But scores of people with worthless degrees — who’ve graduated from lesser-known private institutes — lack the basic skills required to secure a job, per Bloomberg. “My sense is that the abundance of unemployable engineers is impacting the bottom rung,” said Nitin Sharma, a venture capitalist based in Bengaluru. “This correction is good.” For qualified developers looking to stay in the field, a new wave of Indian start-ups may offer most useless degree in india opportunities. And as industries like health care and manufacturing become software driven, the demand for talent is likely to increase. But with thousands of engineers still unable to find jobs, the big question is where they will fit in the new economy.
In 2019, the Supreme Court barred the Bhopal-based RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre from admitting new students for two years for allegedly using fake patients to meet medical college requirements. The college initially argued in court that the patients were genuine, but later submitted an apology after an investigative panel found that the purported patients weren’t really sick. It has the world’s largest population by some estimates, and the government regularly highlights the benefits of having more young people than any other country. Yet half of all graduates in India are unemployable in the future due to problems in the education system, according to a study by talent assessment firm Wheebox.
This is likely because these are wide fields and those who are satisfied with their jobs would be earning around 1.6 times to 3 times more than the job seekers who are regretting their degrees. The medical school is part of RKDF Group, a well known name in central India, which has wide network of colleges in areas from engineering to medicine and management. In May last year, police in Hyderabad arrested the vice chancellor of RKDF Group’s Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University as well as his predecessor for alleged involvement in giving out fake degrees. Still, students could be seen flooding into several of RKDF’s institutions in Bhopal. One branch had posters of their “Shining Stars” – students who were placed in jobs after graduating.
While top programmers still enjoy superstar status, India is now a leading producer of unemployable engineers. The thing that doesn’t let me sleep is that I don’t have a degree. I’ve dated a vet, an engineer and currently dating a girl in her 4th year of mbbs and I feel embarrassed in front of them. Most of all, I think about what’s going to happen if this girls parents (the one I’m currently dating) make a fuss about my educational qualifications. I’m planning on getting an online degree through amity or manipal if that would help, but I always feel like I could have done better when I was younger.
But the thing that keeps me awake at night is not my professional achievements, I have that sorted out, I make 35k a month which is enough to help my parents and if I choose to go abroad I’ll make around 2 lakhs min. Representatives of Manav Bharti University did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Bloomberg’s report on India’s failing education system comes as India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country. The country’s unemployment rate stands at 7.45% as of February, per the Indian news outlet, The Economic Times.
The report on CNBC sorted the information to find out that-Good prospects, higher pay means less regret- was the common belief. “There is a gap between what the industries are looking at and the course curriculum they have gone through.” Elsewhere in Bhopal, was another college operating out of a small residential building. One of the students who studied there said it was easy to secure admission and get a degree without attending class. Most of the answers were from American point of view so I decided to ask here.
- But the business wasn’t going very well so my biss couldn’t pay me for a few months, joined a pharma company to make up for the financial requirements.
- I used to top my class in 11th and the guy that used to finish 2nd is now in US working for an MNC and the girl that finished 3rd is now an HR manager for a popular 5 star resort.
- India’s top institutes of technology and management have churned out global business chiefs like Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella.
- While some colleges provide inadequate training, a private university in North India went one step further, and sold fake degrees.
- Promises like this are hard to resist for millions of young men and women dreaming of a better life in India’s dismal employment landscape.
The survey report also revealed that the top-paying college majors earn $3.4 million more than the lowest-paying majors over a lifetime. Computer science majors, with an average annual starting salary of almost $100,000, were the happiest overall, according to ZipRecruiter. Even though fields like communications and marketing management are growing sectors, both of these come under the top 10 regretted college degrees.
It’s also begun the process of allowing leading foreign universities to set up campuses and award degrees in the country. One of the companies in the Manipal Education & Medical Group that Mr Pai is on the board of “trains a lot of people for banking. They are not job ready, they need to be trained.” One study by the human resource firm SHL found that only 3.8% of engineers have the skills needed to be employed in software-related jobs at start-ups.
