Source: Digital Learning
The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has made internships compulsory for all engineering students to enhance their employability levels. Students in the fifth, sixth and seventh semesters will have to do an internship ranging from three to 24 months.
According to a statement issued by the AICTE Chairman SS Mantha the initiative was part of the National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM), whose core idea is ”not to create jobs, but to improve employability”.
AICTE has also signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned BSNL to train third and fourth year engineering students in communication and related fields. The training will be done at BSNL’s 43 world-class training centres across the country.The AICTE will pay for the training to the colleges, which will direct the funds to BSNL.
Similar collaborations are being worked out in other disciplines of engineering with micro, small and medium enterprises.
To promote innovation among students, another initiative is being offered to reward and challenge students under the ‘Student Innovation Promotion Scheme’. Four regional-level workshops will be conducted, and 10,000 to 15,000 students will be invited to one of them, to work on projects on the spot. MSMEs will be asked to evaluate the project and selected students will be pushed to the next level of design or technology.