Engineers are made at College or at Work Place?
Banwas Nayak | August 03, 2021
Today we want to discuss the real definition of an engineering degree or in other words when a person really becomes as an engineer. It’s true that as soon as you graduate from the engineering college, you are liable to be called as an Engineer.
But what is an Engineer. Dreamer. Innovator. Researcher. Problem Solver. Inventor. Creator. All are terms that aptly describe the characteristics of an engineer. An engineer is a person who solves a problem, who finds a solution to any given scenario. But are we really ready for finding a solution as soon as we pass out from a college. How much of the education that we get in the college we are able to implement in our daily work. Some may argue that the education model of our engineering colleges are made to groom a student to understand the practical approach or to make the student prepare the corporate world. But how is that helping an engineer to get accustomed to the corporate world without even knowing what all happens in a corporate world. The only thing we get used to is to be in formal all 5 days of the week.
college Education or Relevant Experience
Engineers are made at College or at Work Place? Graduating from college is not a guarantee of landing a job immediately. You also need experience in your desired field. So, which one is more important; education or experience? Is having experience enough for you to land your dream job without a bachelor’s degree? Or do you certainly require a bachelor’s degree with good academic grades? How about getting experienced while getting the education. Just imagine 4 years of College imparts education on the technologies that are in demand in the outside world and which are a definite guarantee for a successful career once you step into the professional life.
Coding is not everything
We hardly know what all job roles are there in a corporate world. What we know is that we have to code once we enter into corporate, hardly knowing that how many engineers actually get to code. The focus on code has left a potentially bigger opportunity largely unexplored. In the past, people were educated, and learned job skills, and that was enough for a lifetime. Now, with technology changing rapidly and new job areas emerging and transforming constantly, that’s no longer the case. We need to focus on making lightweight, continuous education widely available. This is just as crucial to making sure that everyone can find opportunities in the future workplace.
Life other than Coding
Yes, there is life other than coding. There are so many roles that a person choose to excel in the life. For instance we have a very faint idea as how good a testing role cane be. How many tools are there for testing? Manual testing Vs Automated testing >> which is good and when? What are the certifications that can help a person to be a good tester? Similarly other than the testing role, there are many other roles that are equally important for a successful running of a project in an IT world.
Think about it, if a student knows how to test may be regression testing or unit acceptance testing at the college level, the student would be directly ready to be fit into a project in any company the student goes to. The company does not have to spend money or time to engage the new employee for the training. This saves money for the Company, gives confidence to the employee as he/she is directly involved and feels important. So a college can provide a graduate as a ready to work employee and help a company for the profit, in turn the company recruits more form the same college owing to the greater talent pool. So this is how going forward it should be.
Think about it, if a student knows how to test may be regression testing or unit acceptance testing at the college level, the student would be directly ready to be fit into a project in any company the student goes to. The company does not have to spend money or time to engage the new employee for the training. This saves money for the Company, gives confidence to the employee as he/she is directly involved and feels important. So a college can provide a graduate as a ready to work employee and help a company for the profit, in turn the company recruits more form the same college owing to the greater talent pool. So this is how going forward it should be.The college syllabus does not change. It’s the same 5 subjects per semester for every batch every year. No serious engagement between education providers and employers. The Company-College partnership or engagement should happen regularly. The college should know what technologies are the most demanding, what are the skills that the companies are looking. In turn the company should have lectures in college and creating awareness amongst students as what is required as of now.
In the real world scenario technologies are changing constantly. Access database got replaced by Oracle DB as more preferred one. Scripting languages like Python are there. CRM getting replaced by Cloud.SO many testing tools are there now, one of them being Selenium.
Now a days, be it Oracle Cloud or Amazon AWS or SAP or others are competing rigorously for the Cloud technology. But are the engineering colleges having a practical subject as what is Cloud and how it is replacing the existing resource. How Big data is the next BIG thing.
Students shell out extra money after colleges to get trained in all these things so that they get placed. Why not these are part of the college curriculum. Instead of the subjects which are just theoretical and have no implications to the student for the outside world should be replaced with the technology that is in demand.
Just think a company collaborates with a college. To put it easy a software company conducts a workshop. They come up as clients and ask for a project to be made. The project is Online Food Ordering System. Now the students are divided as per different vendors and the best software to be selected. Each batch has one Business Analyst, few developers, few testers, one or two content writers, few Sales people and it goes on. So each batch represents one vendor. Now before anything the students are taught the roles of Business Analyst, which testing tool to be used and the knowledge about it, code to be written in which all languages and so on. So the workshop has to be for a duration of 6 months at least in which first the technologies and tools to be used are taught and then the software development begins.
This will in a way show the students what the real scenario is and what they need to take up as per their liking. They can understand what their strengths are and what the expectation from them is. Obviously continuous feedback should be there from the faculty and company representatives. This helps to know the real situation.
Just like we got to a restaurant and see a juice list and we find one as SEASONAL JUICE. Similarly Colleges should have that concept of having a technology class and provide the knowledge as per the market scenario is. Yes of course, the Companies also have a role to do in this. That is why the College-Company Partnership plays a vital role here. Similarly the others disciplines of engineering should practice the same way. Nowadays Automation is the burning topic everywhere. But how to automate. What are the technologies used, how the machines are configured. Robotics, machine Automation are the demand for today.
Even in Cricket batsmen are innovating their shots as per today’s scenario. Earlier days we never saw any dilscoop or upper cut, but with the time changing batsmen innovated shots.
When this can happen then why not the education system can change and be innovative. TIME TO THINK….
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