Jobless engineering graduates find solace in teaching

Vijayawada: Being a centre for primary and intermediate education in the State, the city can boast of number of institutions that offer competitive school education by incorporating technology.

Foray of corporate institutions into schooling has become a boon for several unemployed engineering graduates offering employment. With the changing trends in IT sector and economy slowing down, a good number of engineering grads are now donning the role of teachers in these glitzy corporate schools.

It is rather a disturbing fact that there has been no employment for the increasing number of engineering graduates, except for a few who made it through campus drives into prestigious institutions. On an average, the employment per cent of engineers since the year 2011 is below 20.

Those left behind have gone on to pursue technical courses, competitive exam coaching among others. Most of the underemployed engineering graduates are enrolling in bank coaching centres which are offering a suitable alternative to settle down at a
single go.

But of late, there is a growing number of engineering graduates working as teachers in corporate institutes. They are used to teach for students until upper primary classes, and discharge duties as supervisors and substitute teachers. Their pay scales are somewhere between Rs 5000 and Rs 12,000 in towns and remote areas of the district, while it is about Rs 15,000 in the city.

V M Vijaya, vice principal to one such private school in Vuyyuru said: “We have a couple of engineering graduates employed with us. While lack of suitable opportunity is one factor that led them to teaching, we cannot rule out the possibility of weak financial conditions of their families, who hail from villages.

It is a matter of pride that they take up some profession instead waiting for things to fall in place. The qualification check list for schools included B.Tech graduates too.”

Head of Industry Relations and Placements at VR Siddhartha Engineering College, Dr V Vijay Maruti Babu speaking to The Hans India opined that the phenomenon is true and it could be attributed to the availability of plenty seats.

Most of the candidates are forced to take up engineering, because of fee reimbursement provided by the government. Students who come from corporate institutions lack the drive to switch to learning from just puking out what they learnt for marks.

They focus on clearing the subjects rather than to learn the concepts. They fail to co-relate Mathematics and Science. There are jobs in fact but no resources that exactly match the industry needs when we take computer engineering. Industry lacks candidates with core computer knowledge and there is a lot of scarcity. Rest of the fields has to grow a lot to absorb the engineering production we do,” he added.

Tulasi Naidu, a B.Tech graduate, who is working with a school that belongs to one of the key Ministers of the State, said: “The reason I took up this job is that I want to earn my own money, besides getting time to spend with children, whom I adore.

I am also taking coaching classes for bank exams, RRB and SSC. I felt it could be better being a teacher rather than to just spend parent’s money for coaching after engineering.”

By:Ch Sowmya Sruthi