Despite the rise in cost of higher education, majority of Indian institutes are under fire for churning out industry-unready graduates who add to the huge and growing number of unemployed. While in 2014, some of the surveys categorized more than 80 percent of engineering graduates as unemployable. On the flipside by achieving more than 80 percent campus placement for engineering graduates, Bangalore based Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT) is charting a course for other engineering institutions in the country to follow. The institute hosted 150+ on campus drives last year with a participation of 200+ top recruiters lined up for hiring the fresh talents from the institute by offering paychecks ranging between 3 lakhs to 9 lakhs per annum.
The excellence in placement is not a fluke for DBIT. In 2005, when the first batch of engineers graduated from this campus, the placement was over 70 percent, which is considered as a dream figure to be achieved for any newly established campus in India. Since then, DBIT has been able to maintain the quality of placementsat par with reputed institutions in the country. It may have surprised many in the technical education arena when DBIT's placement went up to 80 percent during 2007 and 2008. Those were the years of the depression when major recruiters were reluctant to hire fresh graduates from campuses due to the economic recession. "Placement has always been an important feature for us. We have a dedicated team under Placement and Training department, who are working rigorously to bring new ventures to the campus and I am very satisfied by the way theyare working hard to bring innovative methodologies to make our students industry ready," says Prof. P. B. Manjunath, Executive Director, Don Bosco Group of Institutions.
Creating a Quality Benchmark
The commencement ofPlacement and Training (PAT) department in 2005 has been an effective addition to DBIT. PAT has established contact with various organizations across several industries to determine their requirement of manpower and invites them to conduct on-campus recruitment drives. It has signed MoUs with Infosys Technologies for the Campus Connect Program and with Caritor for the Adept Program. These programs are designed to train the students and faculty in latest technological areas of software and bridge the gap between academia and industry.
The department provides various facilities to faculty, staff and students to help them achieve high levels of performance. It prepares students for challenging positions in the industry, including fostering leadership qualities in them, regardless of the industry they choose to work in. They also organize induction and orientation programs for new students, besides the Open Day that seeks to expose prospective engineering students to the myriad opportunities present in various engineering streams.
Fully aware that the industry of today demands that all graduating students be employable from the day they leave college, the PAT has taken the responsibility to mould them well during their tenure at the institute. To this extent, students are trained in various aspects of soft skills, people skills, and behavioral skills so that they can excel in their personal and professional lives no matter which part of the world they work inirrespective of the type of organization they work for. The management has made attendance in these training sessions mandatory,asthey believe that students will learn only when they actually go through the trainings. "In today's scenarios, it is important to groom students to meet the industry requirements by training them in a professional manner. However, if a student wants to attend a placement drive, he/she has to maintain a minimum score of 60 percent in the university exams," says Dr. T. Sreenivasan, Principal, DBIT.
Considering the broadness and profoundness of subjects to teach, covering the engineering syllabus in a given time frame is always tough task for any technical institutes in the country. However, DBIT has taken some strong remedial actions to deal with this issue. "As per the Visweshwaraya Technological University (VTU) norms, each subject should be given a class of four hours a week. Here, every subject is given five hours every week. Therefore, our students get almost 16 hours of extra class for every subject in a semester," explains Dr. Sreenivasan, who has implemented this plan successfully with the strong supportof an experienced faculty team that consists of 18 PhD holders. The generated extra hours, which is dedicated only for teaching the state university curriculum has helped the institute to raise the academic standard considerably. As a result, more than 95 percent of the DBIT students finish their engineering degree by achieving cut off scores to attend placement drives of various companies, which is helping the institute to glorify its figures of placements further.
The Other Side of Education
"In my career, I have worked with many institutes and the support which I got from the management of Don Bosco is very encouraging. Here, the management needs quality in service,irrespective of the costinvolved to implement it," says Dr. Sreenivasan. Managed by Wayanamac Education Trust, this impressive state-of-the-art engineering college is established in a green 36-acre campus replete with modern classrooms, laboratories, computer rooms and libraries at a project cost of Rs. 50 Crore in 2001. Since then the Wayanamac Education Trust has expanded the ambit of its operations. Currently, the trust administers four institutions of higher education in Bangalore that includes Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Don Bosco College of Sciences and Management, Don Bosco Institute of Bio Sciences & Management Studies and Don Bosco Independent PU College with an aggregate enrollment of over 2,500 students.
"Many newly established institutes in the country are looking at the education sector as a profitable business today. Since the inception, our vision and mission was to provide quality education to the poor and underprivileged," says Prof. Manjunath, who is a part of Wayanamac Education Trust. Founded by Prof. Byrasandra Bylappa � a well-known industrialist in India, Wayanamac Education Trust donates more than Rs. 3 Crores every year as scholarship to the economically weaker students. Fully committed to fulfilling the education mission, Prof. Bylappa and his team havean impressive expansion plan. In the near future, the group will open a public school and a medical college, to assist the demand for quality education in the country at a lesser cost. In an era where the standard of education is dropping drastically and cost for the same is rising steeply, institutions like Don Bosco is a lifeline for the masses in the country.
Panels
Prof. P.B. Manjunath
He is the Executive Director of Don Bosco Group of Institutions. He is anBE (Mechanical) &MBA holder from Bangalore.
Dr. T. Sreenivasan
He is the principal of DBIT. He did his post graduation in Industrial Engineering and Management and started his career in teaching. After working in various capacities with many institutes in South India, Dr. T. Sreenivasan joined DBIT in 2005 as HoD and Vice Principal. He has been carrying his duties as principal of DBIT since 2013 January.
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