Earmark reservation in Govt jobs to promote Kannada Engg courses, says SJC Institute of Technology Principal
In a candid interview with Shiksha, Dr GT Raju, Principal of SJC Institute of Technology, speaks on a range of issues
SJC Institute of Technology, Chikkaballapura, Karnataka, is one of three colleges in Karnataka, which offers engineering courses in Kannada medium. The institute is affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) where admission to BTech courses is done on the basis of KCET score, followed by KCET Counselling, which is conducted by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA).
In a candid interview with Shiksha, Dr GT Raju, Principal of SJC Institute of Technology, speaks on a range of issues. Below are the excerpts from the interview.
Q. Are you planning to expand the curriculum?
A. Yes, we augment Visvesvaraya Technological University(VTU) curriculum with
- IBM Certification programmes on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Advanced coding
- Training on Catia, Ansys, Total Station and Revit
- Hackathons
Q. SJCIT offers engineering courses in Kannada medium, but not even a single student has enrolled for these courses so far. What do you think may be the reason for this?
A. We have been running civil engineering course in Kannada medium from the 2021-22 academic year. So far, no one has enrolled for Kannada medium Civil Engineering course. Poor admission in regular stream and insufficient publicity/advertisement for the regional language engineering courses may be the reason for this. In order to attract students to study in Kannada medium professional courses, the government has to earmark reservation in government job sector and popularise the Kannada medium engineeringcourses.
Q. Is your curriculum industry-ready as employment can only be ensured if students are job ready?
A. Yes, our curriculum is industry-ready. We are preparing the students for jobs by introducing professional skill development courses which will help improve their interpersonal skills, leadership skills, corporate etiquettes, spoken English, aptitude, verbal and soft skills. We are also giving our students additional professional training in tune with industry requirements which will enable the students to get employment.
Q. Will you be introducing any increase in fee structure in the near future?
A. Yes, we will be revising our fee structure. Our fee structure is revised once in every three years. There will be a reasonable increase in fee structure which rural students can afford.
Q.How was the placement season at SJCIT?
A. In the year 2022-23, more than 522 students got placed with highest package of INR 14 lakh per annum and average package of INR 5.4 lakh per annum. The recruitment process for 2023 batch is still under process and as on date, around 316 students have been placed.
SJC Institute of Technology Placement Statistics 2022-23
Total Recruiters | 60 |
Total offers | 843 |
Top recruiters | Samsung R&D, Informatica, TCS, Accenture, Wipro, Mphasis, Hexaware Technologies Delloite, Hitachi Vantara Tech Mahindra, Infosys and so on. |
Q. What steps have you taken towards strengthening industry-academia collaborations?
A. We have signed several agreements with industries to bridge the gap between the industry and academia keeping the latest trends and technologies in view to enable students to become employable.
Q. Does the institute help students with internships? If yes, how?
A. Yes, internship plays a vital role in building the career of the students and it also helps students get professional experience, competitive knowledge and entry-level exposure to specific industry/company. Keeping these things in mind, the college has taken following measures.
- Signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with reputed companies laying emphasis on domain specific internship
- Encouraging students to go for paid internships.
- Providing timely update to the students about available opportunitiesin organisations of relevance through the placement cell of the institution.
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