Degree is just a Degree !!!
The closest thing to magic is engineering. Many in India would concur that engineering has produced tales of "rags to riches," turning impoverished families into millionaires and timid students into tech titans. Therefore, magic summarizes everything, but the secret to all magic is secrecy: if the world discovers your trick, you will no longer be in demand. Has engineering advanced to that point? Have our contemporary degrees advanced to that point? Tonight, we'll examine this issue, and there's a good reason why most of us concur that Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, are among the best universities in the world. The idea is that once you pass the IAT, you're good to go for the rest of your life.
The remuneration package may not be waiting for you now that the IITs' recent announcements concern the Bombay campus. 30.6% of students have not yet been assigned. Over 700 of the 2,000 students registered for placement have not yet been placed. This is the best engineering college in India, ranked among the best in the world, and 36% of its students have not been placed. This is not an isolated incident; last year, roughly 33% of students were unemployed. We also looked at other IITs on the Delhi campus. In Kanpur, 40% of students were not placed in 2023, and 31% are still awaiting placement.
What do the statistics indicate—aside from the apparent fact that the employment market is struggling—tell you about this?
Let me show you some statistics that illustrate how difficult it is to get a job the better educated you are. Nearly 30% of graduates are unemployed. Higher-educated workers have an unemployment rate of 18%, while those who are illiterate have a rate of just 3.4%. This phenomenon is known as educated unemployment. To be clear, it does not imply that you should forgo education or that degrees from colleges are meaningless; rather, it just indicates that you should choose your courses carefully.
Just consider this: if an IIT is unable to place you, what chance do other colleges have?
This raises a crucial topic that needs to be addressed. Let's start by examining the value of an engineering degree. An engineering degree typically costs approximately 8 lakh rupees, or $9,500. What is the typical monthly wage in the range of 15 to 30,000 rupees, or around $200, depending on several factors like the state of the national economy, the caliber of your education, and your productivity?
The MBA is another well-liked degree. It's a two-year program that can cost up to 180,000 rupees, and for that investment, you get about $480 a month. Keep in mind that the MBA is a postgraduate degree, so you spend money on graduation before spending money on an MBA. Now, let's compare these two degrees to another job, say that of a flight attendant. The average course fee for this job is between 50,000 and 200 thousand rupees; we'll go with the upper limit, so the course costs 200 thousand rupees. The average salary for a flight attendant is approximately 40,000 rupees. The prospects later on are different, as are the lifestyle and skill set. But the point is this: from a financial standpoint, a flight attendance course is more valuable nowadays, which brings us back to the question of whether MBAs and engineering degrees are worth it, as many companies believe. You see, a degree is like any other commodity: the more supply there is, the cheaper the price, and in this case, the price does not refer to college fees but rather your salary. Let's examine the MBA. Over 230,000 MBAs enter the market annually. 230,000 annually, and that figure will only rise when you take into account the common admission exam. Based on your CAT score, you can enroll in MBA programs; last year, the number of applicants increased by 30%.
Do you now perceive this as a problem?
The demand for MBAs is just not there, even though the number of MBA job opportunities fell by 55% in January of this year. As a result, although more and more MBAs are entering the market, the advice is rather straightforward. Firms want people with specific skill sets; in the past, they would hire such people, but now they prefer to build them; follow the market and focus on employability rather than degrees, which seems to be the main difficulty at the time. Pay attention to one industry expert—I'm quoting—who says that a graduate who trains for a year at 500 to 600 is probably more relevant and successful than an MBA at 1.2 million, which still requires unlearning.
The first step is to identify emerging skills that are in high demand and will give you an advantage in the job market. I can give you some examples, such as sustainability skills, which are in high demand because every country and company is going green, so huge opportunities will open up. Another example is machine learning, which the World Economic Forum calls the fastest-growing job because an AI model is released every week, increasing demand for people who make them. Similarly, as the world becomes more digitally connected, we'll need more cyber guards, so parents, teachers, and students must identify these skills and work on them in school. The second step is creating institutions to develop these skills, perhaps through specialized courses.
The UAE, for example, opened the world's first artificial intelligence college; why can't India follow suit?
The engineering craze also did not appear out of nowhere; parents saw its potential, and governments and companies needed engineers; hence, engineering became India's thing. However, the market has moved on, and now that specialized skills, not degrees, are in demand, our colleges must adapt. Fortunately, money shouldn't be an issue because India's education sector is worth $117 billion. Indians are known to spend money on education; what they need is direction and awareness. They should also not panic, thinking that these changes are unprecedented.
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