Government polytechnic colleges in Tamil Nadu have recorded over 93% placement for outgoing diploma students in the academic year 2025-26.

At a time when engineering admissions have been overshadowing most other streams of study, this development comes as an interesting disruption. According to officials of the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), a reason for this could be the very nature of the diploma courses, which equip students with more hands-on, vocational, and trade-specific skills.

The minimum salary earned by a diploma student was ₹15,000, with several employers even extending accommodation and food benefits to the fresh recruits, the officials said. On the other hand, some of the new recruits were paid as high as ₹45,000 for their starting salary by multinational engineering companies, the officials added.

Lateral entry

While the placement scenario was opening up, a section of students opted for lateral entry to engineering courses of their choice. As per norms, they are eligible to gain entry to second year of an engineering course of their choice after they have completed the diploma. A large number of students from the computer science courses opted for lateral entry, an official said, adding that these students often found themselves in direct competition with computer science and engineering pass-outs in the job market. Lateral entry saves them the hassle of going through the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions counselling process.

In the next academic year, officials said the department was working with the industry to offer internships for one semester to at least 9,000 students in government polytechnic institutes, with a minimum stipend of ₹14,000. Depending on the feedback, this scheme could be extended to multiple semesters.

Intake woes

While the placement scene appears to be bright, the government-aided and self-financing polytechnics have been finding it difficult to invite patronage. In 2025-26, although the government polytechnic colleges had near-full admission, the aided institutions recorded 71% intake, while private polytechnics had a mere 44%, bringing the overall admission percentage down to 54. Tamil Nadu has 55 government polytechnics, 31 government-aided polytechnics, and 321 self-financing institutes.

Officials added that about 80 polytechnic colleges had declared that they would not admit students in the forthcoming academic year, beginning a phase-wise shutdown of the institutes due to poor student patronage.