Engineering colleges are headed for a good placement record, thanks to the boom in the market and 'practical' knowledge of the students.

In the past few years, engineering colleges realised practical knowledge is just what the industry demands. So, they revised their syllabus, giving more stress to industry interface and including non-engineering topics such as communicative English, management and ethics.

According to Mona Gulati Puri, CEO of United Groups of Institutions, Noida, engineering courses are now giving more stress to research and industry interface. Talking to The Telegraph from Noida, she said: 'Engineering colleges are revising syllabi, giving more stress to research work. Also, the revised syllabus focuses on strengthening fundamental science, namely physics and chemistry apart from mathematics, economics, management ethics and others.'

Puri said there was a time when engineering was confined to only engineering studies. But, the revised engineering syllabus focuses on communicative English and personality development. Engineering institutions are also adding topics from management and ethics as it has been seen that engineering graduates heading some companies have to show not just engineering but also management skills required for a company's growth. Puri said students now have good knowledge of economics, management and ethics, along with experience in industry, when they appear for campus recruitment. In fact, they are able to impress recruiters even in non-core engineering sectors. Non-core sector companies absorbed many students during the ongoing campus recruitment at IIT and NIT.

Anand Kumar of Super 30 said he came to know from many IIT students that despite being good in engineering subjects, they do not receive preference from recruiting companies during placement if they be weak in communicative English. He said: 'Communicative skills and command over language is one of the top qualities a company sees in an individual during campus recruitment.'

Industry interface and communicative English got a leg up at engineering colleges last year when NIT Patna revised its syllabus. It had invited officials from FICCI and different trade bodies and company honchos to give inputs for their revised syllabus.

A senior teacher of NIT Patna said on condition of anonymity: 'Representatives and officials of trade bodies were invited during syllabus revision. They gave various inputs about what a company is looking for in an engineering graduate during recruitment.' The teacher further said that in the years to come, even state engineering colleges will lay stress on industry interface and communicative English.

Ankush Sinha, a student of mechanical engineering at NIT Patna, agreed the new syllabus is more up to date with what companies are looking for.