Of eight lakh engineers who have graduated from technical institutions in the country, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) found that more than 60 per cent remain unemployed. Additionally, just 15 per cent of 3200 institutions offer engineering programmes which have been accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). There are also less than 1 per cent of engineering students who take part in summer internships, the Times of India reported, pointing to the variation of engineering college standards. The report said that these colleges are pumping out a large number of engineering graduates who are unemployable. "To buck this trend, the ministry of human resource development is planning a major revamp of India's technical education," the TOI reported. This includes the introduction of the National Entrance Examination for Technical Institutions (NEETI) in January 2018. Read | Top reasons why engineers choose to do MBA For institutions to be approved, they would require annual teacher training, compulsory induction training for students and annual curriculum revision. The NEETI exam will be the first to be entirely conducted on computer by the National Testing Service (NTS). A senior official of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) said that the exam will be conducted multiple times in a year. The exams have been scheduled for December 2017-January 2018, March 2018 and May 2018. These would also include the entrance tests for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The AICTE is also working to raise the standards of technical education, including the improvement of employability and industry exposure through internships for at least 75 per cent of the students. The NBA aims to accredit at least 50 per cent of the institutions before 2022 with compulsion of annual credible progress. Suitable changes shall be made to the curriculum by December every year. The institutions have been asked to prepare action plans and financial implications by June 2017. For more stories on technical education, click here
