AICTE makes Internship Compulsory for all Engineering Students

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi has made it compulsory for all engineering students to undergo internships to up employability levels.

According to a statement by the AICTE Chairman SS Mantha the initiative was part of the National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM).

Mantha said the idea of NEEM was "not to create jobs, but to improve employability". Students in the fifth, sixth and seventh semesters will have to do an internship for anything from three to 24 months.

AICTE has also signed a memorandum of understanding with BSNL to train third and fourth year engineering students in communication and related fields at 43 training centres across the country.

The AICTE will pay for the training to the colleges, which will direct the funds to BSNL. Mantha had informed that BSNL has some of the best training centers with world class equipment.

The students will undertake 400 hours of training at the centres. Moreover, he mentioned that similar collaborations are being worked out in other disciplines of engineering with micro, small and medium enterprises.

Another initiative, also under NEEM, to reward and challenge students with potential is the 'Student Innovation Promotion Scheme'. Four regional-level workshops will be conducted, and 10,000 to 15,000 students will be invited to one of them, to work on projects on the spot. MSMEs will be asked to evaluate the project and selected students will be pushed to the next level of design or technology.

Sources also informed that, additionally, the AICTE also plans to initiate a placement portal to form a link between students with industry.

In the placement, portal students will be able to upload their biodata in a set format, and industry will be able to search the eligible applicants who meet their requirement criteria for employment into a particular post. Also, a research portal where all projects by UG and PG students will be put up is also being planned. Both the upcoming portals will have links on the AICTE website.