Bhubaneswar: At a time when technical institutes across the country are struggling to run owing to fall in student intake each passing year, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has come up with a novel idea of allowing these institutions to impart courses on Skill Development.
An official notification in this regard has been issued by the apex body for technical education recently.
“Engineering colleges can also offer government-approved certificate courses on Skill Development programmes which in turn will make the students employable. This will certainly lessen the gap between the demand and supply ratio of skilled students in several industries. I am glad that the Centre has amended the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) regulations to this effect,” AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said.
He said this on the sidelines of attending the Regional Convention on Polytechnic Education in Eastern States here on Saturday.
“But the institutes will need to take prior approval from the AICTE for offering such programmes under the National Council for Vocational Training,” he pointed out.
The technical education regulator has notified the amendment in an official gazette recently with approval of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
Dignitaries attending the event said, AICTE has already allowed nearly 500 polytechnics across the country to offer skill development certificate programmes from their campuses.
“The institutes must maintain the quality and standards of the approved programme that they currently conduct and the skill development courses they would be offering henceforth,” an official said.
Expressing concern over large scale vacant seats in technical institutes, the AICTE chairman said around 200 technical colleges seek approval for close down every year due to lack of students. “We are going to relax the infrastructure norms and guidelines required for approval like separate classrooms and laboratories for degree and diploma courses. Even institutes can run evening courses in the same building provided with adequate and qualified faculties.”