Firms overlook students from smaller cities while hiring: Study

Employabilty percentage drops 22.42% in IT services, 25.95% in core engineering

With the bullish sentiment back in the economy, the companies are back to bulk hiring in the campus. But a recent survey by a New Delhi-based employabilty evaluation company shows that factors like location and ranking of the colleges play a major role during placements.

The survey by Aspiring Minds Assessment Private Ltd. says that while employability of students in smaller cities are at par with that in major cities, corporations tend to overlook them leading to a large proportion of employable engineers without a job.

About 1,20,000 engineering students from 520 colleges participated in the survey and their employabilty was determined by an online test which tested the students based on their english communication, quantitative aptitude, problem solving skills and knowledge of domain areas. The study found that there is a drastic fall in employability between the colleges in tier 2 cities than that in tier 1. While employabilty percentage dropped by 22.42 percent in IT services, it was more prominent in the core engineering branch where it dropped by 25.95 percent. Even for non-tech positions like business analysts in KPOs a student from a tier 1 city has 30.87 percent more chance of getting hired as compared his peers in the smaller cities.

The study also found that the companies have a ranking-obsession while hiring students. The employabilty for IT companies falls by more than four and a half times from 12.02 percent in top 100 colleges than 2.56 percent in the rest. "Almost 50 percent of employable candidates are enrolled in campuses ranked beyond the top 750 leading to an invisible pool to most employers in the country," the study says.

" With a proliferation of engineering colleges in the major cities, some companies now are less enthusiastic about travelling to smaller towns which are not well-connected with the metros," said Himadri Sekhar Goswami, training and placement secretary of Assam Engineering College in Guwahati.

He also said the colleges of major cities have better industry-connections which enables them to attract the companies to their campuses.

According to a team leader of the talent aqusition team of Tata Consultancy Service, (TCS) ,who have visited over 50 campus, companies have certain criteria while deciding which collegs to go to. " We look for campuses which are well -connected and have more number of students for obvious reasons," he said.

This according to Varun Aggarawal, director, Aspring Minds, is because companies are reluctant to focus on smaller cities as that would increase the cost of hiring. " Only 10-15 percent of the engineering college are visited by the companies, this is a worrying trend for higher education as opportunities remains limited to certain pockets of the country," he said.