Worthless Degrees Are Creating an Unemployable Generation in India
The government must invest in strengthening the quality of education in India, both at the primary and secondary levels. It should also introduce measures to ensure that colleges and universities focus on providing quality instruction and resources. The education system in India is facing a number of challenges, not least of which is the lack of quality instruction and resources. Despite increased investment in education, many schools and universities are failing to deliver the skills needed to compete in a global economy. In this list it was understood that students who opted for a specialisation in science, technology, engineering and math — collectively known as STEM disciplines — are projected to earn the most overall. One of Bhopal’s educational institutions came under a particularly sharp spotlight in recent years because it was involved in a case that went all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Corporatist media are very hostile to education.
Every year, the government sets a quota for each Indian state that determines how many seats can be allocated for a field of study. For the 2017 school year, the government approved over 1.6 million seats for engineers across the country — but only half were actually filled. Enrollment figures have been dropping, and with fewer students attending subpar colleges, many are shutting down, including more than 500 in the past four years.
Driving Change: What Tomorrow’s Automotive Industry Needs from Today’s Engineers
- I’m planning on getting an online degree through amity or manipal if that would help, but I always feel like I could have done better when I was younger.
- But scores of people with worthless degrees — who’ve graduated from lesser-known private institutes — lack the basic skills required to secure a job, per Bloomberg.
- Anil Swarup, a former secretary for school education estimated in a 2018 article that of 16,000 colleges handing out bachelor’s qualifications for teachers, a large number existed only in name.
- But with thousands of engineers still unable to find jobs, the big question is where they will fit in the new economy.
An experienced graduate degree holder earns 9% more than a college graduate, and the unemployment rate is 22% lower. An experienced graduate degree holder earns 14% more than a college graduate, and the unemployment rate is 18% lower. An experienced graduate degree holder earns 13% more than a college graduate, and the unemployment rate is 21% lower.
Some of the ivy league schools have skill gaps for
Got hired as a graphic designer and since the pandemic struck already, majority of the work was done from home. Pankaj Tiwari, 28, says he paid Rs 1,00,000 for a master’s degree in digital communication because he wanted a job and higher status in society. That was a big outlay for his family, which has an annual income of Rs 4,00,000. Though his college had promised campus placements, no company turned up and he’s still unemployed four years later. So dear Indians, which degree (undergraduate or postgraduate) do you think is the most useless? Useless here means low returns after completing graduation, scarcity of jobs for the given degree etc.
The government must take steps to ensure that employers are aware of the skills gap, so that they can better understand the qualifications of potential employees. If India is to make the most of its current economic growth, it must ensure that its citizens are equipped with the necessary skills to compete in a global economy. Employees armed with a graduate education are often a more attractive hire and can make a higher salary than colleagues who have only a bachelor’s degree. Earning a degree is almost always worthwhile, according to “The College Payoff,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
Using the recent “Hard Times” report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, we examined salary and unemployment data of experienced college graduates and experienced holders of graduate degrees. A recent survey has found that students who studied journalism as their college majors regretted their decision the most and would jump at the opportunity to go back and take up a different degree. The Modi administration is also trying to address the shortcomings in the education sector in its 2020 new education policy, committing to improve the quality of its institutions.
While it is common knowledge that only a undergraduate degree would not suffice if higher pay is the aim, the survey found that they earn 84% more than those with just a high school diploma. India has regulatory bodies and professional councils to regulate its educational institutions. While the government has announced plans to have a single agency that will replace all existing regulators, that’s still at the planning stage. The education department didn’t respond to a request for comment. “When millions of young people are rendered unemployable every year, the entire society becomes unstable.”
Promises like this are hard to resist for millions of young men and women dreaming of a better life in India’s dismal employment landscape. Higher degrees, once accessible only to the wealthy, have a special cachet in India for young people from middle and low-income families. Many businesses say they struggle to hire because of the mixed quality of education. That’s kept unemployment stubbornly high at more than 7% even though India is the world’s fastest growing major economy. Education is also becoming an outsized problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he attempts to draw foreign manufacturers and investors from China. PM Modi had vowed to create millions of jobs in his campaign speeches, and the issue is likely to be hotly debated in the run up to national elections in 2024.
Colleges & Courses
One Bhopal resident, 25-year-old Tanmay Mandal, paid $4,000 for his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He was convinced the degree was a pathway to a good job and a better lifestyle. He wasn’t deterred by the fees that were high for his family, which has a monthly income of only $420. Despite the cost, Mr Mandal says he ended up learning almost nothing about construction from teachers who appeared to have insufficient training themselves. He couldn’t answer technical questions at job interviews, and has been unemployed for the last three years.