Vocational engg in plus 2, UG courses planned

Industry prepared syllabus in school system and polytechnics

Industry prepared syllabus will be introduced in the school system and polytechnics to enable students find jobs easily and their employability improves, he said during the Question Hour.

According to the scheme, there will be higher secondary (10+2) academic or regular and 10+2 vocational. Also there will be BSc vocational engineering, he said.
An attempt is being made to introduce the course from the next year.

Expressing concern over the poor quality of engineers due to increase in quantity of institutions, the minister said the government plans to integrate vocational training into education system. He citied the example of Karnataka, where he said only 37 per cent of graduate engineers could find employment in 2007 following the presence of a large number of engineering institutes.

“Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu may have the same results,” he said. Mushrooming of engineering colleges is a result of NOCs the state governments give for setting up institutes.

As a result, seats cannot be filled and there is pressure on the AICTE to further lower the cut-off for admission to engineering courses to 35 per cent from the current 45 per cent for general category.