Analysis & Solution of the Problems Faced by the Fresh IPE Graduates at Their Initial Career : A Case Study

Article history: Received: September 09, 2018 1st Revision: October 12, 2018 Accepted: October 30, 2018 Abstract. Department of Industrial & Production Engineering started its glorious journey from 2006 in Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology. Since then approximately 250 students graduated and continuously enhancing the global quality of the department through leading discovery and innovation. Despite their shines in career, some problems come their way and make them realize that they should be more careful about them in their University life. In order to get the regarding information, we surveyed about 100 graduates of IPE from different series. They are now working in different sectors with a different designation. Their experience about their career life will help us to find out the problems faced by the fresh IPE graduates as well as it will help us to solve the problems in our University life. We analyzed the data & build methodology through the brainstorming process & finally achieved our result. This will provide a way to overcome the problems faced by the fresh IPE graduates in their initial career. .


Introduction
The process of graduation helps the graduates in their career alongside his future life.So, in this time they should be more concern about their learnings.The department can provide them proper guideline and it can also modernized its education structure.For this we need to survey among the graduates.After survey we have to analysis the results.Then we have to identify the future scope and obstacles and make a conclusion of the remedy of the initial problems faced by the fresh graduates.Actually, graduate quality improvement is a very important task but it is very difficult to solve without finding the root causes.This is a long-term process & have not felt the problem deeply yet by anybody.This article will help to all students of Department of Industrial & Production Engineering of developing, less developed or underdeveloped countries.

Literature Review
The admission system in Engineering Universities is not so easy.A very competitive examination is held among the students who score more than 80% marks in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English in A level exam.Eligible students can participate in the admission test which varies in different universities from 500 to 700 marks.Both written & Multiple-choice questions have to be answered.The merit position of the admission test result is published based on the order of marks scores in the exam.Then, they can get themselves admitted into different programs according to their merit position & order of choice.In this system, many students can't get admitted into their desired Engineering program.It is one of the major reasons for poor academic result as well as frustration.
The social medias are taking a lot of time from us.Students are teenagers & they are the main victim of social media addiction.Attraction to opposite gender is one of the vital causes behind the problem.Getting rejected to love proposal, suffering from frustration, failure in scoring good result in spite of trying harder etc. deviate many students from studies.It is a responsibility of the university to help them & guide them so that it is possible to overcome these problems at the early stage but university is immutable in this case & only care the good students who get higher marks only.This type of discrimination & humiliation discourages students to ask help to the university or course advisers.In this research, a continuous approach has been applied experimentally within the students who were trying hard to overcome their situation.
A few works were initiated & successfully started a flow in different types of improvements in our university.In 2017, Hasan, M.Z.& Dutta A. applied PDCA cycle, a concept included in TQM philosophy in order to improve personal skills of Engineering students & successfully initiated a study on students to develop their skill to ensure better career (Hasan, Md Zahid., 2017).Hasan, Z. and Hossain, M.S. experimentally applied TQM tools to determine root causes & used PDCA cycle concept of TQM & successfully improved the effectiveness of Engineering students in 2018 (Hasan, Z., & Hossain, M. S., 2018).Channar, S. H., Mehran, A. A. S., Ali, N. I., & Brohi, I. A. showed the problems that are faced by the females Postgraduate students in the universities of Jamshoro cities, Pakistan & found a solution in their research in 2017 (Channar, S., et al., 2017).In the year 2015 Shreenivas, B., Archana, H. R., Gururaj, C., & Ambika, K. leveraged the use of technology in the conventional teaching system, which results in improved teaching-learning process.The focus on OBE was through the use of various assessment methods in a specific course (Shreenivas, B., et al., 2015).In the year 2014 Daghan, Gökhan, and Buket Akkoyunlu examined cases on performance based assesment methods (PBAMs) & enabled students to take responsibility of the method also for progress in lessons (Daghan, G., & Buket A., 2014).Kubota, K., Terashima, K., Nakahashi, Y., & Morioka, H. analyzed the distance learning environment in Japan & suggested to provide different learning strategies according to the students need for their improvement in 2008 (Kubota, K., et al., 2008).In the year 2016 Miyakoshi, M. worked on a research to understand the connection between higher education as a joint development project between Egypt and Japan and ESD based on students' opinions (Miyakoshi, M., 2016).Korsah, K. G. in 2013 examine the factors that impede the academic progression of graduates from technical institutions to the Polytechnics and the Universities, reasons of not getting the appropriate level of job placement in industry & suggested to modify the curriculum (Korsah, K., 2013).In 2016 Ali Alghail, A. A., & Ali Mahfoodh, O. H. worked in the assessment of the academic reading difficulties encountered by international graduate students in a Malaysian university & solved the problem (Ali Alghail, Ali Abdullah, & Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh, 2016).In the year 2010 Hai-ming, H., Hai-ling, G., & Guo-chun, H. Surveyed on Graduate Employment Difficulties and reached a solution by adjustments of schooling, strengthening the training of students` comprehensive quality, solve the students conformity psychology and offering employments guidance courses (Hai-ming, Hu, Gu Hai-ling, and Hu Guo-chun, 2010).Geng-yu, W., Meng, Z., & Jun-wu, T. Analyzed of employment difficulties of female graduate students in Engineering colleges in 2011 to solve the problem (Geng-yu, Wang, Zhang Meng, and Tong Jun-wu, 2011).In 1989 Chi, M. T., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. discussed that self-exploration is a solution of choosing own career, understand things easily & solve problems instantly (Chi, Michelene T.H, et al., 1989).

