COIMBATORE: Aiming to improve the employability of engineering graduates, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to make three internships of 4-8 weeks duration mandatory for undergraduate students.
The apex regulatory body has also put the responsibility on the institutions for helping the students find suitable industries or organisations for the internship.
The decision was taken at the recent council meeting where it was discussed that out of the 7-8 lakh graduates passing out from engineering colleges each year, only one-third are employable and just 50 per cent join in their core areas of study.
During the meeting, for which technical education secretaries of various states were invited as special invitees, it was decided to attain five benchmarks: improving employability by imparting required skills and making students industry-ready; increase percentage of students being place from the current 40% to 60%; increase the percentage of programmes accredited from 15% to 50%; ensure that at least 75% of the students participate in summer internships; and build capacities of technical institutions so that they can deliver these objectives.
The council also made it mandatory for teachers to undergo an annual refresher course delivered through SWAYAM portal. Participation of at least 50% of the faculty in the course would be mandatory for approval of the institution. Similarly, there would be leadership training for the heads of the institutions once every two years.
Also, every student, on admission, would be put through a mandatory induction training to reinforce the fundamental concepts and the required language skills for technical education.
Affiliating universities were asked to constitute subject-wise industry consultation committees and make suitable changes in curriculum every year. Towards industry readiness, all students passing out of UG courses should be imparted technical and soft skills required. The final exams conducted by the institutions should test understanding of the concepts and skills, rather than subject knowledge.
At least half of all the programmes in the technical institutions should be accredited through the NBA before 2022. “It will be difficult to find industries for lakhs of students who study engineering to do internship. Leading industries are not even allowing students for industrial visits because of the apprehension that their prototypes could be leaked. So, it will be difficult to convince such institutions to allow students to do internship with them for 4-8 weeks,” said a faculty member of Anna University.
“Rather, institutions can arrange for an interaction session with industrial bodies like CII frequently. They can also get real time projects from a few industries and work on them in their institution,” he suggested.
Five benchmarks
1. Improve employability of the students by imparting required skills and making them industry-ready
2. Increase percentage of students being place from the current 40% to 60%
3. Increase percentage of programmes accredited from 15% to 50%
4. Ensure that at least 75% of the students participate in summer internships
5. Build capacities of the technical institutions to deliver the objectives