This topping could be skills in emerging technologies such as AI, ML, and IoT, or apprenticeships and internship skills in some companies.
This has also been reflected in wage packets that have remained stagnant for Plain B.Tech alumni over the past few years, but have risen 10% from last year for those who have won that extra thing, said Team Lease, a staff and recruitment service company.
“People who are proactively skilled and pursuing apprentices with new technologies are not only effectively absorbed by the organization, but are also leading higher wages,” Krishna Vij, business head staffer at TeamLease Digital, told ET.
The average salary for fresh engineers is 3.8-4.5 lakh per year, but B.Tech alumni ranges from B.Tech alumni with new emerging technology skills.
Campus also resonates with this trend. “In a typical scenario, the IT, manufacturing and consulting sectors are looking for knowledgeable and well-trained B.Tech and M.Tech Technocrats,” said Harish Kumar, Head Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at the National Laboratory in Delhi. Science, AI/ML, laminated manufacturing, CAD/CAM, business analysis or very large scale scale integration (VLSI), etc.
Such candidates are offered on average between 75% and 150% more than technocrats without such exposure, Kumar said.
Amity University has seen a huge demand for students exposed to skills such as AWS, ServiceNow, Cybersecurity, and Sales Force this year. “B.Tech (Cybersecurity) students earn CTCs of over 15 Rs, while General B.Tech's average salary is between Rs 6-6.5 crores per year.”
This applies to the SRM Institute of Science and Technology. Career Centre Director N Venkata Sastry told ET that the Global Capacity Centre is hiring B.Tech students this year, especially those who specialize in new technologies. “These students are also relatively high pay, and therefore these skills are differentiators of employment potential,” he said.
Data surveys from staffing and recruitment services companies such as Xpheno and Quess shared with ET also support this trend.
“The increase in apprenticeship employment is driven primarily by the industry's focus on reducing labor costs, creating skilled talent pools, and promoting staff loyalty and retention,” according to a Ques analysis, there was a 10-fold increase in recruitment by IT companies via apprenticeship routes for the eight months between August 2023 and the same period in 2023.
Over the past decade, the average salary for a fresh engineer is ET.
“The average fresh salary in the IT sector in India remains in the 5 lakh range per year. Offers ranging from 3.8 to 45 lakh per year are the most common band, but offers of sub Rs 3.5 lakh are not uncommon.
ET contacted IT companies such as Cognizant, HCLTech, Infosys, and TCS, but did not respond to the query until press time.
In its email response, Wipro said there is a “Work Integrated Learning Program or WILP” focusing on BSC and BCA alumni. The IT company also sponsors higher education in an exclusive partnership with Bits Pilani for these alumni.
“The program, which includes software project Wipro Academy of Software Excellence, and Wipro Infrastructure Management Services from Cloud Infrastructure Services, is recruiting through national talent hunting, on-campus drives and social media.”
After selection, candidates receive a fixed scholarship while studying for four years, and then they become full-time employees based on academic achievement, the spokesman said.
