 2,00,000 to 3,00,000 engineering graduates over the next couple of years, with the demand peaking by 2008. Should the IT boom persist and outsourcing business continue beyond 2010, the demand may turn out to be an annual affair, according to HR Managers. And just that many engineers may be passing out of colleges all over the country annually.
How is the country going to manage this demand for manpower?
If industry is unable to find the required talent pool, will Indian companies then think of subcontracting or outsourcing these jobs to other South and South-East Asian countries?
Two major concerns
More than meeting the project needs of the IT and ITES sector, which are certainly of prime concern, industry associations are, perhaps, just realising that the manufacturing and engineering industries will face a major crisis in meeting their technical manpower requirements in the years ahead. A Confederation of Indian Industry spokesman identifies two major concerns of engineering industry.
One, the salaries offered by IT and ITES companies are so attractive that it is becoming increasingly difficult to woo good talent into manufacturing/production companies even now. It is only the second and third grade students who opt for these jobs, as the IT sector has been mopping up whatever talent available in any branch, from Computer Science to Chemical or Civil Engineering.
Secondly, the aggressive campus placement and recruitment drives by the IT sector ensure that it gets the first priority among students and parents.
Academic sources suggest a major planning and development initiative in the next couple of years. The dean of a premier institution and a placement officer in a private engineering college near Chennai came up with the same idea — industry bodies such as NASSCOM and CII must set up a task force, in collaboration with universities and institutions, to project the entire industry's manpower needs over the next five to ten years. They can evolve a strategy to meet those requirements and identify specific branches of study they need to promote. The force can put in place a strong industry-institute framework to foster collaboration between in the overall interest of education and industry.
The sources say Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu may be contributing the bulk of the engineering graduates every year. While the former churns out over 90,000 of these graduates every year, Tamil Nadu colleges account for nearly 80,000. This, in addition to sending out some of their best students to foreign universities, with institutions in the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and Singapore being the preferred ones.
Compromise on quality
NASSCOM sources concede that many of the IT companies are settling for "mediocre talent," opting to put them through a much more rigorous and relevant training programme after recruitment. The top two or three companies get preference in campus interviews and take away the cream. They say supply of graduate engineers may not meet the projected demand very soon.
CII sources say the "amber signal is changing to red," and it is up to the engineering/manufacturing sector to wake up to the realities of the ground situation.
Unless these industries come together, offer an attractive package or start sponsoring students early by taking care of their education or "adopting" students from the second year itself to recruit them on completing of the course, it may become difficult to find enough engineering graduates to keep their production line going in future
Courtesy: The Hindu
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