The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was constituted for proper planning and integrated development of a technical education system nationwide. It was entrusted with the statutory authority to plan, formulate and uphold the norms and standards. AICTE regulates the technical education programmes in the field of engineering, technology, architecture, town planning, management, pharmacy, applied arts and crafts, hotel management and catering technology. India has already developed vast basic infrastructure facilities for technical education. This gives the country an edge in the globalized economic environment. Quality technical education always helps in the growth of the country’s economy and aids in the overall growth of the nation. The country has witnessed phenomenal growth in the sphere of technical education in the last two decades. At present there are about 80 lakh students studying in 10,500 technical institutes approved by AICTE.
The rise in global competition has prompted institutions to devise special and effective strategies to help India gain from the demographic dividend (the large pool of talented and innovative students). Keeping in mind the rapidly changing requirements of the industrial sector at the global level, the AICTE’s impactful internship strategy was built for creating a future talent pool for the industries. The internship programme not only helps fresh pass-outs in gaining profess professional know-how but also gives companies new perspectives on business issues and to discover future business leaders.
The internship programme is their first step towards developing professional relationships. They also learn from the experiences of their fellow interns. Internship gives them the golden opportunity to know their strengths and weaknesses and develop their own working style before starting their own full-time business in the field. At the workplace they get to know they are good in which areas and they should apply for which kinds of job in the future. AICTE has initiated various activities for promoting industrial internship at the graduation level for students at the technical institutes. The main aim of these initiatives is enhancement of employability and entrepreneurial skills of the students at the technical institutions. With the help of prominent academicians of the country, AICTE has prepared a model curriculum which includes internship for students every two-six months at different stages of the programme.
The AICTE internship guidelines include establishing a Training and Placement Cell (TPC) in the institute to help arrange internship for the students, and monitor and foster the programme. The training and placement cell is headed by a training and placement officer. Industries always look for students who are lively, energetic and ready to take challenges; have a good academic background and are alert, attentive and fast learners; have good communication skills and are even ready to learn and grow at the workplace. So the training cell is supposed to assist students in achieving the aforesaid goals through individual counselling and group sessions. Every institute is supposed to allocate 1 per cent of the total budget for the training programmes.
