TSCHE will partner with state universities to introduce new skills development programs that will allow students to gain co-op opportunities during coursework and find employment after undergraduate
Release Date – 08:00 AM, Thu – 27 April 23
Students can choose these courses as a major in their first year of undergraduate study or as a minor in their second year. — Photo: Surya Sridhar.
Hyderabad: Degree students in Telangana will soon be able to earn money alongside their courses while gaining industry-relevant skills. The Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) will collaborate with state universities to introduce new skills development programs that will enable students to secure paid internships during their coursework and find jobs upon graduation.
To help students master industry skills, 10 skills development courses and related courses will be offered starting from the next academic year, including retail, e-commerce, operations and logistics, content and creative writing, media and entertainment, animation, entertainment, and pharmacy.
These courses are domain specific. For example, B Com and BBA students can choose retail, e-commerce, operations and logistics courses, while BSc students can choose pharmaceutical related and animation courses, and BA students can choose creative writing, media and entertainment courses.
Students can choose these courses as a major in their first year of undergraduate study or as a minor in their second year. Certificates are issued by the Industry Skills Council upon completion of the course.
While the state has 1,054 degree colleges, both government and private, the new initiative will be rolled out to the 103 universities with the most admissions over the past few years. Of all the colleges selected, 37 are government, the rest are private, and only 56 colleges are under the purview of Osmania University.
Of the 10 selected skills development courses, colleges will be allowed to offer only one or two courses, with a maximum of 60 students per course. The best part of the program is that the university will map to the relevant industry, provide paid internship opportunities of Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 per month, and guarantee a job after undergraduate graduation.
TSCHE and state universities met Friday to develop a roadmap for implementing these skills development courses. As part of the placement, students will have three days of classroom work and three days of industry placement. They will be assessed and awarded a certificate,” TSCHE chairman Prof R Limbadri told Telangana Today.
Universities with grades and rankings
To overcome the challenge of listing the best colleges in the state, the TSCHE program grades and ranks colleges. Grades – A, B, C and D, and rankings will be aligned with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) respectively. Grading can be done according to parameters such as infrastructure, placement, faculty and laboratories.
In a recent meeting, Ministry of Education and TSCHE officials argued that university grading and ranking should be done by an independent body. In addition to ratings, officials intend to list the top 10 universities under each category. The list of universities with their grades and rankings will be available on Degree Online Service Telangana and Engineering Web Consulting website.
