All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe on Tuesday said lack of job opportunities is responsible for the fall in admissions to engineering courses across the country.
Sahasrabudhe said this after presiding over a workshop on “Entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in SAGY adopted villages in Odisha” here organised by the AICTE in association with the Indo-European Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (ICCSME).
“large-scale industries, including multinational companies, have gone slow in creating jobs now. Hence, students are being disheartened to pursue engineering courses,” said Sahashrabudhe.
The workshop was held as a part of the AICTE and IECSME’ move to create entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in 29 Panchayati Raj subjects in the SAGY (Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana) adopted villages by MPs. The AICTE has formed a committee for the identification of the institutes in every district and to link AICTE approved institutions with villages adopted by the MPs. As many as 10 MPs from Odisha participated.
It was decided that the MPs would establish a skill centre in their constituencies to provide training to rural youths.
Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Damodar Rout attending chief guest said the initiative would certainly help rural youths in availing employment opportunities in various sectors.
The various subjects that were discussed in the seminar include role of educational institutes in community development, skill development initiatives and architectural design of ancient Indian villages.
Present brand ambassador of the initiative, High Commissioner of Republic of Seychelles Phillipe le Gall shared such initiatives taken by his country and hailed the move.
Among others, AICTE Skill Development Cell Director Dr RS Rathore, IECSME President Vijay Tiwari, Ollywood Actresses Barsha Priyadarshini and Archita Sahoo were present.
On the occassion, Barsha was named as the Brand Ambassador of Clean Campus while Archita Sahoo as Brand Ambassador of Startup India and IECSME VP Dipti Ranjan Martha as the Brand Ambassador of ‘Develop Village Develop Nation’.
The programme concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by IECMSE State Coordinator Jubilee Sundaray.