Relevance of Engg. streams like Bio-Technology , Bio-Medical, Bio- Informatics etc.
Published On: 2/14/2012
In last 2-3 years ,we have heard a lot about engineering streams like Bio-Technology, Bio- Medical & Bio-Informatics in India. The Counselors & advisors say these are the upcoming streams and holds high growth career prospects etc etc. in India also.
These are very generic statements & even what these counselors and advisors mean is also not very clear. In addition to 4 year Engineering Degree programs, there are B.Sc & M.Sc programs in Bio-Technology offered at University level , lot of diploma level courses offered in the field of clinical Research & Pathology. These graduates look for work in pathology and pharma companies.
A number of counselors and these advisors in India counsel students from A-Z career options and at times not aware of key facts and just advice students on the basis of a very little information they get from here and there.
If we take the case of engineering program, the Bio-Technology stream is offered by a lot number of institutions right from top engineering colleges to average private & govt. engineering colleges.
From the job prospects point of view ,we have tried to find out the placement trends for the B.Tech/ B.E level Bio-Technology graduates of 2011 passed out batch.
This was done for 15 leading engineering colleges including some IITs & NITs also ,the findings were :
a.The placements were in the range of 50-70% though one or two could have more than this.
b.The offers in top 6 engineering colleges were made from Consulting & Software companies which recruit from across all streams .The ratio was close to 80-90% out of total offers.The packages offered were almost same for all streams.
c. In other colleges ,the offers were made by IT Services Companies which were mass recruiters and recruit from across all streams. Here also the ratio was 80-90% out of total offers. Here also the packages offered were almost same for all streams.
d. There were hardly any offers made by the specialized companies in this domain.
In the engineering domain, the most apparent relevance of these streams is to get admitted in top engineering colleges offering Bio-Technology or Bio-Medical streams if the aspirants fail to make to other streams. A vast majority of students admitted in these streams in top engineering colleges right from the beginning work to improve or learn the technologies and skills which these consulting and IT services companies look for.
Though there could be a few graduates who look for masters course in Bio-Technology but the numbers seem quite low at present.
These streams could offer a good chance for students to get admitted in leading colleges if they fail to get top streams in colleges of their choice by slight margin in ranks.
Like ,someone very particular to join B.Tech course in top IITs and with JEE rank 5000 might look for Bio-Technology in IIT Guwahati rather than opting for M.Sc in some of the IITs or even top streams in other leading colleges other than IITs. Even from the placement point of view if he does well he has all chances to make it to leading consulting firms, Global Investment bankers etc. who recruit across streams from top IITs and pay fat packages to the ones recruited irrespective of the stream.
This process goes on even in other leading colleges also. Students may opt for these streams rather than top streams in average colleges.
Seeing the trend of full occupancy in these streams in leading colleges , a lot of average colleges have also started the B.Tech programs in Bio-Technology / Bio- Medical but students should be very careful and should opt for these streams only in colleges where IT Companies recruit in large numbers across all streams.
Those who look for employment opportunities immediately after B.Tech / B.E course should be very careful in selecting these streams and should opt for these streams in selected colleges only.