Methodology
The sequences of tasks in this research are: a survey is done to know the real problems a fresh IPE graduate face at his initial career.For this we collected information from our honorable seniors from different academic series.To contact them we used E-mail, Social apps.We created a form by the help of Google docs to collect their experience about their faced problems through internet; after collecting the information, we created a Database by the help of Microsoft Excel software; then with the help of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel we create an analysis of the survey result; according to the survey result we selected the most voted problem and then we provide a solution of the problem by the help of multiple decision-making criteria.

Suggestion 1
From the above answers in Table 1 the respondents give we can conclude to the following suggestions^ i) Communication problems are faced by some of the graduates.In order to eliminate the communication problem there should be given more concern about English language practice as well as should develop the practice of extracurricular activities like joining debates, giving speech, anchoring etc.To maintain the working pressure in new environment.25 To choose a particular sector when there was a lot of opportunities.26 To cope with new environment, new people and working pressure.27 High pressure of the industry.28 Report submission to boss.
ii) Some of the graduates faced problem with the new workplace environment as well as in other University environment for higher studies.To eliminate the problem there should be make sure to increase the industrial visit (Minimum 1 industrial tour per year); and there should be good communication with other Universities in Bangladesh as well as foreign Universities.This will also help students to complete their higher studies at their chosen universities easily.
iii) Then comes the problem of selecting a particular sector for career.Recently Electrical and Electronic department of RUET started a trend of helping students to select their sector of career.They provide a choice form to the 3 rd Even Semester students and sort them for a particular career field according to their CGPA.This should be practice in our department with some modification like not only with CGPA but also with the expertness about the career field as soon as possible.This will enhance the job sectors which are suitable for IPE graduates.
iv) There should be start different projects like industrial case solving to make students experts in multi-task.This will also provide good experience of practical knowledge.This will also provide students to adapt with the working pressure in industries.
v) Management related subjects should be come in lab course to overcome the managerial related problems.
vi) Presentation related problems should be eliminated.For this, there should be at least one formal presentation in every cycle.This will provide students a better knowledge about the presentation, and development of their presentation skill.
vii) Report submission should improve by practicing the related software as formal reports in industries are mainly submitted by writing in Microsoft word, Microsoft excels etc.
vii) We know that the conservative society of Bangladesh makes some of the working sectors inappropriate for IPE graduated girls.To, minimize this problem there should be stablish an information related group to provide them the best suitable working sectors.The group should also provide them mental support and solution of the career problem.We can see from the figure 1 that about 57% of respondent feel that the environment of working environment for fresh graduates is adaptable.39% of them thinks that the environment is hard to adapt.4% of them feel the environment for freshets is very adaptable.From this we can conclude that we are still facing problems regarding environmental adaptedness.

