[symr]

In their attempt to find jobs, many jobless engineers are further exploited by another industry - training institutes that promise placements and jobs. These institutes offer courses on Java/.NET, SAP, Cognos, Oracle etc. They charge a ton, their trainers are no good and the students gain nothing from these. More recently, private engineering colleges are asking their students to base their final year projects on IEEE research papers. And there is now a large number of training institutes that offer readymade "IEEE Projects" to students for a cost.

I happen to know many such engineers who are lacking skills or grades or both. Some of these people happen to be distant relatives or family acquaintances. The problem isn't just with the engineering colleges. Many such graduates lack understanding of basic sciences to have studied engineering in the first place (due to many factors including their own limitations, bad primary/secondary education etc). Few who manage to learn enough to be "employable" are stuck because there are no campus placements in their college. It is incredibly hard to find a job if there are no campus placements. Companies don't have the resources to go to every such college when most of the graduates passing out are not employable.

I have been on the board of studies of two engineering colleges as an industry representative for past few years. There is a meeting every year to revise the course content but nothing useful comes out of it. In such meetings, I have strongly advocated that we introduce more hands on assignments/mini projects, ensure assignments/projects are not copied, lab exams are not based on a fixed set of publicly questions (students already know these questions). In one such meeting, suggestion was shot down with the excuse that if a mini-project is introduced, another set of institutes will come up to help students work around the system. Sure, preventing this would mean that the staff get their act right!