Automation could emerge as an exciting career opportunity for engineers. Sensing this, The Automation Industry Association (AIA) plans to upgrade the way automation is taught and learnt in colleges.
A short-term training programme was organised by the association to train the students in production engineering and simulation, energy conservation and machine and human safety among others, some time back. The programme dealt with Industrial Robotics and Automation and was organised in collaboration with the Department of Engineering Design at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. (IIT-M)
Anup Wadhwa, director, AIA, said: “We have a proposal to offer a full semester course to IITs and other institutes who may be interested in the same. AIA has also begun engaging with management schools. Our future managers will need to manage production facilities, infrastructure projects and globally connected enterprises.”
According to Wadhwa, only 25 per cent of the 600,000 engineering graduates are ready to be deployed by this industry and efforts to increase the figure need to be made. AIA recently partnered with Ghaziabad and Noida Management associations to support a symposium organised by the faculty at the AK Garg College of Engineering.
The automation industry is growing 6-8 per cent globally, whereas in countries like India and China, it is growing at more than 30 per cent.
The five-year forecast shows healthy trends and the industry will be requiring more technical graduates - both from polytechnics and engineering colleges — to join the industry. The industry employs almost 50,000 professionals today. “This demand will be at least double in the next three years. Science and IT graduates having an aptitude for machine control will find space for a fulfiling professional career here,” adds Wadhwa.
“With increasing demand for better productivity, performance and process improvement across all sectors, automation companies require more work into R&D and design of new systems. In 2006, automation was a Rs 5,000-crore industry growing at the rate of 20 per cent and today it is growing at more than 30 per cent,” says Ganesh Shermon Partner & Head of People & Change Solutions, KPMG.
The salary packages offered to engineers (fresh out of college) can vary according to the companies. Indian companies offer Cost To Company (CTC) between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh, whereas, international companies’ package can be anywhere between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.