NEW DELHI: Despite the All India Council for Technical Education rule of mandatory internships for students in technical institutions, over 21 per cent institutions teaching engineering, management, architecture and pharmacy, do not offer any industry exposure to students, a survey carried out across India has found.
The AICTE-Confederation of Indian Industries Survey of Industry Linked Technical Institute, 2017 carried out across on mostly private technical institute from tier II and tier III cities also highlighted that only four out of over 4500 institutes surveyed had industry links that can be rated as “extremely good or in-depth.”
Highlights of the Study
Only 1,626 institutes, of the total 4,790 institute surveyed between June and August this year had interacted with 20 or more companies in last two years, the survey said, while only 114 had received funds of Rs 50 lakh or more for research innovations.
The findings, however, do not include data from the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) and other centrally funded technical institutes as they did not participate in the survey.
Through the survey that were based on questionnaires such as percentage of students attending internships, industry experts spending time with faculty and students and faculty members on board of companies, nine educational institutes, which scored well on industry linkage, have also been awarded.
“The survey clearly points out that employability of the students taught in “non-premier institutes in the country” remains a challenge owing to the low in-training industry exposure and the quality of education received,” said an executive closely related with the survey.
“A strong School — Industry linkage is a necessity to bring about skilled and efficient manpower. It is not only about providing on the job training or lectures to the vocational students by the experts from industry but also crucial from the industry point of view,” the executive added.
“Only if an institute interacts with related companies that it can develop the curriculum for the courses and revise it on a regular basis based on the changing needs of the industry. The students also benefit from the sharing of infrastructure and sharing of expert services form the industry.”
Anil Sahasrabuddhe, AICTE chairman said that the Council was “facilitating internship programmes of over 5 lakh students in well-established companies, start-ups and government departments but several institutes will also need to chalk out their paths”.
“Unless job-training is an essential feature of vocational programmes, how can we produce industry trained and skilled manpower to meet industry’s requirements,” asked Sahasrabuddhe. “And ultimately the cycle would end up making the students wage employment or self-employment and make the Vocational course successful.”
Last year, a survey by employability assessment firm Aspiring Minds said as many as 95 per cent of total 10 lakh engineers who pass out every year—don’t have industry relevant skills.