Gujarat Technological University has made six-month internship compulsory for its engineering course students. This internship is to be done under the guidance of a mentor and will carry a weightage of 12 credit points.
More than 30,000 engineering final year students will be affected by this decision. For starters, 12,000 students, who are currently in the final year of civil and mechanical engineering courses, will have to follow the new format. The Ahmedabad Mirror reported that students who fail to complete this will not be handed over their degree certificates.
Speaking about the decision, GTU Vice-Chancellor Naveen Sheth said that it was taken in view of various complaints regarding discrepancies in the current internship format in the university. The students who did not even complete internship and came to the company irregularly got certificates from the company and their colleges.
Additionally, there were complaints that students bought the projects from the market instead of making them. Sheth said these practices have to stop and engineers of the future need to gain practical experience in using modern technology.
The university has partnered with various engineering firms and associations to develop a website to register students and report their weekly progress to the company and college.
It has also partnered with Gujarat Contractors Association (GCA), which has more than 3500 firms, to provide internships to students. GCA President Arvind Patel said that most of the students coming out of engineering colleges are not job ready. While internships are mandatory on paper, they are yet to be implemented effectively.
He said this partnership will help firms to be better employees when students intern with them. Patel says that this initiative will help in improving the quality of engineering freshers in the market. GCA will try to place the students in internship opportunities in Gujarat and outside the state.
read all breaking news, breaking news And coronavirus news Here
.