The Board of Apprenticeship Training, an autonomous body of Ministry of HRD that looks after the apprenticeship training of graduate and diploma passed out, and as well as those who are pursuing the sandwich pattern of courses in engineering and diploma has been providing very structured, time-tested training that goes within the ambit of Apprentices Training Act. A lot of students have benefitted from these training programs.
These apprenticeships are post-institutional training that happens to be a factor of motivation for the internships in discussion today. There are four BOATs at four different locations namely, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Kanpur, looking after four regions, East, West, North, and South. Each of these BOATS has around 3000 industries under its purview, which have been notified under the Apprentices Act. Some quota of apprentices is allocated to them and the apprenticeship is being implemented online. Certainly, physical verifications are thereby the way of visits under the purview of the Act itself.
Recently, there has been lot of deliberations on how to make internship programs sensible and effective. From its wide experience in implementing post-institutional training at its bases in, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Kanpur covering the East, West, North and South regions, dealing with 3000 industries, BOAT would like to throw light upon the role of institutions in getting the internship programs implemented effectively.
Role of the Institutions
These tips will show how institutions can go beyond the established pattern and bring more industries on board. These steps will be helpful for imparting the internship to the students and are very important stages of implementation of an internship program. This particular implementation strategy is divided into three parts. First of them is about how to get connected with industries, second is about how to get the internship done, and the third one is that how to evaluate.
First of all, institutes should convince the industries by efficiently showcasing their potential such as technological expertise, advanced knowledge, well-equipped lab facilities etc. Only such aspects will entice the industries to come to terms on the benefits of the industry-institute collaboration.
Secondly, industries in the locality should be recognized and allowed to make presentations at the institutions in the vicinity to develop a rapport amid each other. Moreover, institutions should identify the domain in which there is an exact need for the internship.
Industries will not give internships for longer spans of time, as expected by the institutions, which is done in the industry’s interest of avoiding production downtime. Institutions should not expect the industries to provide complete knowledge of the entire processes. Safety procedures should be completed at the institutions, which would minimize the burden on the industry, and in turn will convince the industry to agree on providing the internship. Very importantly, the faculty members should supervise the students by visiting the industry and inspecting or supervising what their students are doing in the industry. Faculty members should get in touch with the students and the industry officials more often to know that what exactly the students are doing, and whether a proper report is required or not. Finally, the process of evaluation should be such, that the students also enjoy how they are being evaluated after the internship.
Students can be evaluated on the spot at the institutions once they complete the internship by means of delivering a seminar in the presence of the first year students, in order that the first year students are equally motivated.