Change in the Demand for Employability Skills of Engineers: An Indian Study

Abstract: Employability skills are the capabilities and qualities employers look for in candidates while assessing them for employment. In case of engineers, employers demand generic and technical skills from engineers ready to join industries. This paper aims to explore the perception of Indian employers on the issue of the employability skills of engineers. Specifically, it aims to determine whether the skill requirement of engineers will change or remain the same in the post-COVID 19 era. This study used the interview method of qualitative analysis in which 16 interviews of human resource managers of different multinational companies were conducted. The findings reveal a sudden and significant paradigm shift in the required set of employability skills for engineering professionals. Digital skills have dominated over other technical and generic skills in the list of employability skills that recruiters demand. The findings can be used to spread awareness among engineering graduates about the changing demands of the workplace. Secondly, higher education institutions can rethink and revise their curriculum to develop digital skills. Lastly, the use of in-depth interview method can help future researchers to develop questionnaires from the extensive data and replicate the research questions to understand the change in demand of employers. Keywords : Digital skills; Employer’s demand; Engineers, Employability skills; Post-COVID-19