Those pursuing undergraduate engineering disciplines in the sandwich mode stand out in the crowd of engineering students, for they spend a year more to complete the course.
There are institutes such as the PSG College of Technology and the CIT Sandwich Polytechnic College that offer engineering and diploma programmes in the sandwich mode.
The students get hands-on training in industries and it is part of their curriculum.
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At PSG College, the students start their industry training right from the second semester , seeing the practical side of almost every lesson they learn. The institute offers sandwich mode in mechanical, electrical and production engineering disciplines.
Choosing the course comes with its advantage in that the students are industry-ready by the time they graduate, for they would have better industry experience compared to those from non-sandwich courses, says D. Muralidhar, Manager, Training, PSG Industrial Institute. He oversees the three sandwich courses.
The students also get to compulsorily do a three-month internship in industries, which otherwise is not available to the regular engineering students, he intones.
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For the students, though, this industry exposure helps them analyse engineering problems from a practical point of view and even present papers for international journals.
If the sandwich mode of engineering education is so popular, why is it that all colleges have not started a branch or two, asks a senior academic, answering that an additional year and very little difference in pay packet for fresh recruits are the dampeners.
Plus, with major recruiters coming from the information technology field, it hardly makes a difference to them if the candidate comes from sandwich mode or regular.
As for the colleges, they don't want to start sandwich courses at a time when engineering seats in many colleges are falling vacant, the academic adds.
(Reporting by Karthik Madhavan)