Minister of Higher Education and IT and BT CN Ashwath Narayan on Monday advised students aspiring to make a career in engineering to take up polytechnic courses after completing their SSLC or class X as opportunities and benefits were plentiful.
Speaking after inaugurating a job fair in KR constituency as part of a 20-day event marking the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that many students are not aware that they can also pursue engineering after polytechnic course. But they all join PU and then do engineering course.
Those interested in engineering as a career join PU after their SSLC or class X and then do BE later.
He explained that there is a lot of emphasis on practical education in polytechnic courses.
He said that about 70,000 students can take up polytechnic courses in the state every year.
The government spends around ₹3 lakh to ₹4 lakh on each student on polytechnic education. But, more than 40,000 seats are vacant in most of the polytechnics.
Dr. Narayan said that the Polytechnic, ITI and GTTC courses include subjects like Electric Vehicles, Electric Battery and Charging, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and others.
“In our society, there is a perception that only white-collar occupations are considered jobs. This is wrong as blue collar jobs (businesses with skills) are also important and valuable and hence youth should be educated to have the skills required for employability,” the minister told the gathering.
Also in the National Education Policy-2020, emphasis has been laid on providing necessary skills to the children at the school level.
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