Abbreviation EIEA stands for “Employability Index for Engineering Applications”

Introduction:

  • EIEA is a concept for measuring the Technical Employability of an Engineering student.
  • In the current scenario of Engineering Education there is a more weightage towards clearing gain CGPA/CPI/Percentage/Grade, Thus most of the students refer to the ready exam solved papers and other particular syllabus books which feature important questions. Using these means they are able to get a respectable CGPA/CPI/Percentage/Grade. But their practical knowledge base remains very weak.
  • The sorry state of the condition is that the current Employability Trends in even the major companies has primary requirement of a high CGPA/CPI/Percentage/Grade. Thereafter the other rounds filter the rest of the students and the left once are those who have a strong BASE.
  • So why not design the evaluation system which gives the companies something more appropriate to seek rather than a theory based performance, also leave no scope in students mind to pass in University Exams.
  • The Concept of EIEA evaluation system, is my suggestion towards this scenario.
  • The method once implemented, will give the same weightage to Theory as well as Practical Exams on paper & even more importantly in the mind of the student.

Why the problem has become ALARMING ?

  • Whenever the point of decrease standard in engineering arises, common causes thought of are :
    • Professors or Teachers are not Good Enough.
    • Colleges are not up to the standards.
    • Population Increase.
    • Lack of Funds for education from government.
    • Lack of proper qualified staff for colleges/universities.

(This is in the context of observed opinion at different places and not a decision/view carried by me or the institute I am associated with.)

  • Well these thoughts are totally Irrational & False.
  • The Major Problem lies with the mind set of students, but he doesn’t join engineering with this perspective. He gains it as soon as he gets the First Semester Results & with a boost from seniors who have passed through the same.
  • Observation of a bunch of students at the time of admission to Engineering & after 1st Semester Results is as under:

  • This rapid transaction is observed in more than 50% students. It does not stop at this but becomes adverse as the semesters pass.
  • This happens because the evaluation system is not able to depict the true knowledge of a student; instead it just evaluates what he/she writes in the paper.
  • This is where the Practicals come in & that’s what EIEA is based on.

EIEA – The concept & Details

  • Along with CGPA/CPI/Percentage there should be an EIEA evaluated for the student.
  • The method for evaluation of theory exams & internal assessment is quite prominent and should not change.
  • EIEA will be based on their Term Lab Performance & Their Final Practical University Exam.
  • Term Lab Performance evaluation:
    • This will depend on number of Experiments to be carried out in a particular Lab Subject. Let’s suppose there are 8 Experiments and 30 students in a batch.
    • Each of these 30 students should be given a unique topic from the industrial point of view of the experiment and the students have to write a paper on it after each practical.
    • The internal evaluation to be done based on
      • Performance of each practical
      • Accuracy and precision of readings/observations gained
      • Experiment in the journal
      • Paper written for each experiment
      • VIVA
    • This will carry 25% weightage
      • Final University Practical Exam
        • There will be Two parts of it
      • Performance of Practical in presence of External & VIVA.
        • Student will evaluated on the basis of assigned practical by the external assessor.
        • Followed by a viva by Internal & External Assessor
        • This will carry 25% weightage
      • Online / Offline GATE style paper of that subject
        • A typical gate style exam preferably online with the core basics. Total Permutations of questions should be atleast 6 for a strength of 60 students in a class.
        • This will carry 50% weightage

      The Final Totally can be rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most employable & 1 being the least.

      (This is a workable concept, given the funds and manpower to test this with real students and survey of acceptability by the industry, following advantages can be proven to be gained)

Benefits of EIEA

  • Basic concepts would be crystal clear.
  • With such strict continuous evaluation around the semester and the final result dependent on it, mindset of the students will not have the room to change.
  • Employability of Students would grow.
  • Interest of Industries to recruit students will grow.
  • Student will be well versed with the art of writing and presenting papers by the time he/she completes BE/B.Tech.
  • GATE/IES/PSU exams would require lesser efforts to clear, as they would be giving such exams in each semester and part part preparation with simple revision would sum up to be ready for such competitive exams. Hence…
    • Growth of number of selected candidates in PSU’s / UPSC etc. from GTU.
    • Boost for pursuing higher technical studies by clearing GATE.
  • Students will be able to Identify IDP / UDP well before their final year. Thus..
    • More number of patents/copyrights would be filed and obtained.
    • More Techno-preneurs will emerge.
  • Students would be more acceptable in industry.

Conclusion:

  • EIEA application would prove to be beneficial for students in terms of their career building platform and also won’t give their minds scope to wander towards the easy path.