Director of Technical Education discusses modalities with specific industries in Sri City on ‘tailor made’ courses

Sri City, September 23, 2022: Mrs. C. Naga Rani, IAS, Director, Technical Education,  and Chairperson, State Board of Technical Education & Training (SBTET), Government of Andhra Pradesh presided over the interactive meeting held with the senior HR managers of Sri City industrial units on Friday. Dr. Ravindra Sannareddy, Founder Managing Director, Sri City briefed her on Sri City and the industrial development taking place. Mr. R. Veera Reddy, Principal Advisor, Industries & Investments, Government of Andhra Pradesh was also present.

Thanking the Director of Technical Education for taking the initiative for speeding up the process of introducing industry oriented courses, Mr. Ravindra Sannareddy said,”In line with  industry requirements there is an urgent need to start specialised courses and orient the students. However, unless the Technical Education Department, Institutes and the Industry come together and work in coherence, the goal of introducing ‘tailor made’ courses can’t be achieved. Hence, let’s take it as a challenge and achieve.” Assuring support he said that Sri City will act as a catalyst to make this experiment of Academia-Industry-Government partnership yielding fruitful results.

Seeking the active involvement of industry, Mrs. Naga Rani said, “This is a follow up meeting to the a brainstorming discussion held last month in Sri City, to take forward to next level the proposal of starting tailor made corses suiting the industry needs,  and discuss with the industry representatives on the modalities involved.” Applauding the positive response of Sri City and the industrial units, Mrs. Naga Rani thanked Dr. Ravindra Sannareddy for playing  catalyst role in taking forward the efforts.

Stating that the department is ready to start tailor made courses in specific fields, she mentioned,”Let’s discuss on the modalities of starting courses with new syllabus suiting industry needs, equipping labs with state of the art machinery under CSR funds, offering refresher training to teachers and practical training to students at plants, internships, etc.,”. Based on the discussion and the agreement arrived at, the Director of Technical Education said ,”An MOU will be drafted covering all the above points and will be put up for the next meeting.”

Stressing on the importance of updating and reforming the syllabus, Mr. Veera Reddy advised that new courses should lay more emphasis on practical knowledge than theoretical. Mr. Ramakrishna, officer of Technical Education gave a detailed briefing on the various courses along with specialisations being offered by Polytechnics at Diploma level.

Several industry representatives, including those from Daikin, Amber, Blue star, Hunter Douglas, Isuzu, Venture, Alstom, NS Instruments, Toray, Isuzu and Tata Foodz, among others, who attended the meeting, have cited specific needs of their industries and suggested to introduce specialisations in courses accordingly.

Principals of the government polytechnics in Tirupati, Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa and Annamayya districts and the senior officials of the Department of Technical Education, who took part in the meeting have all expressed that with an active industry-institute collaboration, the institutes will definitely produce ‘employable’ students equipped with adequate skills.