The Chhattisgarh Government is providing necessary funds to about 22,511 students in the final year of their Higher and Technical Education courses to buy laptops and tablets.The amount is being credited through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
Higher and Technical Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey on Tuesday in a review meeting said that about 22,000 students had been allotted `17,490 for purchasing laptop each and Rs 6,789 each for tablet.
Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Renu Pillay and Technical Education Director SS Bajaj were present in the meeting.
The officers informed the Minister that about 13, 460 students of the Government Engineering Colleges and 9051 Polytechnic College students had been provided with laptops and computers. The State Bank of India had been informed of the transfer of funds to 13,460 students.
It may be also mentioned here that the “Mukhya Mantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana” project is a major initiative taken by Chhattisgarh government aimed to improve placement rates of fresh college graduates of three and four year degree courses in IT and ITeS sectors.
The program envisages providing training to students in such areas of aptitude that are required to successfully navigate the selection process of IT and BPM employers and secure placement. The training will be designed with a view on the in-demand skills and abilities in contemporary employment market.
The training will be delivered by leading trainers who will also make necessary arrangements for the employment opportunities for placing a minimum of 60% of the total students undergoing the training program.
Notably, Chhattisgarh has already established itself as a major educational hub with presence of premier institutions like NIT, IIM, NlU and AIIMS. It also, has many other world class educational institutions for professional programmes such as Engineering, MCA and MBA as well as in Humanities, Commerce and the Sciences, officials informed.
However, there is a gap between the number of students graduating and the number of students getting placed. There is a tangible gap between present state of aptitude and the required aptitude for getting selected in prestigious organizations, they informed.
Hence, there is a need to establish the platform which could increase the employment opportunities. It is an observed trend that most employers in IT and ITeS sector have rigorous training programmes that provide the necessary technical skills that are required to perform the jobs for which they hire.
The general curriculum of our education system has been focussed on imparting technical skills. However, aptitude is an area which tends to get ignored and thus students from Chhattisgarh tend to lose out to fresh graduates from larger cities which offer better opportunities for schooling and more exposure, officials informed.
Therefore, imparting abilities training to help them prepare for the selection process in a short and concentrated capsule is expected to improve greatly the chances of the students of Chhattisgarh securing employment with some of the best employers in the IT/BPM space.
The training must will also be complemented with efforts to establish the credibility of Chhattisgarh in providing quality talent as well as to ensure that reputed organizations come to Chhattisgarh for recruitment. This may start the trend where students, corporate and government of Chhattisgarh are mutually benefitted, officials informed.
Notably, the State Higher Education Department in collaboration with CHiPS has developed a software titled ‘Software Empowerment through Technology Utilization’ (SETU) which would enable online admissions in colleges.
Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey who was present during the launch of the online portal which was launched by Governor Balramji Das Tandon last year had stated that the online facility would benefit as many as 2 lakh students seeking admissions in various colleges.
The software incorporates the ‘best practice’ of states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh, he had stated.