Demand for qualified design engineers is fast going up.
Rush for jobs in the service sector has resulted in a shortage of experienced design engineers responsible for creating new products cutting across all streams of engineering.
“India has thrived over the last two decades by focusing on the service sector, where we leveraged an army of English speaking young graduates who could replace basic programming, data entry, tech support and customer service jobs anywhere in the world more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost,” said James Joseph, former director (Executive Engagement), Microsoft.
“However, we must not forget the fact that all these jobs depend on a creator sitting somewhere else and there is a global skills shortage in this space. One such hot job for next few decades is design engineering,” he added.
Suggesting that there was a need to re-orient the engineering curriculum by focusing more on design engineering, K.P.P. Pillai, noted engineering expert and former principal of the College of Engineering at Thiruvananthapuram, said too much dependence on imported software would make us lose our prominence in cutting-edge technology.
Analytical approach“Earlier, a lot of importance was given in the M. Tech syllabus for design engineering but it has now come down considerably. There is little scope for analytical approach in learning these days,” he said.
P.S. Sreejith, senior faculty member at the School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, pointed out that students in Kerala were opting for openings in the service sector rather than pursuing jobs in core engineering areas.
“Moreover, core engineering companies are staying away from campuses here owing to the lack of candidates having the requisite skills,” he said.
Experts said there would be an exponential demand for design engineers with the advent of 3D printing as manufacturing would become a lot easier for individuals and small business in the coming years.
