Technical Education and the Diocese – Points to Ponder

Abstract

There is a common apprehension both within Industry, academia and outside that, students passing out of technical educational institutions lack employment skills. This narrative has been there for a while and echoes louder when hiring in the industry slows down. In the recent past these narrative gains significance because campus hiring, even in premier institutions have taken a beating. The prevailing wisdom for this anomaly suggests that technical institutions offering courses must collaborate closely with industry stakeholders. Their joint efforts can narrow the divide between theoretical knowledge imparted in institutions and the practical challenges of the workplace. In this article we look at what HR professionals —those on the front lines of recruitment and talent management – have got to say on this. Likewise, we also have the faculty and students and those seeking employment after course completion on what they have to say on the present employability challenges. Different suggestions are contemplated to fill the employability skills gap as far as technical education in Engineering Colleges, Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutions students are concerned. How the church and Diocese which has been in the forefront of higher education in the past can step in to alleviate this chasm.

Keywords: Technical Education, Employability skills, Church, Diocese, Competence.

Introduction

Students choose from various technical courses based on their interests and other considerations. Some opt for a four-year undergraduate engineering programme at an Engineering College, leading to a Bachelor of Engineering or a Bachelor of Technology degree after completing K-12 years of school studies. Others join a three-year diploma programme in engineering at a Polytechnic College after K-10 years of schooling, resulting in a Diploma in Engineering. Additionally, some students after 8 plus years of schooling and after attaining 14 years of age enroll in Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) to pursue one or more -years certificate course, culminating in a paid apprenticeship programme for a year and some others try a few other options too. Stadler (2020) notes that ITI students pursued vocational education to access meaningful employment characterized by creativity, fulfillment, and a safe, supportive environment. It is also observed that some start with a Certificate course or a diploma course later upgrade to a diploma or a Bachelor’s degree as the case may be as lateral entry to these courses are permitted. These choices reflect their determination to pursue meaningful careers in the technical field in the corporate world, where they aspire to learn, grow, and contribute.

However, the job market presents challenges, and a significant number of students do not find the road to employment seamless upon completing their courses, leaving them disappointed to say the least. Ah Gang, Hashmi, and Chua (2020) emphasize that graduates should actively pursue skillbuilding opportunities during and after university to remain effective across sectors through continuous learning. All said and done these students have trouble getting hired right after graduating when the hiring sees a downward trend. As Anandakrishnan (2020) observes, India faces rising unemployment among the educated, driven by widening job-skill mismatches and falling labour force participation, particularly among women. With youth projected to reach 350 million by 2022, NSSO data show unemployment peaks at postgraduate levels, shifting from secondary to university degree holders. Shenai, Bekal, and Sankaran (2017) suggest that despite India’s vast reservoir of emerging human talent, the existing engineering education system lacks the capacity to effectively cultivate and mobilize this potential for societal advancement. Patil (2019) identified a significant disconnect between academic instruction and workplace skill demands, noting that only 20% of the approximately 400,000 annual engineering graduates in India meet corporate expectations, as per NASSCOM findings. Paul and Tilak (2020) suggest that many engineering graduates from subpar institutions often settle for non-engineering or low-paying jobs, indicating resource inefficiency. Unni (2016) highlights a mismatch between graduate output and employability, with industries struggling to find qualified candidates. Menz (2020) argues that universities should enhance their efforts in cultivating essential skills to better align graduates with employer expectations. Sharma and Vij (2020) note that a significant gap exists between the skills imparted by educational institutions and those demanded by employers. With approximately 15 million youth entering India’s workforce annually, prevailing estimates suggest that 65–75% are considered largely unemployable.

Employers seek individuals who can hit the ground running and be productive from day one. The corporate world is hungry for industry-ready talent. Lessons from the past have taught companies to focus on institutions with high success rates when recruiting candidates. Similarly, they have found success by hiring students who have completed relevant projects or apprenticeships, aligning with the specific job vacancies they have. This represents a very small population and therefore it is essential to recognize that employability skills required by employers varies from role to role and industry to industry and also based on various other factors of the employing organization. The reasons for this are many.

A literature survey revealed that there were no studies indicating how Human Resource Management professionals view these technical institutions in their ability to align to the skill needs of the industry and what can be done to make the transition smoother. Since Human Resource Management professionals are involved in recruitment, training of these technical personnel and also because they are involved in offering internships and projects to these students it would be important to have their views on this. In this regard, a small study was attempted to have a picture of what is the present situation, as far as the preparedness of technical institutions are concerned and how the student’s employability challenges can be made easier.

