BU placement cell plans to expose students to industry

The Central Placement Cell at Bangalore University is working on establishing a comprehensive and organised plan of streamlining the placement process and imparting skill-based training to students.

A well-placed source in the cell said: “The plan includes creating awareness about the cell and exposing students to the industry early on with the help of organised campaigns to be carried out in each department.”

A campaign to reach the industry will also be undertaken. Attempts to involve more
people from the industry in the placement activities of the cell will also be taken. “There will be a reconstitution of the advisory board of our placement cell in line to achieve this aim,” said the source.

Another agenda would be to increase the ambit of skill assessment and development of students.

“As of now the awareness levels are low. If we are to reach out to the industry, we need to prepare the students. Conducting department-wise programmes on spoken English, tips on how to face interview etc is part of the plan,” the source added.

Bangalore University recently tied up with a skill assessment company with the aim to help students ascertain their weak and strong points and help them improve. As of now, as many as 500 students have taken the skill assessment test and the cell plans to extend it to more departments. “We need to look for ways to reduce the gap between academia and the industry and measures like these will hopefully help us in this,” he said.

Alarmed by complaints of low employability of students coming out of BU, it had conducted a round of consultation with entrepreneurs and heads of businesses to come out with ways to improve the situation.

“The plan needs the approval of the vice-chancellor and other authorities as well as financial support and hopefully we can implement it soon,” the source said.
B Thimmegowda, Vice-Chancellor, BU, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.