K'taka ministers push for industry-linked curriculum at summit

Bengaluru: "Now the biggest challenge for us is to structure our curriculum in such a way that graduates coming out of our institutions are industry ready,” said Minister for Skill Development Dr Sharanaprakash Patil during a panel discussion at the Bengaluru Skill Summit on Wednesday. The minister spoke about the issue of high unemployment, even among graduates in engineering and medicine, and touched upon various areas that the Karnataka government is exploring through programmes, schemes and tie-ups to improve graduate employ ability.

“Industry should tie up closely with the curriculum as well, because they need to say what they require. My department has also floated an expression of interest to establish an industry linkage cell,” he added. He suggested that beneficiaries of the Yuva Nidhi scheme could be trained according to industry needs, at government cost, if companies agreed to employ them thereafter.

Looking ahead, Dr Patil spoke of structural changes in the curriculum to make graduates job ready, and highlighted diploma courses focused on practical experience rather than theory, such as those offered by the Government Tool Room Training Centre, which has high employment rates.

Minister K Sudhakar said, “Our students lack the confidence to face situations. This is where communication skills and aptitude must im prove – how they face society and the challenges of industry requirements. We need to make our students confident enough to face these challenges in life. We have introduced several programmes for this.”

The summit also featured an expo where various companies had set up booths. Germany was among the key countries interested in hiring Indian workers, with multiple booths dedicated to sending workers and students there. A representative of a recruitment agency said that German companies are particularly keen on hiring engineers and healthcare professionals.

Goethe-Institut also had a booth, and its representative revealed that enrolments in their language courses are in creasing. “What is unique about Karnataka is that we position ourselves as a skill capital and a knowledge destination,” said IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge, speaking about pitching Karnataka as a preferred destination for companies.

The summit also showcased several companies supported by the Karnataka government, including Intelitek, which uses Internet of Things technology to develop programmable machines for the manufacturing sector.