I boarded a bus from Mumbai to Aurangabad (the city of Ajanta and Ellora caves)  a few days back, and happened to dabble in a conversation with a fellow passenger. He seemed to be a political thinker by appearance; he turned out to be an engineering graduate of 2015 batch. 

I got a stern look when I asked him where he worked. And then, in a whisker, I realized I had forayed into a dangerous territory. 

"My father is a farmer; I got admitted into an engineering program thinking that it will lead to a better future. It has been 4 months since I have graduated and I have no job. "

I said to him," Did you not take an assessment/test for employability? Everybody seems to be taking one these days." His response was instantaneous, as if he had cut short my question- "Without even taking the 'crazy' (I am not using the actual word used by the fellow!) employability test, I know what my weaknesses are!"

It is not that I did not have the courage to engage this person in a continued discussion (in hindsight, I agree that I was a little scared as well at that point of time :) ; however, I did not press upon too far. I just gave him my card and asked him to call me- I could connect him to a few companies in Mumbai and Pune.

As I sat through the rest of my journey, several thoughts crossed my mind.

1) He must be a worthless student- incapable of becoming an engineer. If that is so, how did he graduate? More so, how did he get admitted in the first place? I clearly remember during my times, it was really tough to get admitted into an engineering or a medical program.

2)  Okay, even if he is capable enough, may be, he did not spend his time studying- he just whiled away his time making girlfriends (and in a second I was reminded of my own good jolly days!)

What else? 

3) Ah! he is not from IIT/NITs/Premier Institutes. - Completely ridiculous thought???

So, is this the problem of an individual or a systemic problem that has engulfed our higher education system? I asked my friend (Google), and lo! the stats were right in front of my eyes.  Around 15 lakh engineers graduate every year, and only 10% are employable (according to some surveys).

Now, having been associated with the education sector for over a year now, I know that "employability skills" is a highly abused term that makes the colleges and students hate trainers from the very moment they hear this crazy sounding word. (Crazy is a general substitute for more gruesome words).

Let's go to the basic problems. Firstly, I always presume that it is the moral responsibility of a trainer/college/university to not discriminate amongst toppers and losers (commonly used words). In fact, the very purpose of education is to train the untrained mind- If I know everything under the sun, I do not need that piece of paper, which is called a Degree/Diploma. With this belief, I will build upon my observations- there are three major problems.

1) 60 lakh engineers (approx figure) enrolled every year! (15 lakhs x 4 years). How many qualified faculty members do we have currently? On paper, we have teachers in each and every college. Who becomes a teacher in India? Only 1-2 out of 500 students who attend my seminars mention that they want to become teachers and not look out for corporate jobs. This looks scary to me.

Several teachers have taken up the profession because they did not land up with a job after graduation. I have interacted with many faculty members across Maharashtra. Without suggesting a figure, most of them have just completed their BE and have 0-3 years of corporate experience, and are also enrolled in an ME/M.Tech program as they continue to teach BE students. Quite interesting! Several faculty members told me that they did not like the corporate working style, so they joined a college.   That's an amazing thought. I thought teachers take up this job because they are motivated to transform the students. And to add cherry atop the scoop of ice-cream, the compensation structure of professors in India (at least in many private engineering colleges) sucks!  (My apologies for not using the word crazy here!) What else can the system expect? GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out).

If a person knows the subject well, can he teach that subject well? Most probably not. Training/teaching is an art- the job of the trainer is to be motivated himself first, and then motivate the students to learn.  This is clearly lacking in a major section of the teaching community these days. Tigers are on the verge of extinction, and so are well-trained and motivated teachers! 

2) Well, if the teaching infrastructure is heavily pressurized and lacks motivation, the colleges can hire external trainers. Simple. Well, not so simple as it seems. First, as a student, you go to a college assuming that there are teachers who will guide you. These teachers are paid some salary (howsoever paltry it may be). So there is a certain range of fees paid by the student (mostly upwards of Rs. 50,000 per semester). On top of that, if the college decides to hire an external trainer, who will bear the cost for that? Definitely, the students! (Remember that most of the colleges function because of fees collection, and not because of expenditure on courses, trainers, etc. So, forget funding from the college!)  Now, if a student who has already paid a handsome amount of money (you remember the father of my fellow passenger was a farmer!), can you expect him/her to shell out an additional sum of even Rs. 500 for a course? This idea seems to be frowned upon by a majority of the students; however, they end up paying this additional quota of fees that is necessary for their training. So, who pays, who benefits, and who loses, and what?

3) An engineer cannot introduce himself/herself eloquently in English. Do you expect him/her to get a job? You must be crazy (or from the IITs) to think so.  My fellow passenger studied in a vernacular medium school till 12th grade, and then joined the college, where "fortunately" for him, all communication and study has to be in English. On top of that, your English comm skills have to be near perfect for you to secure a job (that's almost true for India- if not totally true; we are obsessed with English!)  Engineering curriculum has two or three subjects dedicated for communication skills- this is the work of a genius who thought that communication skills (and that too a foreign language) can be taught in a fortnight or with the help of two-three subjects. Worse, the colleges shrug off their responsibilities stating that they conduct skills training for 10 days. I would love to learn French in 10 days- vow- that's a super cool idea. 

I have lately realized that it is not the job of an engineering college to train the students in English and communication skills, but then their marketing engines clearly spell out (at the time of admissions) that the students should chose their colleges, because all their students are cherry-picked for jobs in the final year by recruiters. Why instill in the minds of the students a perception/dream that you would not be able to fulfill because of various reasons, the primary one being that the college management lacks the will to teach - colleges have been relegated to the task of money minting!

It has been an obnoxiously long post; I want this message to be driven out and read by professionals across- hence, I would cut short this post here. I am not a whiner- I will not just complain. I am trying (in my own little ways) to solve this jigsaw puzzle and will make an honest attempt in suggesting some possible methodologies that I have started adopting to improve this situation in my next post. 

For this post, I shall leave you with a parting suggestion. The least that we can do to help improve the education system is to accept with an open heart that there are some problems (This goes out primarily to college managements and faculty members - Can you not already see the writing on the wall in terms of drop in admissions?) 

Thank you for your patience and time. 

P.S. - I got a call from my fellow passenger yesterday that he had joined a college as a faculty member for the time being. In case, I can connect him to some company, he would be more than willing to take up that offer!