Suggestion 2
To eliminate the problem, we should make sure to increase the industrial visit (Minimum 1 industrial tour per year).As well as we should keep a good communication with industries and we should also apply our research to solve different industrial cases.As described in question 1 suggestion section (Suggestion i) communication problem is many of the respondents common problem.Selective perception, Language, Silence, Cultural barrier, Gender difference are the most common barriers of communication.From the figure 2 we can see that 61% of the respondents faced the communication problem but they overcome that easily, 18% of them often faced, 7% faced a lot and the left 14% respondent didn't faced the problem.In order to solve the communication problem some steps should be taken.Such as, Practicing English language as most of the formal communication are done by English.We should come forward from the cultural barrier.There should also develop the practice of extracurricular activities like joining debates, giving speech, anchoring in different programs etc.
The good knowlwdge of different software makes an IPE graduate more smart.From the Table 4 and Figure 3 we can see that 100% of the respondent thinks that Students should learn Microsoft Excel, then comes the importance of learning Microsoft Word and the percentage of importance is 92.86%, importance of learning AutoCAD is 50%, then comes the SolidWorks and Microsoft Access both of them are equally important and the importance is 39.29%.From the above description we now know the importance of learning softwares.From their importance level given by the respondents we can serial them from highly important to less important.There should be given more concern about learning of the softwares by arranging seminars, workshops, and competitions.This all will encourage students to learn the important softwares.Lab facilities are a very important thing to the whole graduation process.A little bit of lack in this section causes a lot of learning gap. Figure 4 shows that the lab facilities need a little bit modification and this is voted by 68% graduated respondents.26% respondent there needs to change a lot.4% said that the facilities are enough but there are some important opportunities.Later 3% said that the lab facilities should be modernized.From the Table 6 and Figure 5, it seems that our lab facilities needs to improve and modernized.This could be done through enriching our labs with modern equipment, creating new labs according to the latest concepts of IPE tools.From the analysis of question 5 we saw that there should be added some important software learning lab courses.Most of the departments of renowned universities have their own lab trainee who perfectly helps the students regarding the needs of the department, but we don't have any trainee.So, we should assign lab trainee as soon as possible.This all will be helpful to improve the lab facilities.Regarding the IPE graduates these are suffice.Since we are getting modernized with automation, hence our lab facilities would be followed by then.4% From the Table 7 we can see that almost every respondents faced different problems for session overdue.The only solution of this problem is to remove all of the session overdue remains.This can be done through proper managements of the university authorities.ii) Profit planning in accounting, Business communication related subjects and courses should add in the syllabus.
Iii) Physics, chemistry, math should be merged as much as possible instead of several semester and Supply chain management, Operations management, Organization behavior, Industrial & Business Management should be extended in several semester.iv) Lab facilities of control and automation, Simulation should be made more effective.Some practical industry base problems should be practice so that a graduate can understand the problems in his job life easily and trace it easily.
v) Industrial attachment time should be extended as much time as possible (at least 6 to 12 weeks).
vi) Software related topics and courses should be add in the syllabus.vii) Special care should be taken on Lean Management, Six Sigma Management, Systematic Problem Solving Tools etc.
viii) There should be add some Industrial Engineering Tools like as Lean Manufacturing, 5S, TPM, TQM, JIT, POKA-YOKE etc. could be taught separately by initiating 1 or 2 credits so that the students get acquainted with these in broadly before entrance into job fields.It is a common practice in our graduation system to go through the bookish knowledge whereas the job field is completely different than it.Students have to face a lot of problems during job lives which are not embedded into the books.Some seminars, workshops, idea contest etc. could be run along with academic activities to enhance and garnish the knowledge of students so that they can compete with outsiders at very beginning of their job lives.09 There should be some modification in graduation system.I think the more materialistic education should be introduced so that in our real job life we can think that we have already done that in little scale.v) Some seminars, workshops, idea contest etc. could be run along with academic activities to enhance and garnish the knowledge of students so that they can compete with outsiders at very beginning of their job lives.
vi) More materialistic education should be introduced so that in our real job life we can think that we have already done that in little scale.
vii) Need to increase the communication with industrial sector and corporate sector.
viii) The graduates must focus on his/her target and try his/her best to fulfill it.ix) Bonding among the graduates and current students must be improved through organizing and attending different programs.
x) Our department need more club to practice our course related practical problems as well as need to arrange more conference and workshops on our courses.xi) The system should provide every student good at communication and make himself reasonable for his position.

