We are living in an era, where the entire world is converging to our fingertips in various virtual forms. While the world is contemplating about the next technological advancement, many engineers in India are still learning about antique mechanical parts and old-fashioned coding practices. Moving from such traditional ways of engineering teaching, the country has few institutes, which are focusing on preparing their students for the industry rather than making them a mere undergraduate in engineering. Located very close to the Bangalore International Airport, SJC Institute of Technology is one such example to prove that the institution of education is progressing towards a better tomorrow.
"I have been associated with SJCIT since its inception and we have always ensured that we train our students in accordance to the industry requirements," says Dr. T. Munikenche Gowda, Principal, SJCIT. Established in the year 1986, the campus of SJCIT is known for imparting quality education matching with the trends in the Industry. In a latest step towards this, the management established Human Resource and Development in the campus under the leadership of Prof. Gurucharan Singh, who has 33 years of industrial experience which includes experience in the fields of Corporate Affairs and HR. He is a firm believer of HRM Concepts incorporated in training and development of students and has developed effective and proven modules for training of engineering, degree and diploma students.
Revamping the Pedagogy with HRD
Since its inception in 2012, the HR Department of SJCIT played a major role in articulating the students to the needs of the industry by introducing various programs, which start with communication and skill development. "As we are getting students from semi urban and semi rural areas, our initial focus is on enhancing the student's communication skills," says Prof. Gurucharan Singh. To provide training to the students, they have arranged professional trainers out in the market, who have adequate experience in training large corporate companies. "By outsourcing the training programs on communication skills / soft skills, we can ensure that our students are getting top notch learning experience and our faculty can concentrate on teaching and research activities," says Dr. Gowda.
With a healthy faculty student ratio of 1: 15, the institute holds a large body of faculty members who are not functioning as traditional teachers in this campus. They actively participate in research activities and mentor students in latest technologies. Apart from building soft skills of students, with the support of faculty members, the management has implemented several programs that are designed exclusively for various departments. The initiative called PSET (Programming Skills Enhancement Training Program) is one such innovative idea that has been provided to the students who are interested to join the IT sector. "We have seen that, even students who are studying Computer Science and Information Technology lack skills in various coding mechanisms," says Prof. Gurucharan Singh. Through this program, the management intends to provide detailed coding sessions to the students to bring them at par with the professional coders in the industry.
As IT is emerging as major job provider, the institute's initiative to provide rigorous training in programming skills is a welcome move. The institute provides extra training to the mother-branches of engineering like Mechanical, Civil, and Aeronautical to supplement the program. "Mechanical students are trained in updated versions of CAD software and by introducing a concept called 'Total Station' Civil engineering students are made to do their surveys and other practices in a complete practical environment for two semesters," says Dr. Gowda. In order to provide add-on courses, finding time apart from teaching the regular university syllabus was a challenge for the institute. With years of experience in this field, Prof. Gurucharan Singh and his team found an alternative to this and he explains, "As per the university standards, there are seven months of vacation for students after their exams during the entire engineering program. We are utilizing four months from this to prepare them for their career growth."
With such innovative initiatives, the institute raised its placement record considerably in the last couple of years and now TCS, Aricent, Tech Mahindra, L&T Infotech, NTT Data, iGate, EXL Dynamics, Airwatch, Triveni Turbines, Saint Gobain, Taj Group and many more companies are regular visitors of this campus for recruiting their future talent. However, the institute is providing their training activities even after students are placed in an organization. "There is a period between joining the industry and passing out. We train our students according to the specific industry, where they are placed and it will help them in reducing the training time in the industry," claims Prof. Gurucharan Singh. While, Dr. Gowda, Prof. Gurucharan Singh and the entire team of SJCIT is on a mission to change the traditional paradigms of engineering, the industry can expect many more engineers from SJCIT who can start their work from the day one of their career.
Dr. T. Munikenche Gowda
He has been associated with SJCIT as a teaching assistant since the inception of the campus. During his journey with SJCIT, he completed his masters and PhD and now he is decorating the role of Principal of SJCIT.
.png){kind=logo}