NIT-W introduces interdisciplinary courses to improve job prospects

Going by the experience of several engineering colleges which found it difficult to place students due to the slowdown, the National Institute of Technology, Warangal (NIT-W) — a centrally-funded higher education institute — has introduced interdisciplinary courses for students who would graduate in 2010.

Speaking to Business Standard, NIT-W director YV Rao said IT students would be given a course or two in civil, mechanical or electronics as an optional in the third year of the engineering course. This would help IT engineers find employment opportunities in core engineering sectors, too.

Earlier, students from civil, mechanical and electrical engineering streams were given an orientation in IT to ensure they did not miss the IT bus. But with offers spreading thin in IT segment now, the college was giving core-engineering concepts to IT engineers.

An independent survey by PurpleLeap, an education service provider which set up career centres across many engineering colleges, also indicates that IT will not be in much demand in 2010. That about 50,000 freshers were waiting to get their offer letters would create more competition next year. Also, the placement cycles were getting longer — from18 months to about 12 months.

According to its Chief Executive Officer, Amit Bansal, most companies had cut down on their hiring plans for the year 2009, while some were deferring the joining date for the batch of 2009 by a year. These students would cannibalise the demand for the year 2010 and reduce the effective jobs available for freshers graduating in 2010. The results are showing. Though NIT-W had nearly 100 per cent placements, the average salaries — particularly from IT companies — fell due to the slowdown.This year, the highest salary of Rs 12,50,000 per annum went to a student from chemical engineering. Core sector companies like NTPC offered Rs 7,40,000 per annum for electrical engineers and real estate major DLF paid Rs 8,00,000 per annum for civil engineers. Mangalore Refineries paid Rs 5,50,000 per annum. The IT companies have paid salaries in the range of Rs 3,50,000 to 4,50,000 per annum. The college has 450 undergraduate students and another 350 post graduate and doctoral students.

There, according to Rao, would be more demand for professionals from core engineering in the coming four or five years. In other words, the demand for IT professionals would remain steady or fall. There would be opportunities in manufacturing, biotechnology, automation, industrial manufacturing and auto ancillary, among others. “There is need for revamping the content of mechanical engineering to make it compatible with the industry requirements. Mechatronics, combining mechanical and electronics, will have a bigger role to play,” he said.