At the ThinkEdu Conclave 2025, educators underscored the need to reshape medical and engineering education with a focus on mental resilience and adaptability to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving workforce.
Speaking at the panel discussion on ‘Doctors and Engineers: Their Role in Viksit Bharat@2047’ on 27 January, Dr Sudha Seshayyan, Director of SASTRA University, and Dr K Sivaprasad, Vice-Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (KTU), stressed the need to integrate mental preparedness and real-world training into education systems to build a skilled and resilient workforce.
Mental Health and Employability
Dr K Sivaprasad drew attention to the growing focus on mental health during college placements. Addressing the employability crisis among engineers, he said — “The final decision is not up to the HR or technical evaluation but is determined by the psychologist. The mental state of the candidate drives their employability. They ask me to suggest a candidate — not a rank holder or high scorer, but someone who can work effectively in their company”.
Dr Seshayyan also echoed his views, adding that gaps in medical education can be bridged by building on the mental resilience of the younger generations. “This has to be done at the school level and not at the higher education level,” she added.
Reviving General Medicine
Dr Seshayyan emphasised the challenges concerning medical education, particularly the decline of general medicine in favour of specialisations.“We’ve lost the culture of the family physician. Everyone wants to specialise, creating a top-heavy system with gaps in general medicine. De-emphasise speciality training. This is not super-speciality; this is sub-speciality. We are giving it a larger-than-life image,” she noted.
She also stressed the need for experiential learning and hands-on training. “In medicine, handling a patient alone is different than doing so with supervision. Students must be exposed to ground realities early. On the other hand, you cannot have 30 interns on one patient. We need better development of rural and smaller hospitals for internships and training,” she added.
Industry-Academia Exposure
While Seshayyan highlighted limited hands-on experience for interning doctors in India, Dr Sivaprasad praised the recent efforts by the government and companies to increase the industrial experience among engineering students. Reflecting on his own experiences, he remarked on the lack of hands-on learning during internships.
“You can’t build part of the ship on campus; we have to go to shipyards for internships. However, there were no facilities for the interns. We were left to stand and observe others. Now, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds are being opened for interns and graduates to learn and improve their skills,” said Dr Sivaprasad, a Professor of Ship Technology.
He also called for greater industry-academia collaboration, advocating for teachers to take on real-world industrial problems and engage students in practical solutions.
