Why Our Graduates Are Not Production Ready?

In almost every time I go for campus recruitment to various engineering colleges across the country, I ask a simple question to all students. What did you learn in last 4 years? Invariably the answer is stereotyped one - "C", or Java or Data Structure etc. etc. (because I'm from an IT company). No one tells that I learned how to solve problem. This is reality. Our engineering colleges across the country don't teach students how to solve problems. Colleges are focused on teaching tools & techniques. Leaving aside few privately run colleges observe the communication skills of our students. Our academia is not focused on this also. And, as a result one can't recruit a graduate and deploy him/ her in production work. They are not production ready - even after 4 years of training in higher institution of learning. They need to go through finishing school. This New Your Times blog post has few other areas where our graduates and academia needs to focus.

Is there a way to make our graduates production ready when they are out of the colleges? Here is my recommendation to all our future engineering graduates -

1. Learn problem solving techniques
2. Focus on communication - verbal and written
3. Understand that career is your - you can't outsource that to your supervisor & company. So understand what it takes to build a successful career. A positive attitude right from the begining
4. Train yourself so you can do hard work. General advice is work smart but today it is "Work Hard & Work Smart".