VTU to adopt industrial content in all engineering branches in colleges in Karnataka

The move comes as industries are facing shortage of required workforce due to lack of skill or knowledge despite technological advancements every day

To create industry-ready engineers, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has decided to adopt industrial content in all engineering streams from the academic year 2023-24.

VTU has taken steps to review the engineering curriculum this year and conducted many meetings with various industrialists to get information about industrial requirements in the workforce. In addition, an expert team from VTU visited Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras and studied the new technologies in the curriculum of various engineering streams.

Now, the VTU is planning to bring in all these required technologies in the curriculum of all engineering streams from this academic year.

The move comes as industries are facing shortage of required workforce due to lack of skill or knowledge despite technological advancements every day. In the technical education field too, it has been acknowledged that engineering colleges are teaching outdated syllabi due to which students are facing the challenge of placement.

S. Vidyashankar, Vice-Chancellor of VTU, told The Hindu, “The reviewing of engineering curriculum is going on. We have already introduced industrial content for 1st and 2nd semesters of engineering courses. Now, we decided to extend this industrial content to the rest of the course. Shortly, we will release new industrial content for all the engineering streams.

“Today, entrepreneurs expect industry-ready engineers. Therefore, we decided to change the curriculum. Students should compulsorily study two subjects on the basis of this content. To provide appropriate skills to students, we also encourage collaboration with industries. Compared to all other technological universities in India, VTU’s students are the first choice of industries. Apart from all these, we have some plans to establish research innovation centres, incubation centres jointly with industries, and will appoint mentors and consultants to help students for research.”

Students are happy with the decision. Shreeya, a 3rd year engineering student in Bengaluru, said, “Adopting industrial content in the curriculum is a long-term demand of industries. There is lot of difference between industrial requirements and the syllabus taught in colleges. After completion of the course, many students have not been able to be employed because of lack of appropriate knowledge and skill required for the industries.”