Seamless inflow of fresh talent with sector specific skills is a pre-requisite for growth in any sector and Indian companies have realized this fact long ago. 6 lac+ engineers graduate every year with a dream of working in the coveted IT industry, and the industry is also leaving no stones unturned to attract and retain top talent from computer and IT branches as well as other non-core IT branches . Computer Programming and Algorithm Design knowledge is a mandatory requirement for some and a desirable trait for others; some companies assess candidates on their basic understanding of programming while others demand a thorough knowledge. Given the significance of knowledge of computer programming for fresh engineers in the world of IT industry, Aspiring Minds conducted a pan-India study to examine how well our young engineers are able to program before they join a company.
The report1 is based on AMCAT (Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test) tests conducted on a sample of 55,000+ engineering students from 250+ engineering colleges across India. The analysis and findings of this report are based on the performance of these students in the Computer Programming module of AMCAT, which is widely recognized as India's largest and only standardized employability test. The module is adaptive and its scoring is based on Item Response Theory (IRT), a globally accepted statistical technique for assessments in high stake exams. The study attempts to gauge and understand the learning levels of engineers from various perspectives and provide answers to queries like:
Key Findings
During the exhaustive analysis performed during the processing of this report, some salient points which came out very strongly are summarized below:
Conclusion
The findings of this study were truly eye opening. As the questions progressed from theoretical concepts to conceptual and application based, the correct response percentage nosedived. This reinforces the fact that imparting factual knowledge only and then assessing students on the same factual knowledge alone is just promoting rote-learning and not building a smart and efficient workforce of IT engineers.
Engineering is the career aspiration of a large majority of Indian youth and we pride ourselves on building a brigade of super engineers which power the world's smartest innovations. But sadly the reality is that although today the rate of production of engineers in India is larger than any other nation, the quality of our engineers with regards to their programming capability has a matter of deep concern for corporates and academia alike. It is time to step back from opening new institutes and do a systematic analysis of the curriculum and the teaching pedagogy across universities and whether or not they match industry requirements. IT/CS students must be equipped with sophisticated and latest tools to help them develop a better grip over the understanding of the software domain. And most importantly, practical sessions must occupy a greater portion of the total time devoted on programming subjects to develop students' ability to use their programming knowledge into solving real world problems.
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1. Computer Programming Learning Levels-Engineering Graduates, Annual Report-2013