HYDERABAD: The companies in IT Corridor in Hyderabad have been reluctant to take students from Telangana state universities and engineering colleges for internships for various reasons.
This has had a telling effect on their career as they are unable to find jobs given that they are found lacking in skills needed by the firms to hire them.
Most of the engineering graduates remain unemployed as they are not ready for today’s job market.
The industries are fast-growing and ever-changing, and the employers demand versatility, which is better learned through work during internships.
“Today, if you have an internship certificate, the probability of landing a job is high,” said sources in the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE).
They added, “Though there are industries, startups and IT companies across Hyderabad, no one is offering internships to our students”.
Since 2016, the TSCHE has been approaching the IT companies in Hyderabad to convince them to tie up with government universities and institutes for providing students with internships. But no company has so far agreed to sign an MoU, the official sources said.
According to TSCHE’s data, there were 344 functional engineering colleges in Telangana in 2014-15. The number drastically reduced and it now stands at 202.
The intake in engineering colleges in the State has also come down to nearly 50 per cent from 1.84 lakh to 97,134 students.
“At least 15 colleges will be shut down in 2020, and many more will follow suit in the next one to two years,” an official from the TSCHE said.
“The colleges are being shut down as engineers are not bagging jobs. They are not getting jobs as they are not prepared or even qualified as an engineer by the end of the course.”
The TSCHE sources said the affiliated colleges, who made it mandatory for students to work as interns in IT firms, are getting good placements.