(An Autonomous Institution)
1) Learning beyond Classrooms – Skill Development through Value Added Programs & Employment Enhancement Courses
2) International and National Level Student Internship - Continous Professional Development
To create learning environments that are inclusive, diverse and engage all types of learners, students are provided with learning opportunities that extend beyond the classroom. This is key to supporting and enhancing the learner experience and achieving positive educational outcomes for students. Emerging trends in technical and professional education call for value addition i.e., students must acquire something more than what is provided in the curriculum. SRIT has always strived to keep pace with the emerging trends in higher education. Keeping up with this ethos, SRIT constantly introduces programs that allow students to specialize in credentials in their chosen field along with the graduate programs.
Our institution is keen on helping the students take up certificate courses to complement their knowledge and skills related to their field of study. We offer a wide variety of short term certificate courses which are conducted after class hours or during semester breaks. These courses are conducted by professionals and industry experts and help students stand apart from the rest in the job market by adding further value to their resume. Besides, there is need to enhance their communication skills, to develop professional ethics in them and help them learn and develop human values and concern for humanity.
Achieving good placement records for its enrolled students is an important performance metric for an Educational Institution offering professional courses. Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology aims to impart and enrich employability skills of students through a systematic and consistent Value-added skill development programme that runs in parallel with the regular academic curriculum.
As per the information sourced from The Economic Times, the Information Technology / Software Service sector and Banking are top two recruiting sectors in India, together absorbing about 31 lakh graduates in their payrolls in the year 2021. Of these, 26 lakh graduates are recruited by the Software Sector alone. This motivated us to take under consideration, the expectations of Software Industries from their new incumbents, in our mentoring process. We researched through various inputs and identified important skill sets that a graduate must exhibit, in addition to their core engineering skills so as to qualify themselves for taking up entry level job positions in these sectors.
From academic year 2017-2018, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology formulates a detailed value-added skill development programme that spans over the entire duration of the degree programmes. These skill development programmes will run in parallel with the regular academic curriculum and enriches the employability traits of the students as they progress towards their graduation. A template of such a plan is described in the following section. This plan is refined over the years based on the experience gained in the execution of the plan and the outcomes achieved. The plan is common to all the students irrespective of their stream of engineering degree programme. To encourage the active participation of students in the various training course, academic credit points are being awarded for the completion of courses under the programme.
S. No. | Semester | Skill Development Training |
1 | 1 | Orientation Programme with courses on Universal Human Values, Yoga and Life Skills. |
2 | 2 - 5 | Language Course that culminates with Business English Certification by Cambridge University. |
3 | 3-6 | Employability Enhancement Courses that include Domain skill training and Programming skill training. |
4 | 6 | Value Added Technical Course. This is a 30-hour course provided by industry experts in domain specific latest technologies. |
5 | 3-7 | Quantitative Aptitude / Reasoning Skill Training. |
6 | 5-7 | Industrial Connect Course – A 40 hours course where the syllabus is prepared by academia in collaboration with Industry experts and delivered by resource persons from Industry. |
The institution also partners with company specific technology training partners for the conduct of certain courses. Skilled personnel in the domain of Quantitative aptitude and Reasoning ability are recruited for training the students in the domain. The institution also partnered with cloud-based training platform providers like NeoPAT for seamless delivery of training materials and conduct of mock tests.
Placement Training courses are assessment oriented and the progress of students are monitored on a daily basis with suitable intervention being made at appropriate times. A snapshot sample of reports which monitored individual student progression is given in figure below.
Starting from the academic year 2017, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology offers one-credit courses and detailed 4-year Value added Skill Development programme plans for student batches.
Designing courses that cater to the interests of a diverse set of students who come from various backgrounds and cultures.
The value-added skill development programmes improved the employability traits of the students. The evidence in terms of Placement conversion rates is blurred due to the pandemic situation prevailed in the country during the academic years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. We could able to sustain the momentum of placements and prevent a sheer drop. The improvement in quality and quantity of placement is visible in the following charts.
Since these credits are compulsory, all students have to complete the course in order to graduate. Students have further built their CV and secured jobs.
Pandemic scenario which prevailed around the world during the outcome phase of the implementation prevented us from measuring the actual benefits of the scheme. This is a temporary setback and still the average salary offered is improved much to the delight of students.
The scheme requires ample support from Industry in terms of resource persons and interactions. The collaboration with Industry in this regard is constantly pursued to achieve desired results.
In the contemporary business world, career life has become highly competitive, as many people have acquired degrees. However, to survive the competitive business world, skills and especially experience is needed to grow the career of an individual. As Graduates are becoming many, the need for practical experience through a formal program for beginners in a profession is necessary. In this regard, internships help integrate class theory and knowledge with practical applications towards a professional as well as personal growth. Therefore, several reasons have been accrued to the need for internships for students in the world today. The institute also encourges the students to undergo Internships in International Universities SRIT has signed International MoU's with Universiti Malaysia Perlis ( UNIMAP ), Ariel University, Israel which has enabled our students to gain global technical exposure. Since 2018, our students have completed interships in the International Universities.
Internships are foundational in preparing students for the workforce and providing opportunities after graduation. Most employers seek career-ready college graduates who have been equipped with prior experiences and skills in a given field. Immersive internships in the field of study are essential to successful outcomes after graduation of a student. An internship is an amalgamation of theory and practice. Classroom environments involves the students with discussion, debate, peer interaction, and shared learning experiences but it’s important for the student to apply and develop the academic concepts in a professional setting. Internships also offer the benefit of creating professional recommendations, practical experience, and building networking opportunities.
Many students seize internship opportunities, as having an internship experience leads to full-time job prospects and higher pay. In addition, internships helps students to apply classroom learning in a professional setting. It also introduces them to the world of work and provides an opportunity to develop their careers. Students can grow their technical know-how and soft skills, which are both crucial to landing a job. Thus, an internship paves the way for a full-time position later. A Batch-wise report on the number of students who have completed their internships is provided below.