CHENNAI: Despite the pandemic and slowdown, over 73 per cent of students from government and government-aided polytechnic colleges in Tamil Nadu secured placements in the 2020-21 academic year.
Encouraged by these figures, the State government aims to ensure more than 85 per cent of polytechnic students get jobs during campus placements in the 2021-22 academic year. It has also chalked out a slew of measures to achieve this goal.
According to officials of the Higher Education Department, in 2020-21, out of 16,300 qualified final-year students in government and aided polytechnic colleges, 11,936 (73.22 per cent) got jobs through campus recruitment.
To enhance the employability of polytechnic students, the Higher Education Department has started a programme to improve teachers' English skills, and plans to train placement officers at these colleges. The government has allocated Rs 60 lakh to train over 2,000 English teachers at government engineering and polytechnic colleges in the State.
"The trained teachers will be able to improve students' reading, writing, and speaking skills. This will help polytechnic students get better jobs," said an official from the Higher Education Department.
The department plans to provide exposure to placement officers at polytechnic colleges by taking them on field visits to reputed institutes such as IIT Madras. Experts from various industries will also be invited to train the placement officers on approaching companies and showcasing students' talent, said the official.
The department has also upgraded the polytechnic syllabus based on advice from industry experts. "The initiatives will definitely yield results," said a senior official of the Higher Education Department. Experts also feel polytechnic students are skilled, and with a little improvement in their soft skills, they can really shine.
"Many manufacturing companies and MSMEs prefer to hire skilled polytechnic students rather than engineering graduates as the former possesses good skills since they undergo intensive training," said former vice chancellor of Anna University, E Balagurusamy.