Best Practice I: Content delivery beyond Curriculum: Online &Value-Added Certification Courses and Training Activities.
Objectives:
- To gain exposure in various domains of engineering and technology with the recent trends and advancements.
- To identify and bridge the gaps between the industry and institute.
- To help students to showcase their innovative ideas for solving real social problems.
- To improve the employability skills through enhancing aptitude, quantitative, verbal and reasoning ability.
Context: The technology is continuously updating, and industries are evolving, mere learning the curriculum is not sufficient. There is always a gap between curriculum and expectations of industry. To bridge this gap and make students industry-ready and employable, much prominence is given in the content beyond the curriculum which includes, online courses and certifications for both students and faculty.
Practice: SKITM always motivate students and faculties to pursue online courses from a globally top ranked university in each semester through various portals like EDx, Coursera and NPTEL. Specialized value-added certification courses and hands-on training programs are conducted for students to improve their skills in aptitude, reasoning, technical, and communication and soft skills. All second year, pre-final and final year students undergo online tests offered by Spoken Tutorials, IIT Mumbai which helps them to practice challenges and programming skills. Besides, the institution being a part of AWS academy, constantly receives technical advice and inputs from its industry experts which is used in developing an effective training methodology for placements.
Evidence of Success: CSE department conduct Hackathon Programming Contest to improve and showcase the programming skills and logical ability of the students. This has resulted in students getting placed in companies like TCS, Zensar, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Collabra, Hexaware etc. All the departments regularly conduct seminars and webinars for students to improve concepts of Robotics, IoT, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Soft Computing, Mechanical Workshop and Material Testing to prepare students ready to meet the challenges of society.
Students have also pursued online certification courses on Arduino Programming, Python Programming with Machine Learning, Android, Advanced Java Script, SQL, Amazon Web Services, MATLAB, Advanced 5G, MIMO and Wireless Communication Technologies, IoT, etc.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required: Being affiliated to RGPV university, students are required to follow the guidelines of learning where end semester examinations are given much importance. This makes students lose interest in pursuing online and other value added courses. Owing to time constraints, they find it difficult to balance between regular academic work and co-curricular & placement activities. To solve this, all the departments took initiatives and prepare road map to keep provisions to complete the courses and projects. During the pandemic faculty of SKITM conducted online training and lectures for students. Faculties are encouraged and sponsored to get trained by attending such courses to disseminate the knowledge gained to our students.
Best Practice II: Career Development and Counselling (CDC) initiative for Pre Placement Training to enhance the Aptitude, Soft Skills and Technical Skills for under graduate students
Objectives: The objective of the CDC cell is to develop and transform the students to meet the challenges of industry and society. The pre-placement training for the student aims to develop and transform into complete professionals. It provides Personality development, communication skills, resume preparation, aptitude test, interview skills, and group discussion.
- To prepare students to face campus interviews through arranging training in Aptitude, group discussions, technical and HR interviews by professional trainers.
- To encourage career counseling by organizing guest lectures by senior corporate trainees.
- To maintain regular interaction with the industry through seminars, guest lectures, corporate meets etc
- To develop the best learning process using a comprehensive understanding of industry’s best practices.
Context :
The industry is always demanding for students who are vibrant, energetic individuals and ready to accept challenges, attentive, good academic background, fast learners, open to update and learn even at work and more importantly, good communication skills. The CDC with department identifies the requirement of the industry and prepares students for them. Hence there is a need to establish the bridge between student’s and employers to facilitate the training and placement of students.
Personality Development is one of the most vital aspects to groom the students to deal with the challenging situations at work place. The CDC sessions help in motivating the students by conducting various workshops on how to increase their Self-Esteem.
The Pre-Placement Training train the students on important interview skills related to Dress Code, Confidence, Creativity, Ability to react and respond, and handle to stress, reliable, with a positive attitude and right decision making.
The Practice:
Students are constantly motivated through counseling, on the importance of maintaining good academic record as these play a major role during recruitment.
SKITM looks to develop its students through training modules designed to impart technical, logical, analytical, behavioral, and managerial skills in students. Students are also assessed through various online testing methodologies so that the right set of students is channelized towards the right profile.
The following training programmes are conducted for the students.
Soft Skill Training: Help students develop expertise in excel, word and PPT to improve presentation capabilities in academic and professional settings.
Aptitude Skill Trainings: Increase the abilities like Reasoning, Data Interpretation, Logical, Analytical, etc., in the students.
Technical Skill Trainings: Students are trained in advanced techniques of the languages and technologies like C/C++, Java, Solar Engineering, Robotics, Testing, Mobile Apps, 3D Printing, etc.
Problems encountered and Resources Required:
Competent faculty with updated soft skills and technical skills are always needed to train the students and assist in pre placement training.
The students also lack commitment and out tracked, hence a close monitoring and mentoring by faculty is required. For this a strong mentoring and counseling system is employed by training the faculty. Student from rural background may have good technical skills but may lack communication and other required skills, so special classes are provided to such students to boost their confidence levels and face the challenges of the world.