The minister said these figures do not include the students who got jobs directly.
45.29 per cent engineering graduates found jobs through campus placement in 2017-18 academic year, according to the information shared by Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' in a response to a question in the Lok Sabha today. The minister said, out of the 7,92,970 students graduated in the year 2017-18, 3,59,193 were placed through campus placement.
The minister also said these figures do not include the students who got jobs directly, without going through campus placements, who are self-employed and those who had taken to higher studies.
In a separate data regarding students from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), the minister said in year 2018-19, out of the total 23,298 graduates 17,946 students were placed through campus placement.
"The employment of engineering graduates is dependent on economic growth and increased employment opportunities as a result of economic activities and hence keeps varying. With Government of India targeting a high growth path, the employment opportunities shall increase," the minister said.
The Lok Sabha was also informed on Monday that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will not allow new conventional disciplines with low employment potential from the academic year 2020-21 and will permit only emerging fields like Artificial Intelligence and Block chain.
Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, HRD Minister also said that engineering students are being trained so that they can be a part of the 'Make in India' initiative of the government.
In a bid to bridge the gap between industry requirements and courses imparted at engineering institutes, the AICTE has initiated several steps, including compulsory internship for students.
Responding to a question on employability, he said IIT students are employed in 200 of the 500 top companies of the world.
Recently, AICTE, the technical education regulator in the country has come up with recommendations too to address the issues of capacity utilization and employability of graduates. The 'Short and Medium Term Perspectives' report by the Council acknowledged the gap between engineering education and industry demands and has made several recommendations which range from change in the teaching pedagogy to industry interaction.
An important recommendation involves no further increase in seats in engineering colleges and institutes. Citing low capacity utilization, 49.8% (Capacity Vs. Enrollment), AICTE has recommended that no new capacity be created starting from the 2020 academic year. The creation of new capacity can be reviewed every two years after that.
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