With an objective to provide an impetus to meet the manpower need of the industry and create a win–win situation for the academia, students and industry, Himachal Pradesh-based Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology (BUEST) is going to offer a programme from this academic session called Academic Adoption, a first in the country, which shall provide academic exposure as well as practical exposure to the students in industry while studying. Under the programme, the industry will adopt the students from Day One of the course.
The university has developed a special module for implementation of the programme. The uniqueness of this programme is that students will be given academic exposure on weekends in the university and they will be working in adopting industry on weekdays, for which the students will also be paid a stipend ranging from Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000, depending on the work done and pay scale of the adopting company. The companies that have already agreed to absorb the students are Virtuous Solutions, Trade India , India Mart , AurthorGen Technologies Ltd , Clicklabs, North Star Fasteners and Him Teknoforge, etc. According to them, they have more than 150 confirmation from the Industry and are targeting companies like Electrolux and TVS for more, he informed .
According to the industrialist, this will not only help in bridging the skill gap requirement, but also ease the shortage of workforce problem in the area. At present, the university has around 3000 students and offers courses like BTech, Mtech, MBA, BCA, MCA, BPharm, MPharm,, etc.
A NEW COURSE
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In order to facilitate the programme, Baddi University, The Baddi Barotiwala – Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA, having 2000 units in the area in Himachal Pradesh) and the Taaleem Academy Private Limited (TAPL) has entered into a tripartite agreement to facilitate quality employees through education and skill development. This tripartite agreement will act as a critical enabler to overcome the problem of skilled human resources to some extent.
Speaking to Business Standard and informing about the Academic Adoption Programme, Prof Lovi Raj Gupta, vice-chancellor, BUEST said, “The uniqueness and novelty of this programme is that students will be given academic exposure on weekends and will be working in adopting industry of BBNIA on the weekdays, for which the students will also be paid stipends.” Stating this academic adoption programme as ‘actionable’, he claimed that the university already had received confirmation letters from the industry and were in talks with a few more. “Our aim, is to get the students a suitable gainful employment in the adopted company itself after the completion of the course, and this programme grooms the students from Day One of the course.”
Appreciating the approach, BBNIA President Arun Rawat stated, “There has been a persistent concern in the industry about the gap between available talent and knowledge pool and its employability. Industry has suffered in the past and is succumbing to ‘good human resource’. We have reached a stage where we need to look at a tailor-made education system and we hope endeavours like this will be able to provide a rich supply pool of technical manpower. Urging companies to come forward for adoption of the model, he specified that the enrolled students will get stipends ranging from Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000.” The association has 2000 industries as members in Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh area in Himchal Pradesh, and these industries generate an annual turnover of Rs 2 lakh crore.
Providing more clarity on the programme, Jaiprakash Hasrajani, CEO, Taleem Academy, informed that the students would be admitted in this programme based on merit, judged on capabilities measurement test and related assessments by The Taleem Academy. It becomes important to understand the mindset of the candidate which we will through capabilities measurement test.
“It indeed is evident from the skill gap studies that in India, skill-based blue collar occupations do not enjoy appropriate status. This mindset needs to be changed by celebrating skills, which we hope to by imparting soft skills training to the candidates from time to time during the course to make them employment worthy. Being specific about the companies that have already agreed to absorb the students are Virtuous Solutions, Trade India, India Mart, AurthorGen Technologies Ltd, Clicklabs, North Star Fasteners and Him Teknoforge. We have more than 150 confirmation with us, and are targeting companies like Electrolux and TVS for more,” he informed .