Research Methodology

To collect data, a simple self-explanatory questionnaire was used and further interviews were done to augment the data. Human Resource Management professionals working in different industries with more than one year of work experience are the respondents for this study. Respondents were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 being the maximum and 1 the least score. Using Google forms, data was collected and the link to the google form was shared through WhatsApp and follow up calls were made for collecting data. 511 respondents participated in this survey and convenience sampling was used. The demographic details of the respondents are given below in Table 1.

Table 1 – Demographic Details of the respondents

Discussion

Skill readiness of Technical Institutions

Table 2 provides an idea of the current situation. The skill readiness or the curriculum of these institutions is at least is perceived less and there is scope for improvement. Interviewing human resource management professionals, faculty and students have given some factors to discuss.

Table 2 – Skill Readiness of Institutions

When we look at the existing gap between skill readiness of technical institutions and expectations of Industry the numbers reflect reality and the reasons for this are many. In this article a humble effort is taken to highlight some of the contributing factors for this perceived gap and they are given below.

Humungous variety of entry level jobs

The work spot is demanding, dynamic and varies from company to company and also from function to function and sometimes location to location too. Chakma and Chaijinda (2020) noted that advancements like smart manufacturing and automation will significantly reshape enterprise functions—impacting production, sales, and maintenance—while transforming business models, value creation, and employee roles.

The variety of entry level jobs run into the several thousands. The number of industries too are very high. The permutation combination of the number of entry level jobs and the number of industries is truly humungous. The roles of an engineer in a particular job in the maintenance department will also vary from company to company because of various factors. For example, the machines used in different companies within the same industry, even with similar product lines, vary from company to company. This suggests that plant and machinery can vary significantly from industry to industry and company to company and therefore one syllabus meeting all requirements is not tenable.

“In this context it would be unrealistic to expect educational institutions to meet all the requirements of different industries, functions, roles and organizational cultures, especially in a period where those requirements are rapidly changing. It is pertinent to remember that the limited versions made available by these institutions cannot cater to the ever-mutating complex requirements of the industries.” (Jayaraj, P. P., & Jayaraj, D. C. 2021, p. 135)

Systems and practices vary

Processes and management styles also differ from company to company based on multiple factors making it a maze for institutions to comprehend what is expected of the syllabus to meet these assorted requirements rising out of company specific systems and practices. Different companies curate different systems and processes based on factors such as their level of automation, employee competence, financial resources, market demands, stakeholder interests and so on. When systems and practices vary from industry to industry and from organization to organization even within the industry it is futile to expect technical institutions to offer students trained in one syllabus to meet the requirements of thousands of different positions that need to be filled in different industries and a plethora of companies.

Temporary employees and Gig employees

It’s not just the machines, systems and practices alone that add to variety of requirements in the job market. Even the percentage of temporary/gig workforce is increasing like never before admit our HR brethren, which means the company’s constant floating population who are new to the organization add to the challenges of the new entrants. This temporary work force is a weak substitute to permanent trained manpower is something which a layman can understand. The advantages of having a trained workforce or a veteran workforce that can manage many routine things and raise up to the occasion on their own dwindles and this certainly makes supervision even on routine happenings inevitable leading to management bandwidth constraints. These semi-skilled and unskilled operators need to be guided and supported, which becomes an additional challenge for the fresh graduates. The irony is that they themselves need handholding and significant mentoring—and must be led with kid gloves. If there were permanent workforce the company can function more like a well-oiled machinery and the newly hired fresh graduates will not find this gap unsurmountable.

Skill requirements vary even within the industry

The skills required for a specific job, like a production engineer can vary a lot. Human Resources Management professionals who have worked for multiple companies within the same industry while interviewing have shared that an individual’s experience in one company may or may not match the requirements of another company, even within the same industry and department. Similarly, Human Resources Management professionals while interviewing have shared that the skills required for jobs may vary from Industry to industry and company to company. For example, the competence for a Production Executive may also vary from industry to industry and may also vary from company to company even within the same industry. Even the importance or significance of the same job role may be quite different across companies or industries. A job that is meaningful and significant in one company or industry may be less meaningful or less important in another company. These existing variance within industries or within companies operating from different geographical locations make each role distinct from the other and calls for different skills making it challenging for technical institutions to have a premix panacea that can address thes challenges.

All the above four reasons are contributing factors for the existing gap between industry expectations and what academic institutions are offering. There may be other factors too that compound this perceived gap.

