Tuesday March 27, 01:42 AM
India needs five times the aviation engineers it has |
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The elongating runaway from college campuses to aircraft manufacturing workshops seems to have blurred the vision for aviation entrepreneurs. The industry complains that colleges are struggling to produce enough aeronautical engineers for a mushrooming sector.
According to CSM, an engineering solutions service provider, there are around 7,500 engineers working in the Aerospace Engineering Services, while there is a requirement of around 35,000 engineers by 2012. Assuming a 10 per cent increase in the number every year, there will be more than a 50 per cent gap between demand and supply in five years.
"The biggest challenge for the industry is that the curriculum in aeronautical engineering colleges does not impart the domain-specific skills required by the industry. A fresh IT graduate may or may not need any training for writing an application. However, it is essential for a fresh aerospace engineer to gain sufficient training to put out a good design. Therefore, companies have to train engineers coming from even the best of colleges before employing them," says Satya Srikanth, CEO CSM.
Milan Zatakia, CEO and chairman of Millennium Aero Dynamics Pvt. Ltd, says, "It is high time the HRD Ministry pulls up the training standards in aerospace engineering. We are forced to hire hundreds of expats because there are not enough colleges to nurture talent in our country. Indian aerospace is flooded with expat engineers and designers."
In addition to the four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) only a handful of aeronautical engineering colleges are available in the country. For aspiring Mumbaikars, Pune is the closest option if they miss IIT Powai. K Sudhakar, department head for aeronautical engineering at IIT Powai, admits, "We produce 40 engineering graduates, 30-35 post-graduates and 2-3 doctorates in a year. All IITs maintain a similar record. But it is too little to meet the industry's demands."
Reacting to the outdated curriculum he says, "IIT has always been flexible to change. We welcome any interaction with the industry and the syllabus can be updated overnight." Wings College of Aviation Technology, which opened in Pune five years ago, is still awaiting its first batch to fly. Raghuveer Singh, principal of the college, says, "I am a retired pilot myself. We started the college with the sole intention to filling this gap."
Interestingly, at the time when the country running short of wings new jobs are emerging in Indian aerospace. "Microsoft and Infosys have acquired large orders from Boeing and Airbus in aerospace offshoring. Lots of new jobs are coming up," adds Zatakia. Experts point to the need for engineers specialising in aerodynamics, flight mechanics, propulsion and aerospace structures.
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