Students seem to welcome the Visvesvaraya Technological University’s (VTU) proposed plan to introduce internships as part of the engineering curriculum from the coming academic year. With several surveys declaring a large fraction of graduates “unemployable”, academics are considering a revamp of the syllabus and make internships compulsory.
The Hindu EducationPlus spoke to engineering students to know how beneficial this would be for them.
Kamlesh Das, second year, M.V.J. College of Engineering
As the campus recruitment has reduced by a huge margin, internships will definitely be of great help to enhance and to improve the quality of the skills one holds so that subsequently, one will be prepared well to take hold of more job opportunities.
I think the colleges should provide students with internship programmes so that they will know where opportunities exist. For students from any part of Karnataka, internship will be a platform to get exposed to the corporate world and help build various skills which are expected from engineering graduates at the end of four years of learning.
Anagha Samprathi, second year, BMS College of Engineering
I believe that an internship will help address some of the problems faced by the engineering graduates that we have been hearing for the past couple of years such as lack of quality skills in the graduates, being unemployable etc.
Students will now have a better idea of the technical and practical aspects of engineering. It will help students like us while applying for jobs.
Ashish Chinnappa T.M., second year, AMC Engineering College, Bangalore
Presently, engineering is one of the most preferred professions by students. Meantime, many don’t realise the importance of practical aspects of engineering while acquiring theoretical knowledge from the classrooms. I am of the opinion that this is why the engineering graduates lag behind in quality even after four years of learning. Subsequently, the graduates remain unemployed. Every student should consider internship as a part of the learning process so that he/she gets the necessary know-how. This will definitely lead us understand the working in a much better way. I consider internship as the best way to grab job opportunities.
Sanjana Ravi, second year, People’s Education Society Institute of Technology
Internships have become an inescapable part of an engineering student’s four-year course as they help one to enhance understanding of a subject before graduating. The internship need not provide stipend as the students themselves have the advantage of gaining practical knowledge.
Prajwala, third year, BNM Institute of Technology
I strongly believe it will help one to gain practical knowledge. This will also broaden one’s aspect of learning. The students generally end up mugging up the theory just to produce it in the examination to score well. They do not understand the concept of the theory. So, internship is the best platform to look beyond the textbooks to get exposed to the corporate world. Also, this will help one to build confidence.