Significant Factors as Low Hanging Fruits in Addressing the Employability Defect of Mechanical Engineering Graduates

Employability defect of engineering graduates is a major concern for the Industries under the current scenario of early to market, technological advancements, demanding customer needs, competitive environment and globalized manufacturing practices. Products of current day are addressed as systems, as they are an integration of many sub-systems and components of various domains of engineering, thus throwing the challenges on the Educational Industry to produce 100 % employable engineering graduates as per the expectations of the Industry. As observed from literatures, employability of engineering graduates ranges 20 % to 70 % across the globe and hence a concern across nations. Defects with lower employability, percentage throw the light on the complex nature of the issue and hence various body, approach the solution through educational reforms at the national level. Employability of engineering graduates in India is around 20 % (defect rate as high as 80 %) as reported in literatures, hence the issue calls for a multi-pronged approach for the solutions, apart from national level Initiatives by the Government and professional bodies. This research paper is part of the on-going research of the first author, with specific focus on employability related to Mechanical Engineering Graduates. The research work identifies the significant factors which are like low hanging fruits that can be addressed easily at the institutional level, thus delivering a significant impact on the employability.