Placement woes plague B.E. graduates

Figures show 3,28,275 students were placed against a strength of 6,40,573 on campuses in 2016-17

Campus placement numbers in engineering colleges in the country show that still a majority of B.E./B.Tech graduates are unable to find jobs through direct recruitment on campuses.

Anna University’s Director of Centre for University and Industry Collaboration T. Thyagarajan admitted that companies kept away from large-scale recruitment drives in 2016-17.

“Last year was difficult. We could not conduct our placement programmes in other zones as companies did not come. But, this year, placements will be good,” he said. However, officials in charge of placements at engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu say that the recruitment is picking up.

Figures furnished by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) show that during the academic year 2016-17, as many as 3,28,275 engineering students in the country were placed through direct recruitment drives against a cumulative strength of 6,40,573 on the campuses. The number of students placed on campuses was 3,56,690 during the previous academic year of 2015-16. Recently, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh informed the Lok Sabha that “as per the record maintained by the AICTE, the average placement percentage for engineering students has risen from 42.48 in 2014-15 to 42.97 in 2015-16.”

He also said the AICTE was implementing several programmes to improve placement opportunities to align the students’ technical knowhow with industry requirements.

The national campus placement average was 25%.

MSME focus

Some institutions felt that the prospects of jobs would improve.

“The years 2012-14 were difficult and only 80% of our students got placed. The government’s focus on the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector now will mean it will generate more jobs. The salary packages would also be good. Salary in the ITeS sector has stagnated in the last five years but IT product firms are doing better, offering good pay packages, and they don’t recruit in large numbers,” said D. Saravanan, principal of Erode-based Bannari Amman Institute of Technology.

According to Arun Ramaswami, placement officer of Chennai-based Velammal Engineering College, the institution saw 90% placements last year.

This year, too, the college expects placements to touch 90%.