“Take a few moments and let me know, how much time you would take to make this kind of drawing on a sheet (drawing sheet)?”, asked Mr. AB after introducing his firm in a semi-formal manner by showing couple of slides containing some pretty pictures entitled recent trends in Mechanical Engineering. (not mentioning original/full name because of obvious reasons or let’s just put it this way that I’m quite concerned about his privacy).
As he wittily gazed throughout the sitting crowd there was pin drop silence of highest possible order in that area. Either no one bothered to answer or they were not that confident to answer in front of a well dressed and well qualified man with impeccable spoken English.
After a few seconds after he encouraged few students to give any amount of time in which they can complete the said drawing on paper with the help of a drafter or any other manual drawing aids. Answers varied from 10-30 minutes.
He took no time to explain why the any company would not hire anyone who takes that much time to finish such a simple drawing that too with a pencil on a paper which is of no use in today’s era. Most of the students were curious and some weren’t even blinking perhaps they were concentrating too much on how to be one who can finish the drawing in question in lesser time so that they can MANAGE TO SECURE A JOB AFTER COMPLETING THEIR ENGINEERING DIPLOMAS OR DEGREES.
Barely 30 minutes are passed and he already made them (the students who were attending the so called seminar on recent trends in Mechanical Engineering) question on their drafting speed by setting aside other issues that are actually recent trends. I really don’t want to to into details on how exactly because I believe it’s not that necessary to do so because when you start speaking by highlighting the shortcomings of future engineers on the basis of their ability to make a drawing in a lesser time that too by comparing them with a CAD/CAM software expert who started making the same drawing view on Mr. AB’s indication with an instructions with a smile towards students to watch carefully and make a note of the time in which that software expert who happens to be software instructor at their institute which is primarily dedicated to train working engineers and engineering students (mostly engineering students as working engineers are already a way ahead) . And the CAD/CAM/CAE/PPM training institutions are well aware of that harsh fact but still use these terms to get attention of colleges and students.
As few minutes passed most students were thinking of being a design engineer because of the software demonstration they showed. Apart from that they (students) put their knowledge of core engineering principles aside for a few moments because all they are thinking of designing without actually knowing what an engineering design actually is and what it takes to be a design engineer. Because Mr. AB is not here to tell them how to solve actually the problems that are occurred before an engineer but he and his team is here to give students a brief introduction and demonstrate software that are used by engineers for design, manufacturing, simulation and project planning. He was there to show outer beauty of Mechanical Design Process by showing some impressive picture and visual aids everything from 2d drawing to 3d models of industrial machinery, consumer electronics and automotive & aerospace products thus narrowing focus of their seminar on CAD/CAM/CAE/PPM software. Mostly for the sake of successfully running their CAD Training Institute. By fetching as many students as they can for enrolment into variety of CAD courses they offer at their institute. Institutions like that doesn’t really care for student’s future.
90+% of the students that has completed their CAD courses from these CAD Training ‘Centres’ are unemployed and most that are employed are not working in so called ‘design departments’. Most alumni that I met said, “the course was good and interesting but it was of no use because I didn’t got a job as design/development engineer. Now I’m working as production engineer/quality assurance engineer” to name a few.
Why Indian engineering graduates are unemployable ……………………………………..to be continued