A Study of Entrepreneurial Orientation & Inclination for Entrepreneurial Career of Engineering Students

Abstract

In India, over 2 LAKH engineering graduates pass out of the portals of Engineering Colleges every year and the high unemployment rate among qualified young engineers has been a cause of worry for the policy makers. The Government of India is looking forward to the under 25 population as the future pool of entrepreneurs and job providers. With entrepreneurship assuming greater significance in the current economic scenario, the paper aims at studying the orientation and inclination of NCR Delhi based final year engineering students towards entrepreneurship and make suggestions for fostering entrepreneurship among engineering graduates.The objectives are:a. To study the entrepreneurial orientation of NCR Delhi based final year engineering students to assess their suitability for entrepreneurship. b. To study the entrepreneurial inclination of NCR* based final year engineering students to understand their perceptions about entrepreneurship.c. To assess the extent to which the sample group is inclined towards entrepreneurial career d. To make suggestions for fostering entrepreneurship among engineering graduates.The sample of 200 final year engineering students of various engineering college in the National Capital Region of Delhi was chosen through stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected through two structured questionnaires. A questionnaire consisting of 15 questions was administered to ascertain their entrepreneurial orientation on a 5-point Likert scale. Further, the same sample was administered another questionnaire to understand their perceptions about entrepreneurship and their inclination towards entrepreneurial career. The major findings of the study have been that (a) there is a change in the perception of the engineering students regarding entrepreneurship in India; (b) the majority of the students, who are planning to take up entrepreneurship, are looking for it only after gaining some industrial exposure; (c) the respondents have expressed interest in infrastructure, housing, manufacturing and hospitality; (d) the majority of the students would like to start with a small business; (e) Government policies and lack of financial resources are perceived to be factors hindering entrepreneurship; (f) Entrepreneurship be taught as a separate subject to the Engineering students. The practical training be made an integral part of the curriculum.