Result
The following steps are the result of our research-1.There should be given more concern about English language practice as well as should enhance their Leadership Skill, Communication Skill, Proactiveness through voluntary participatory work, practicing co-curricular activities (not hampering the class & study, it's a parallel task).
2. There should be make sure to increase the industrial visit (Minimum 1 industrial tour per year); and there should be good communication with other Universities in Bangladesh as well as foreign Universities.This will also help students to complete their higher studies at their chosen universities easily.
3.Recently Electrical and Electronic department of RUET started a trend of helping students to select their sector of career.They provide a choice form to the 3 rd Even Semester students and sort them for a particular career field according to their CGPA.This should be practice in our department with some modification like not only with CGPA but also with the expertness about the career field as soon as possible.This will enhance the job sectors which are suitable for IPE graduates.
4. There should be start different projects like industrial case solving to make students experts in multi-task.This will also provide good experience of practical knowledge.This will also provide students to adapt with the working pressure in industries.
5. Management related subjects should be come in lab course to overcome the managerial related problems.
6.There should be at least one formal presentation in every cycle (not in a group but individually).This will provide students a better knowledge about the presentation, and development of their presentation skill.If possible there should be added a mandatory presentation in every Lab course.Complete formal dress must be ruled in this sessions.
7. Report submission should improve by practicing the related software; as formal reports in industries are mainly submitted by using software like Microsoft word, Microsoft excel etc.
8.There should be stablish an information related group to provide female students the best suitable working sectors.The group should also provide them mental support and solution of the career problem.9. Important softwares like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Microsoft Access, Microsoft PowerPoint, MATLAB, C/C++ Programming, LINDO, Application based soft, Photoshop & illustrator, MS project, Microsoft Visio must be given priority in software relates labs.If needed there should add new lab course regarding the mentioned softwares.There should be given more concern about learning of the softwares by arranging seminars, workshops, and competitions.This all will encourage students to learn the important softwares.We should also increase the existing Lab facilities.
10. Session overdue problem must be eliminated through proper managements of the university authorities.
11.There should be arrange an encouragement program on CGPA at the beginning of university life.Students should be encouraged to achieve a good CGPA and the teachers and course advisers should be more careful about the student's response in learning.
12. The graduation system should be more practical and relatively more modernized.There should also arrange career related seminar, workshop etc. in a regular basis.
13. Bonding among the graduates and current students must be improved through organizing and attending different programs.
For syllabus this changes are resulted-14.Decision making in PPC (production planning & control), ref. book-Fundamentals of Management Science, Sixth Edition, by-Turban, Meredith should add in the syllabus.
15. Profit planning in accounting, Business communication related subjects and courses should add in the syllabus.
16. Physics, chemistry, math should be merged as much as possible instead of several semester and Supply chain management, Operations management, Organization behavior, Industrial & Business Management should be extended in several semester.17.Lab facilities of control and automation, Simulation should be made more effective.Some practical industry base problems should be practice so that a graduate can understand the problems in his job life easily and trace it easily.
18. Industrial attachment time should be extended as much time as possible (at least 6 to 12 weeks).
19. Software related topics and courses should be added in the syllabus.20.Special care should be taken on Lean Management, Six Sigma Management, and Systematic Problem-Solving Tools etc.
21.There should be add some Industrial Engineering Tools like as Lean Manufacturing, 5S, TPM, TQM, JIT, POKA-YOKE etc. could be taught separately by initiating 1 or 2 credits so that the students get acquainted with these in broadly before entrance into job fields.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Pie Chart of environmental adaptedness of workplace.
adaptable b.Adaptable c. Hard to adapt d.Very hard to adapt

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Pie chart of communication problem Suggestion 3In order to solve the communication problem some steps should be taken.Such as, Practicing English language as most of the formal communication are done by English.We should come forward from the cultural barrier.There should also develop the practice of extracurricular activities like joining debates, giving speech, anchoring in different programs etc.The good knowlwdge of different software makes an IPE graduate more smart.From the Table4and Figure3we can see that 100% of the respondent thinks that Students should learn Microsoft Excel, then comes the importance of learning Microsoft Word and the percentage of importance is 92.86%, importance of learning AutoCAD is 50%, then comes the SolidWorks and Microsoft Access both of them are equally important and the importance is 39.29%.Importance of learning Microsoft PowerPoint is 17.86%, MATLAB 10.71%, C/C++ programming and LINDO both

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: Bar chart of important softwares to learn

Figure 4 :
Figure 4: Pie chart of condition of lab facilities

Table 1 Challenges a fresh IPE graduate face Serial No. Challenges they have faced
The serial is-Microsoft Excel > Microsoft Word > AutoCAD > SolidWorks ,Microsoft Access > Microsoft PowerPoint > MATLAB ,C/C++ Programming > LINDO > Application based soft, Photoshop & illustrator, MS project, Microsoft Visio.

Table 8 Suggestion regarding our whole graduation system
Proactiveness through voluntary participatory work (not hampering the class & study, it's a parallel task).Now please try, take challenges & do your best!08 From the Table14we can take the following decisions-i) Complete formal dress at least one day in a cycle must be ruled.ii)Presentation in every cycle after 2nd semester (no group, one topic one student).iii)Students should understand the every problem practically.iv) Students should enhance their Leadership Skill, Communication Skill, Proactiveness through voluntary participatory work, practicing co-curricular activities (not hampering the class & study, it's a parallel task).