Producing industry compatible engineers: German system and a practical model for India

In India there have been debates all around the country for a need of compa tibility between the engineers we produce and the professional requirements of the industry. In other countries also this need was felt. In countries like Germany they have been following a structured system for the last 35 years, where the sc hool pass outs go straight (or some time with a small vocational training a lso) to the industry for dual vocational training. Here they get wages, whi ch are around 25 % of the full-trained personnel. The dual part of this tra ining is that these personnel work in the factory tin. contribute to the pr oduction) as well as attend classes one day a week for their academic achie vement. At the end of the course of that profession, they have to appear fo r an examination conducted by their industry/business Chambers (similar to FICCI or Cn of India). After successful completion of the full course, whic h they may complete in 3-4 years, the chambers give them a certificate. The se Certificates are recognised as equivalent to an engineering degree from a University. The Chambers have been given power to act as statutory bodies by law to frame syllabus for these courses and for conducting these examin ations for which the Chambers get govenment grants also. In large industrie s this training is carried out in-house, while for small industries the cha mbers run group vocational training schools. Some of the training programs run by the industry are of postgraduate level also. The effectiveness and cost-benefit of this system is found to be positive f or all the three stake holder partners e.g. (a) the Industry, as they get c heap labour with no hassles of advertisements & selection process and littl e risk of bad employment, besides free consultancy by the faculty the insti tute (b) the Government, as less number of universities/technical instituti ons are required Br hence lot of national saving, besides growth of technic al manpower in number and quality and (c) the Candidate, as he is more or l ess assured of job and also the academic achievement. This makes the traine e very sincere to his job, making the industry further happy. In India some Universities have started Academic Industry interaction progr ams of their own e.g. Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pil ani; Thapar Institute of Engineering And Technology, Patiala etc. Under the se programs normally these institutions keep the last or last but one semes ter of PG&UG courses free from conventional teaching for industrial trainin g of students. Ministry of Information Technology, under project IMPACT (In dustry Oriented Man Power with Appropriate Competence and Training), is sup porting 14 Engineering colleges & 11 Polytechnic, for running training prog rams for engineer of the electronics and computer industry. The BITS System is unique in terms of content of training, methodology, ful l time facility at site, etc. The industry in India or abroad pays them Rs. 2000 to Rs. 5000 or us $ 1000 as their sustenance allowance etc, in lieu o f their contribution to the project they are involved. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) also has some activities on Academic-Industry programs, which are mainly for faculty, as it leads to some multiplying effect. But it has been found that industry exposure dire ctly to the students gives the maximum benefit in terms of social cost bene fit analysis- in short term as well as in long term. Therefore for producing world class engineers in large scale and for having a mass effect, Government should increase its efforts not only for Degree engineers but also for Diploma, and PG Degree engineers. Here we propose a model similar to that of BITS which can be supported by the Government and implemented with the help of Technical institutions/Universities. Subsequen tly the German model can be tried with the help of professional bodies like IETE/IE and the Industry, as this is Likely to work quite well in Indian c onditions.