From my experience the following are the major skills an engineering designer should have 1. Hands-on understanding of how things work. What is wrong in India... Indians, especially the educated people have an aversion for manual work. This may be because of availability of cheap manpower, or long history of caste structure which says certain people have to do certain kind of work. For example, we never try our hands in plumbing, electrical works or any work which creates a holistic understanding of how things are put together and how mechanisms work. Other aspect is self assembly kits which are very popular in the West, which also helps us to understand how things work. Because of this lack of inclination to hands-on learning, most of the engineering graduate who comes out of college has little skills and no hands-on experience on making things work. In skill courses, we can encourage students to have the habit of working with hands; it works best if they are solving a real world pro