Express News Service By

BHUBANESWAR: Lack of coordination between engineering colleges and industries, and failure in adopting employment-oriented curriculum have resulted in a steep decline in number of students getting campus placements every year. Out of 7.1 lakh students who graduate from 3,481 Polytechnics in the country annually, only 1.58 lakh end up with campus placements, AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said here on Saturday.

There are several reasons for the closure of technical institutions in the country. On an average, in 10,800 colleges in India, around 1.5 lakh technical seats fall vacant every year. There is a severe shortage of qualified and trained faculties in engineering colleges and schools, he said adding that the institutions must create an ambiance which would encourage entrepreneurship simultaneously while approaching companies for campus interviews.

Speaking about SWAYAM, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, Sahasrubudhe said any student pursuing a professional course can opt for 200 courses hosted on it. While three lakh students have already enrolled for SWAYAN, the Government has a target to expand the pool to 2000 courses and absorb three crore students in the coming years, he added.

"A student studying at a private engineering school in a remote district of Odisha can register and undergo a course offered by IIT Kharagpur over SWAYAM and obtain a certificate from the premier institute," he said. In a bid to give a boost to employability, the AICTE will soon go for a tie-up with the professional networking website - Linkedin, said Sahasrubudhe.

The AICTE Chairman said the role of regulator is to mentor and facilitate the institutions and not merely act as an inspector. "The role of AICTE has to change from being a regulator to a facilitator. AICTE must mentor and encourage the institutions to excel rather than behaving as a whipping boy," he added.

Supporting the autonomy for institutions, Sahasrubudhe said the colleges should have the freedom to devise their own curriculum which is relevant to their surrounding (market) to make the graduates more employable, he added. He called on the industrial sector to contribute in terms of logistics and training to students so that they can get an orientation on technical work during the course.

Addressing the convention, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Employment, Technical Education and Training Department Sanjay Singh said there needs to be a proper marriage of natural and human resources which Odisha has in abundance to augment employment.

The event was inaugurated by Employment and Technical Education Minister Sanjay Dasburma. Among others, Secretary of Higher Education, Assam, Krishna Gohain, and Director of Industries Department Balwant Singh also spoke.