Doing an internship during courses help students familiarise and understand the practical application of the theory they have studied in colleges in an industry setting. However, the Engineering syllabus that has no provision for such work experience has become a major issue.
"The syllabus is purely academic-oriented. This is adversely affecting placement prospects of the colleges in the state," said Dr Sunil Kumar, Placement Officer, College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET). Students in Kerala get a measly number of days, mostly during their vacations, to intern at companies. "That's not enough. As per the demands made by several companies during placements, students have to do a minimum of at least four months of internship," he said.
Professor Bypin Paul of MA College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, says the practical application during internship would remedy the oft-repeated chant that students lack skills and so employability.
Arun Surendran, principal, Trinity College of Engineering, says this issue is being faced by almost all affiliated colleges in the state. "The university needs to understand this and revise the syllabus. It would be great to free up the students in the final semester so that they can use the entire six months to intern in an industry," he said.
"Engineering is a professional course. When the MBBS students are exposed to real-time happenings during their course period itself, Why can't engineering students get the same? Right now, the colleges are juggling and carrying out time management to provide at least a minimum amount of industrial exposure for their students," Arun added.
"This has badly affected the peer perception of Engineering colleges in the state. And this is reflected in the rankings," said Bybin.
However, as per Rajasree MS, Vice-Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, things are all set to change.
"We have already changed the format for the postgraduate courses from this academic year. From 2022, the second year of MTech will be solely reserved for internship programmes. However, the BTech students will have to wait until next academic year for a revision in their syllabus," she said.
The presence of regulation in the case of BTech courses makes it difficult to revise the syllabus. "However, steps are on to amend the regulation. We will try to include the present students too in the revised curriculum," she added.