Faculty’s point of view

Faculty play a key role in meeting the requirements of the industry right from the time the syllabus is ideated. They have in front of them an unsurmountable list of industry demands that need to be addressed that too with a common viable syllabus that can prepare a student for challenges in their career path all while the different choristers identifying themselves as stakeholders keep ranting that there is a chasm between industry requirement and academic offering. It is exactly in this context the syllabus is worked out.

While interviewing faculty of technical institutions they have actually succumbed to the narrative that technical institutions are not delivering as per industry needs more than what Joseph Goebbels would have imagined. This is not astonishing as the narrative that institutions don’t meet the industry requirements have been echoing for a while and many faculty and stakeholders are joining this cacophony as a result of confirmatory and or heuristic bias may be to circumvent cognitive dissonance. While there might be an element of truth in unavoidable token proportions but what the faculty have forgotten is to take into cognizance the fact that there are wide variations in job requirements across companies and industries. They also missed to factor that each organization has varied systems and practices that make it difficult to accommodate all of these in one common syllabus that can be offered in their institution. It is also true that they have not taken into account the complications that arise in a working environment due to temporary/gig workforce and the percentage of such workforce is dynamic and varies substantially based on the company and specific industry and one can realize that it is difficult to connect the last mile to address this factor with a common syllabus. The skill requirement within industry too varies vehemently due to overt and covert reasons and again makes it challenging to meet these demanding requirements with one syllabus that exist.

It is exactly in this context different organizations seek to hire students passing out of these institutions for various roles, functions making it impractical to cater to their numerous demand that is before them. The demand from industry is unimaginably assorted, making it extremely challenging to fully prepare students for every specific job and therefore they seem to be like misfits but if given an opportunity in a compatible environment these very students can grow and be successful.

Institution Industry Collaboration

Table 3 indicates that Institution Industry Interaction can further improve in all the three types of technical institutions. Engineering colleges are slightly better than the other two but with room for further improvement.

Table 3 – Institution, Industry Collaboration

From the above table it can be observed that a gap clearly exists. Why does this gap exist? Is it possible to narrow the gap? Can the gap be reduced knowing that there is pressure on the Institutions to collaborate with industries and not much pressure for industries to collaborate with institutions. Yes, it is a fact that industries have negligible or no pressure to tie up or collaborate with educational institutions and this lop-sided pressure to join hands makes it difficult for institutions to progress beyond a point.

Chenoy, Ghosh, and Shukla (2019) propose establishing industryaligned curricula across educational institutions to cultivate technological proficiency and workforce readiness through strong collaborations between academia and industry. Educational institutions stand to gain a lot with industry collaboration. With industry collaborations their infrastructure can be enhanced. Knowledge sharing from industry to academia can lead to better knowledge transfer to students. Funding for research and innovation can trickle in. Access to technology from the industry becomes feasible. Internships and job opportunities will rise and with all this the brand value also improves linearly.

Faculty also admit that in the normal course, industries do not approach technical institutions for solving real time challenges faced by the industry. They also admit that faculty are not invited as a resource person to even train entry level employees in the industry or be part of any committee formed to address issues in the company. Funded projects or consulting opportunities or collaborated research or using the facilities of an industry for these faculty remain a distant dream.

Students also admit that getting an internship or a meaningful academic project to fulfill their curriculum requirements remains a challenge. Industrial visits also prove to be a hurdle. Getting sponsorships for seminars, conferences remain elusive. They don’t have access to interact and learn from executives.

Although there are many rankings for technical institutions by many agencies and bodies like National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) and some of these rankings definitely have a hold on the institutions. In many of these rankings Industry collaboration improves their score. Since there are many institutions competing with one another to attract students and also to attract employers Technical Institutions are keen for collaborations with the industry to improve their score by the ranking bodies. These agencies which rank also focus only on technical institutions offering degrees and not on the ones offering diploma or certificates. That is one possible explanation as to why the Mean of the engineering college featured in the table 3 is higher than the other two types of institutions. Because there is negligible or no pressure for industries to join hands with institutions the inertia in forging such ties remains high.

Employers hiring students from these institutions do not have any compelling reasons to forge collaborations with institutions except in a few cases and therefore these employers are earnestly not scouting for such options. There are hardly few examples of industry proactively going to these technical institutions with a consulting or a similar requirement. Few industries personnel do go to give guest lectures which by far is not adequate.

Kamaruzaman et.al. (2019) observe that educational institutions can significantly benefit industry when their curricula align with technological advancements. A strong partnership between academia and industry is essential for a successful education system, as institutions shape graduate competencies while industry plays a vital role in supporting educational development.

