Sample this: India produces close to 4,00,000 engineering graduates every year. S. Radhakrishnan, president of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, points out, “The demand for skilled people in core engineering areas may be higher than ever before.”

Despite that, additional skills are required to make a candidate marketable in the competitive workplace. “We did a hiring exercise at the IITs and the best regional engineering colleges,” says Ashish Kumar, chief executive officer of Jaintec Technologies. “And of the 600 applications, only two passed the litmus test.”

So, on June 12 this year Jaintec Technologies, an Indo-American firm, signed a memorandum of understanding with DESCON Limited, one of the leading energy supply firms in eastern India, to start courses on computer-assisted design, manufacturing and engineering.

“A recent study by NASSCOM shows that only a fourth of the four lakh engineering students graduating every year are employable,” says Radhakrishnan.

The new courses would address this problem. They are designed to bridge the gap between industry requirements and the conventional educational structure. They would be open to students who have completed an ITI diploma and MTech in mechanical, automobile and industrial production. The duration of these courses will be about 80 hours of study and the cost will range from Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000.

Jaintec has also started a course in plant design automation software in collaboration with the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehra Dun. “As All India Council for Technical Education has made it mandatory to impart computer-assisted training in engineering courses, the importance of these modules cannot be overemphasised,” says Anuj Saxena, vice-president, Jaintec Information Systems Private Limited.

The new course in Calcutta has started recently while the one in Dehra Dun has been running since April this year.