In an effort to bridge the gap between industries and academia, the Confederation of Indian Industry will help Rajasthan Technical University and its affiliated colleges to design a new curriculum as per the needs of industries.  

The  industry chamber will also help in placement of students.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the Rajasthan chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) members and academia, and Nalinaksh S Vyas, vice chancellor of Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) and his team. 

The RTU has over 129 engineering colleges and nearly 100 management colleges with over 2.5 lakh students. 

“RTU will redesign and develop a new course curriculum and share the draft with CII for inputs. The CII in turn will take industry feedback and share it with RTU to be included in the final curriculum,” said Nitin Gupta, director and head of CII Rajasthan.A curriculum design committee, including the members of RTU, industry and academic experts, will be formed for the purpose.

The curriculum has to be flexible enough to accommodate changes annually, suiting the industries  needs, Gupta said.

CII officials said various manufacturing industries are ready to send their engineers and managerial heads to colleges to give students first-hand experience on what the industry needs.

A tailor-made curriculum on specific industries can help them hire suitable students who are well-prepared to face contemporary challenges of the industry.

CII spokesperson Praveen Charan said CII in association with industry bodies will offer 100 short-term projects, of two to three months each, to students from different streams of RTU. The shortlisted candidates will get stipend in lieu of the work done.

“Such an experience will give students a decent exposure of the current industry practices and market scenario. It will be beneficial both for the students and the industry; the latter will benefit from fresh thought and students will become ready workforce,” said Praveen Charan.

By the end of the curriculum, RTU will update its database on students with their work experience and will provide it to CII so that information can reach all major industries of the state. 

“Industries don’t get employable candidates and at the same time institutes produce students who remain unemployed even after passing out with good grades. This is just another initiative by the CII to fill this gap,” said Sandeep Jain, CEO Vertex Plus, an IT firm.

Figures said RTU campus placements remain nearly 15 per cent and the move came after continuous poor show by students during campus placements. 

If new initiative works in favour of both students and industries, the CII plans to extend the programme to other universities of the state.