Conclusion & Suggestions

Can these technical institutions, without the necessary resources, reinvent themselves. According to Jayaraj (2017), only the top-performing institutions known for their high pass rates, excellent placements, project or internships with reasonably good stipends, and equal or better recognition for higher degrees are highly sought after. These elite institutions can mobilize more resources than their counterparts, allowing them to have an advantage in this uneven playing field.

Technical Educational Institutions have a broader mission beyond just serving the needs of any single industry or company. They need adequate resources and autonomy to fulfill their role in developing well-rounded professionals, entrepreneurs, and academicians.

Throughout history, Christian missionaries have played an important role in education. Vennila (2018) notes that the numerous missionaryfounded primary schools between 1813 and 1833 helped reshape Indian education, inspiring the structure of modern schools. Their influence can still be seen in many Christian schools and universities today.

“We find that districts that were exposed to Protestant missions more than a century ago are today characterized by better literacy outcomes. Our estimates indicate that past exposure to Protestant missions is associated with higher literacy rates (2.1 percentage points higher, on average) and with a boost in the gender parity index (that is, the ratio between female and male literacy rates) by 2.4 percent” (Calvi, R., Mantovanelli, F., Velasco, H. L. 2019, p. 3).

While we recognize the positive impact of missionaries of the past, we also need to address the challenges faced by students graduating from technical institutions today and see if we as followers of Christ can extend our support by helping them to get the best from their technical education. As members in the body of Christ can we do our part today based on what we have seen missionaries take interest in. Can we prayerfully ponder over this. I am sure we can make a difference. We cannot allow this backslide in technical education to continue. The faculty are not happy, neither are the students happy and surprisingly the management of these institutions are also not happy which means the entire ecosystem is unhappy. All these mean one thing. They need genuine help. As believers in Christ can we ignore this lacuna in our society.

Can the Diocese and its network partners to begin with form an apex committee to look into what can be done to improve technical institutions. The apex committee drawn from the Diocese can comprise accomplished technical educators, educationists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, librarians, lawyers, social workers, people from the industry, theologians, sports persons, policy makers etc. The diocese has enough and more such people as part of its church congregations and this apex committee can be made possible with a little interest and initiative from the diocese. The apex committee can further have multiple needbased subcommittees.

The apex committee can look into the nitty-gritties that can improve these technical institutions. This apex committee can look into factors that can improve the quality of technical education. The apex committee should delve to see how the faculty morale can be kept high and how their career progression and interests be facilitated. This committee should also look into what can make the students life in these institutions meaningful and fruitful and allow them to enjoy their much-desired freedom and self-esteem. The Apex committee should deliberate on the need for a quasi-judicial tribunal for technical education comprising retired judges, academicians, youth experts, psychologists, legal professionals to speed up justice delivery in academic related disputes.

To begin with the apex committee can interact with members of the church connected with technical education – students, faculty, parents, administrators, counselors, educationists etc. – and form a scope of study for the committee. The apex committee can be headed by a retired judge or a person of eminence. The Apex committees and sub committees can call for suggestions to improve technical education at different levels. They can reach out to different stakeholders and collate a comprehensive and consolidated report.

The report thus brought out should be shared to regulatory bodies like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University Grants Commission (UGC), State Council for Higher Education, affiliating universities, educationists, policy makers, bureaucrats, politicians, researchers, Institutions established for carrying out work in education, Faculty Associations, student bodies, lobbying bodies, corporates, media, NGO’s and see that the report forms a meaningful base to improve the landscape of technical education. The judiciary can be approached responsibly. There is a crying need for this.

The Diocese has the where with all to make this suggestion into a reality. When an unbiased and systematic study is carried out by the diocese it can lead to the improvement of Technical Institutions. Earlier missionaries opened and nurtured institutions. In present days context the diocese can do this to improve the technical education scenario.

It must also be noted that students joining public sector undertaking or those who take up government jobs or those who join defense or those who join advanced organizations like ISRO after course completion are able to settle quite well without much qualms and further their career interests. The pay parity, recruitment methods and training provided could be the reasons for easy acclimatization and compatibility of these new joiners in this ecosystem. If this is true the corporate world can provide more training to new recruits and also for those within the system rather than blaming it all on the educational institutions for their shortcomings.

Sivalingam and Mansori (2020) emphasize that all stakeholders share responsibility for reskilling and upskilling, urging institutions and leaders to align their purpose with evolving business demands rather than profit alone. Strategic workforce development are essential.

References

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