there has been an increasing demand for Indian engineers in the software and information technology-enabled service (ITES) sectors that are provide services in English to customers in the United States and the United Kingdom (Ferrari and Dhingra, 2009). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test whether the mean importance scores of Communication in English are equal between firm sizes, firms with/without foreign capital, and firms in difference economic sectors. Large firms consider Communication in English more important than medium and small firms. Firms with foreign capital have higher importance mean scores than those without foreign capital. The IT sector has relatively higher scores than other sectors. However, these results are not statistically significant. The results of analysis are presented in Table A2:4 - 6 of Annex 2.<sup>8</sup> A similar employer survey undertaken in the US in 2004 equally asked for the importance level of skills of engineering bachelor graduates (Lattuca, Terenzini, Volkwein, 2006 study for ABET). The formulation of the skills is very similar if not identical for 10 _Professional Skills_ .<sup>9</sup> The two surveys allow us to examine whether US employers demands the same skills as the Indian employers. In particular, we focus on whether the employers share the same prioritization of skills; i.e. is the ranking of the importance similar among the employers of the two countries? Table 5 ranks the importance of skills in each country based upon the percentage of employers responding ―Very or Extremely Important‖ (the two highest responses on a five point scale). The picture is mixed. In general, employers in both countries rank team-work, applying math/science/engineering knowledge and communication skills high, while raking skills related to knowledge of contemporary issues, system design, and design of experiments low. However, some skills are ranked differently, such as lifelong learning (valued by Indian employers and less so by US employers). We cannot test whether the rankings are statistically significantly the same since we do not have the underlying data for the US employer survey.

**Table 5 Ranking of Importance of Skills in India compared to the US**

||**India**|**US**||
|---|---|---|---|
|% of<br>employers<br>respond ―Very<br>or Extremely<br>Important‖|Skill|Skill|% of<br>employers<br>respond ―Very<br>or Extremely<br>Important‖|
|94%|Lifelong-learning|Communicate effectively|91%|
|93%|Understand professional and<br>ethical responsibilities|Engineering problem solving|86%|

8 Nevertheless, there is also the possibility that the formulation of the questionnaire in English implied that an English speaking person filled out the questionnaire. This could potentially have introduced a bias towards increased importance of English.

9 There is a logical explanation why the two surveys asked feedback on a set of skills that were almost identically formulated. The US survey sought feedback on the ABET EC2000 (a)-(k) criteria. These criteria formed the basis for the formulation of the expected attributes and competences of an engineer graduate in the Washington Accord. The NBA criteria used in this Indian employer survey were formulated to be consistent with the Washington Accord.

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