Are colleges ready for the future: 5 Points to consider

Can a B.A student with History and Political Science subjects become a Tourist Guide, if that’s his or her passion? Do B.Sc students have a provision to choose a subject that prepares them with digital skills to enter the job market? Does the college curriculum provide options to mix and match subjects that can get well-paying jobs? What is the employability of the students in CBCS system in Degree colleges? Are we preparing the faculty members to offer industry-integrated courses by giving them the right practical exposure? Question like these may soon find favourable responses, if the colleges offer new courses that are industry-integrated and prepare the students for future workplaces.

Equipping the college students with future skills for future jobs

The higher education summit hosted jointly by MHRD and IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council NASSCOM – “Get equipped for the future”, witnessed a gathering of more than 300 representatives from non-engineering colleges. The main objective was to drive the importance of employability of the students from Arts, Sciences and Commerce streams in a digital economy that has widened the scope of employment. The Future Skills platform from NASSCOM is expected to help students in acquiring digital skills.

Can we revive the fast fading relevance of knowledge centric degree courses by integrating it with the skills needed in the industry? Please watch my video and share your suggestions to take the dialogue forward. Also, I wish to provide few examples of how industry-integrated courses and curriculum is being offered in India by institutions like NTTF, Whistling Woods International, C V Raman College of Engineering and Shri Vishwakarma Skill University by sharing the links below:

NTTF leads from the front in industry-integrated technical education and training in India

Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) has been at the forefront of technical education and training in India with a wide range of exemplary job-oriented programs with over 30 centres across India. To know more about how NTTF has evolved successful models for industry-academia collaboration and options for higher education, we feature a Skill Talk with B V Sudharshan, Director, NTTF.  Read more: https://www.nationalskillsnetwork.in/nttf-leads-from-the-front-in-industry-integrated-technical-education-and-training-in-india/

C. V. Raman College of Engineering – CVRCE’s exemplary curriculum gets India first-ever gold medal at WorldSkills 2019

Providing state-of-art technical education and moulding a new batch of budding engineers every year, C. V. Raman College of Engineering continues to stand as one of the premier institutes of technical education in Odisha. It is their innovative and industry-integrated curriculum along with Centres of Excellence(CoE) that created history for India in winning its first-ever gold medal in WorldSkills Kazan competition this year. Read more: https://www.nationalskillsnetwork.in/c-v-raman-college-of-engineering-cvrces-exemplary-curriculum-gets-india-first-ever-gold-medal-at-worldskills-2019/

Whistling Woods International (WWI) pioneers higher education in Media and Entertainment through industry-integrated curriculum

The Indian film industry is more than a century old, producing more than 1800 films in all the Indian languages in a year. India also has a rich and diverse creative arts history spanning across books, art, clothes, music and theatre. Despite this, India has not been able to be a global force in Film and Creative Arts education. This triggered Mr. Subhash Ghai, the legendary filmmaker to establish Whistling Woods International (WWI) – an institute for Film Communication and Creative Arts – to try and make India a thought leader in Film and Creative Arts education globally. Read more: https://www.nationalskillsnetwork.in/whistling-woods-international-wwi-pioneers-higher-education-in-media-and-entertainment-through-industry-integrated-curriculum/

Shri Vishwakarma Skill University aims to enhance employability through industry-integrated courses

Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Haryana will soon get a campus of its own. However, the first state-level, government skill university did not have to wait for a full-fledged campus to start their programs. The university has already created a positive impact through innovative courses that align with industry needs. Read more: https://www.nationalskillsnetwork.in/shri-vishwakarma-skill-university/

Making industry-integrated courses work in colleges

Of late, there have been interesting developments in bringing the skill focus into the academia at the college level. The two recent events hosted by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), Media and Entertainment Skill Council (MESC) and IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council- NASSCOM, respectively, conveyed the urgency of including work-integrated learning in the college curriculum. The emphasis was on courses like B.A, B.Com and B.Sc that could be aligned with the needs of the industry to make students employable.

Non-engineering courses always mostly remained knowledge-based in India with few instances of building the professional components like B.Com Professional. The initiatives taken by MHRD in collaborating with SSCs will definitely try to build the skilling elements by exposing the students to practical training in segments were most jobs are getting created.

MESC, along with MHRD organized Manthan- Impeccable Academia in Hyderabad and Mumbai. The event was attended by 340+ Academicians from various Colleges and Universities, and was watched live by 15000+ students across India. On this occasion, MESC launched Creative Warriors B.Sc. Degree Programs that are industry linked Programs in Animation VFX, Performing Arts and Film Making.