It’s true that all engineering students cannot be offered job during campus placements. Putting it another way, getting students placed is one of the most important aspects that differentiates best engineering college from the rest. Parents and students look for campus placement records while selecting a college. Taking these factors in consideration, engineering colleges, especially non-IIT, are now placing more emphasis on to improve their placement overdrive.
- Entrepreneurship
More and more engineering colleges are advocating for entrepreneurship for their students. Special entrepreneurship cells are being formed to assist students in learning the entrepreneurship principles and develop skills to become entrepreneurs. Some colleges have garnered success in this endeavor.
- Placement cells
Though most colleges have their Placement Cells, which provide support for final placements of the students, but now Placement Cells are facilitating Summer Internships for students, who are interested in working with an enterprise, so that they can gain practical experience. Engineering colleges are not banking upon just the IT sector. They are helping engineering graduates in their research work and encouraging them to apply for more patents and research projects in order to get placed in core engineering firms.
- College profile
Engineering institutions in India are trying to improve their college status and profile so as to be recognized by large firms and foreign institutions as well. For example, top engineering colleges in Bangalore have approached the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for a Tier-1 accreditation. This will make undergraduate degrees offered by such institutions to be acceptable in foreign universities. The Tier-I status will also attract big IT firms and other MNCs during placement season. Colleges are making links with industries to get comments on the curriculum and design them as per present scenarios. This step has also improved the status of colleges in the corporate sector.
- Other hiring sectors
IT giants are bulking up their off-campus placements, so it’s obvious that IT hiring will decline in engineering colleges. Colleges are roping in new sectors such as pharma, manufacturing and biotech, as recruiters. They are inviting more industries from other sectors so that all engineering students are absorbed by different companies.
Colleges are now well aware of the fact that companies don’t just look for academic excellence and aptitude skill. Companies hire students, who are well prepared to work in an industry. Presently, colleges provide industrial training during final academic year, but they should start the training classes from first year onwards. Some colleges have begun to work on this and are providing training in collaboration with leading multinational companies to match the abilities of students with the expectations of corporate world.
