You cleaned up your resume. You applied for hundreds of jobs. You waited. But received no response.
If this resonates with you, then you are not alone. Thousands of graduates in India face the same obstacle when placed into internships, and most certainly, they are looking in the wrong place. They polish their resumes, gain new qualifications, and apply through more portals, but the initial screening process happens much earlier.
It occurs at an institutional level. And it has everything to do with what is called NBA accreditation.
What recruiters actually check first
Most of the serious companies, particularly in the engineering, technology, and applied sciences fields, silently conduct an assessment of the candidate’s institute without reading his/her CV at all. Besides the name of the university, there should be a confirmation of the quality level of this university.
It does not mean its prestige or popularity for most of us. It implies that there is an official certificate of the quality of the educational process in this university according to the standards of industries. All reputable firms have access to this information. And NBA accreditation is among the most important ones.
So what exactly is NBA accreditation?
The NBA is an independent accrediting agency belonging to the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They evaluate and accredit the individual courses offered by engineering colleges, polytechnics, and management colleges across the country. Unlike general affiliation with universities, NBA program accreditation is course-specific. It involves the assessment and verification that a particular course, like a B.Tech course in Computer Science or a Diploma in Electronics, has been independently assessed and is accredited on the basis of meeting certain standards of education outcomes. Accreditation involves the evaluation of aspects like course content, faculty, infrastructure, educational outcomes, and industry relevance. When the NBA accredits a program, it sends a message to employers that graduates of that program have undergone training that meets a nationally standardised level. There is a weight to that signal.
Why NBA accreditation matters more than ever for freshers
Each year, India graduates millions of students. One has to imagine the sheer volume of applicants that one recruiter gets from each hiring exercise. For the processing of such large numbers, companies need fast and reliable filtering devices - and quality standards do just that. A new graduate out of an NBA-accredited programme has a credibility advantage by default. Their certification has already undergone an external quality test. The recruiter does not have to make any guesses as to whether the curriculum was relevant, whether the faculty was qualified or whether the graduate was trained to industry requirements. Accreditations answer all of these concerns ahead of time. At the same time, for a person with a course not accredited, no matter how good he or she might be, there is an additional step needed to build credibility. In the current job market, an extra step can easily spell the difference between making it into the list or not even getting a chance to review your resume.
The bigger picture: Washington Accord and global recognition
This is what most Indian students are never told: NBA accreditation is related to something much larger than local recruitment. India is one of the member nations that has signed the Washington Accord, which is a global accord recognizing that there exist similarities in qualifications in engineering among all the member nations. NBA accreditation is nothing more than India's way of guaranteeing that its technical programs adhere to the requirements of the Washington Accord. What it means is that if you study a program accredited by the NBA in India, then apart from being recognized within India, your qualification is also recognized in other nations, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan.
This is important for any beginner with aspirations higher than India.
What freshers should do right now
First of all, the most important step to take while you are a student is making sure that your programme is NBA-accredited, which you can easily find out on the NBA website. Then, make sure to include this information in your CV since this is something that many students overlook, thus losing the opportunity to earn an advantage of credibility. When it comes to picking between institutions or programmes, NBA accreditation should not be a consideration, but a must-have. For example, two companies might be issuing identical diplomas and degrees. Nevertheless, one company might be NBA-accredited, whereas another does not have that accreditation. Hence, their qualifications will be seen differently by a competent employer.
If you graduated from a non-accredited university, there are only two possible solutions: acquire additional certificates and show competence in certain fields to prove yourself, but that is always the more difficult route.
The filter is real. Now you know it exists.
Most fresh graduates end up exhausting themselves trying to prepare for interviews they haven’t been invited to. Instead, it would be much wiser to familiarize yourself with the filters that allow you to be part of the selected group. Among the most important filters in this case is the NBA accreditation, a fact that is not clear to most candidates but is very clear to all the recruiters who know what to check.
You now realize that and use it to your advantage.
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