Engineering students be warned, your technical flair is not all that matters, your English skills, too, are under scrutiny.
According to a study conducted by Aspiring Minds, an employability testing and recruitment company, more than a quarter of the engineers in India do not have the English skills required to comprehend college curriculum!
Further, only about 57 per cent of engineers can write grammatically correct sentences in English, while more than half the engineering population is not familiar with words used frequently in regular workplaces.
According to the study, English communication skill is one of the two most important criteria for most recruiters and as such, students who fall short face a problem in the job market as well.
Mr Varun Aggarwal, Director, Aspiring Minds, said, “Recruiters and HR (human resource) managers around the world report that candidates with English skills above the local average stand out from the crowd and garner 30-50 per cent higher salaries than similarly-qualified candidates without English skills. The trends in India are no different, with English fluency being one of the key qualities recruiters look for during the interview process.”
The report is based on the results of the English Comprehension module of the firm’s employability test, Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test, taken by 55,000 students from about 250 different engineering colleges in India.