Internship scouting for engg students to be onus of BOATS

The autonomous Boards of Apprenticeship Training (BOATs) will have to find internship openings for engineering/technology students from this year as part of a bid to make them employment worthy.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has directed the four autonomous Boards to provide industry exposure to B.Tech students months after a six-month internship was made mandatory for engineering students to enhance their employability.

The current mandate of the BOATs is to provide internship opportunities to the engineering and technology graduates after completion of their B.Tech programme in their respective streams.

"HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar recently approved a proposal to involve all the BOATS in arranging internship opportunities for the students pursuing B.Tech programmes across the country," official sources told DH.

The BOATS in Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur, as well as the Board of Practical Training in Kolkata, have been asked to initiate the process of providing internship opportunity to engineering students "in addition to their present mandate of providing apprenticeship training after B.Tech," they added.

The move comes in the wake of reports that about half of engineering graduates do not find jobs after completion of their B.Tech due to lack of requisite skills.

The percentage of students placed during campus recruitment organised by their respective institutions is also very low.

Campus  recruitment

According to data with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), about 33% of engineering and technology students were picked by various employers through campus recruitment in 2016-17.

Out of a total of 15,50,324 students from 6,531 technical institutes (excluding those offering programmes in management and art and craft), only 5,08,863 students were placed in 2016-17.

"The BOATs have been roped in to provide industry exposure to the students in view of this scenario. All the institutes have been urged to contact their respective BOATs," sources said.

Many engineering colleges were finding it difficult to arrange internship for their students after the AICTE made it mandatory for every B.Tech student to undergo a six-month internship as part of the study programme, the sources added.