SOME STUDIES ON QUALITY, EMPLOYABILITY, SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

In India, the employability of engineering graduates was not the major concern before 1990, when the seats were limited and brilliant students were getting admission directly in engineering education. The huge expansion in number of technical education institution with enhancement in intake capacity took place amid the 1990s, and on other side the requisite academic infrastructure and faculty as per requirement were not made available. This has caused deterioration in providing of quality technical education. The students passing out also not meeting the expectations of employers as far as technical knowledge and skill are concerned.

The expression "quality" is profoundly subjective in nature and hard to characterize quantitatively. It is broadly acknowledged that the countries with poor quality education may not ready to contend in the worldwide information economy. The mushrooming of technical education institutions not only caused deterioration in quality but also made students unemployable. The NASSCOM report says that out of passed out graduate engineers only 25% have employable skill. This indicates that there is mismatch between expectation of skill and knowledge by employer and student posses after attaining their bachelor degree in engineering education. Therefore there is need to study the expectation of students, Industry and perception of faculty about the quality, skill development, knowledge creation and employability. The present research reported in this thesis is an attempt to find the characteristics responsible for quality of technical education as expected from the stake holders in engineering education system like students and employers. The perception of faculty on various attributes also analyzed in the present study. A comprehensive review of the literature identifies the issues related to Quality, Employability, skill development and knowledge creation. Quantitative and qualitative techniques are the two primary methodologies utilized as a part of research. Quantitative strategy evaluated the collected data through analysis of various statistical techniques. It involves a deductive approach like hypothesis and regression etc. Both primary and secondary data sources have been utilized to answer research questions. Primary data obtained through the directing of questionnaires from stake holders while secondary sources through past reviews and information collected from different databases so as to have a real examination in the study.

vii The study, developed on the basis of a comprehensive study in the Indian context, is aimed to understand the expectations of students by way of ranking of the parameters of an institution and also to analyze their perceptions about the various elements in their institutions. The analysis shows that good faculty has got the highest rank and further the faculty has a strong positive relation with placements and skill development. Factor analysis of perception resulted in seven factors based on the students’ perception. The review reveals that one of the important reasons for non employable engineering graduates is the lack of necessary skills imparted in the curriculum. Though the purposes of education is the holistic development of the graduates and make them strong in fundamentals, but it cannot be denied that in the present economic environment, developing necessary skills is also important. The survey of industry executives visiting campuses for placement was carried out to find out the skills required by the industry so that the curriculum can be revised and delivery mechanism augmented to prepare students with desired skills. Relationship also attempted between different institute attributes to understand the role of faculty, infrastructure and other inputs on skill development, employability and improvement of quality of technical education. After the conduct of the study of three stakeholders, based on their inputs and review of literature, Interpretive Structure Modeling(ISM) is carried out to develop the structural relationship among the enablers to make the education system student centric and employment focus. ISM is characterized as a process to provide a framework about an education system where various activities are interlinked. ISM is observed to be a well-demonstrated and generally acknowledged framework displaying approach for indicating the interrelationships between the factors affecting the system (Warfield, 2005). It helps in critical thinking to find relationship and brings into thought of arrangement of related components, which portrays the complex hierarchical issues (Warfield, 1976).In the absence of the knowledge of the structural relationship, it may happen that the institutions are focusing at a wrong place and at the end not getting the desired results. The exercise shows that the commitment of the promoters and top leadership is the most important and significant driver in building competency and making the graduates employable. This ISM study

viii also aims to identify the factors called enablers, which need to be present in the eco system. The findings of the study are presented chapter wise along with policy recommendations, scope for further research.