Gremot - Industry and Academia Partnerships

There is as Henry Petroski rightfully said:

“As engineers we were going to be in a position to change the world – not just study it.”

There is a severe shortage of highly talented young engineers in this growing sector with limited space for invention, but when we look at innovations and improvements that can be made to current technologies, there are unlimited possibilities.

Engineering is a discipline of science focused on real life application and execution. The academics lack the Practical and realistic application of the theory being taught in the institute, which is one of the most important steps in an engineer’s career.

Without the knowledge on real life applications, many students fail to get placed at the end of their 4-year program and end up spending years on developing these skills, which causes a significant gap in skills possessed by students and those demanded by the industry.

There is a pressing need for industry-oriented training and education so as to ensure students are up to date with modern technology and are well aware of the requirements of the evolving industry.

Industry-oriented training effectively increases the student’s opportunities for compensation and career growth, while also bringing in the much-needed trained engineers, furthering the development on the nation and industry.

Training for students in core engineering fields requires access to industry standard equipment which may not only be expensive but difficult to procure. Such difficulties need to be overcome in order to make industry ready engineers.

The lack of industrial exposure prior to Graduation has a significant impact on the Student’s career choice. This might be one of the reason why we find Engineers in all domains from “a Oscar Nominated Director” to a “Social Media Influencer”.

Little did I know that 85% of my classmates whom I graduated with in Mechanical Engineering are now working in the software industry.  While I am not being judgmental about a person's career choice, if this trend continues, it might lead to an industry-wide shortage of technically sound engineers.

A cost-effective and mutually beneficial solution to this problem can be industry-institution partnerships and internships. This enables students to simultaneously learn the theoretical aspects of engineering while getting hands on training within the industry, all while benefiting the industry by opening a pool of previously unrecognized talent.