Graduation through correspondence or online after 12th or Diploma

You have indicated the case of your friend working abroad in a construction site and since he is interested to persue Degree in Engineering through distance mode because of constraint of time. AMIIE under this circumstances would be most suited because of the following advantages -
1) Your friend has to appear for the section A and Section B of the course because he
has already passed out the diploma course.
2) In both the section A and Section B, you are at liberty to choose the papers at your convenience for the subsequent preparation of the examination. Papers can be completed compartmentalise wise and in that way the entire course can be completed.
3) Course - preparation can be taken even after your duty - hours.
4) AMIE is regarded at par with the Engineering - degree issued by the recognised university.
Moreover this qualification has got the acceptance worldwide.
There are other distance courses such as IGNOU, Delhi University Distance education, etc from where you can persue your Engineering - course.

AMIE is definitely a good option as it can be done in the correspondence mode while working in the middle east. If you have any issue in doing it from AMIE then there are other options and you can try to do it from the institutions like IGNOU, Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, Sikkim Manipal University, IMT Distance and Open Learning Institute etc.

Please note that earlier the correspondence engineering degrees except AMIE were illegal but later Supreme Court gave a verdict that if the institution is approved and the course is approved under AICTE then the degree will be valid. So check that the institution from where you will be doing it is having this compliance. This is in addition to the usual UGC approved things.

There is no problem for your friend to do AMIE even though he passed his diploma in 2009. AMIE is the best option and let him do that without any hesitation. This degree will be equivalent to graduation for all practical purposes and he can do an MBA or ME after completing this AMIE.

There are some institutes recognised by UGC which are allowed to give correspondence degrees in Engineering also. IGNOU is one such institute. The duration of the course will be 4 years. IIMT, Ahemadabad, AIT Karaikudi, IIMT studies, Noida and IIMT, Hyderabad are some such institutes. He can search for a suitable institute which is having UGC and IICT recognition. He can do that through a correspondence course.

There are some colleges offering B.Tech in night college. If there are such colleges in his place he can try through those colleges also.

Graduation in Engineering (Like B.E or B.Tech) by distance education is not recognized by the government of India and UGC. So there is no scope for a job in India with these distance education certificates in Engineering. No MNCs also will accept these certificates. AMIE (Authorised Membership in Indian Engineers) is equal to B.E or B.Tech. The institute is based in Calcutta. Other such institutes are Nagarjuna University Guntur, JNTU Hyderabad, Karnataka university Mysore, Andhra University Visakhapatnam. I hope JNU New Delhi also giving distance education in Engineering.

It is clear that there is no use of these certificates in India, for a job. The distance education will improve technical know-how in a particular area. Because the said person is a Diploma holder, and he can improve his scale of pay in that company, now he is working, if any such scop.

For MBA many Universities giving distant courses and many of the MNCs are ready to take such candidates for their service., not all the MNCs.