IIT Textile Engineers Do Not Find A Fit In The Industry

Economy

IIT Textile Engineers Do Not Find A Fit In The Industry

Indian textile engineering students are seemingly not finding a good fit in the textile industry. This was one of the findings of an RTI query that DNA newspaper made to IIT Delhi.

According to a DNA report, campus placements overall in IIT-D have been falling, and this is more so for textile engineering. The report states that students of branches such as textiles and biotechnology do not have as many choices as from other fields of engineering.

According to IIT-D data, textile engineering is one of the branches that saw the lowest number of campus placements over the years even as it shares the highest number of seats (105) with civil engineering. In the past five academic sessions, 2014-15 saw 32.5% campus placements, including both undergraduate and masters courses, the highest so far. Campus placements in 2013-14, 2015-16 and 2016-17 were 32.3%, 31.3% and 28.04%, respectively.

Every year, between 850 to 900 students enroll in the institute's Undergraduate Section (UGS), that includes BTech, dual degree and integrated MTech programmes, and 1,700 to 1,900 students take admissions in Post Graduate Section (PGS), that has MTech, MSc, MBA, PhD, and Master of Science (Research) programmes. However, on average, 700 students get jobs during campus placements sessions.

The debate on low placements of engineering students started when Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar raised the issue in Parliament in March, last year. He said that in 2016-17 only 40% of engineering graduates got placements after passing out.

There are a few reasons for this trend. The textile industry is not one of the most glamorous among industries, and has difficult working conditions and hours of work in mills, which is no longer attractive to engineers and others looking for jobs. As opposed to this are the technology start-ups which offer a more international set-up to the newbies, who prefer a certain lifestyle even before getting a job. Most of the textile mills are situated in semi-rural or rural areas, a deterrent for young engineers. The salaries offered by the textile industry are not as attractive either. According to a professor in IIT Gandhinagar, almost 60% of their students are not practically oriented to work in the industry and have a harsh learning curve to cross.

This is something that the industry has been harping on too - the disconnect between academics and industry. So, be it fashion technology, or textile engineering, the students are not found quite suitable by the industry.

Moreover, there are only a handful of professionally and successfully managed large companies in the textile industry.

Companies such as Alok, Reid & Taylor are now in the red, obviously cases of gross mismanagement. There are many others like this. Besides, the vast majority of the industry is still family-run businesses, which operate very differently.

The report also points to a trend where engineering graduates from premier institutes prefer to look for greener pastures overseas, prefer research, over working in the textile industry. This is a mismatched situation when we talk about transitioning to Industry 4.0. Getting skilled manpower is a big challenge for the Indian textile industry. It is expected that nearly 61.6 million skilled manpower will be required in the apparel and textile sector by 2022.

A KPMG study has estimated that 75% of the textile workforce has secondary school education. Vocational or diploma holders account for 6% of the workforce. While graduates and post graduates make up 10% of the workforce.

By 2022, the share of vocationally trained personnel will go up to 25% of the total textile workforce. And secondary school educated personnel will account for 57% of the workforce by 2022. The share of graduates and post-graduates will marginally increase to 11% by 2022.

The KPMG study also reveals the skill gaps at each level of operation. And the one common thread here is the absence of understanding, skill, professional qualificiations to fulfill the job efficiently. Besides, the workers lack sector-specific knowledge and knowledge of the latest developments in the sector. Worker turnover in the industry is high. Unfortunately, the country does not have adequate number of relevant training institutes and centres to fulfill the needs of the industry.

There is little solace in the fact that the Indian textile industry faces the same predicament as its counterparts globally.