The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will soon launch a common platform ‘Campus to Career’ to ensure equal placement opportunities for students pursuing engineering courses at the colleges across the state.
The initiative comes in the wake of students complaining government colleges and those in rural areas not organizing campus placements.
On this platform, students from any engineering college under VTU can upload their profile, starting from the first semester itself and keep on updating their profile as and when they acquire new skill. These profiles will be directly picked by the companies who are open for hiring.
As explained by the university officials, the companies can pick the profiles of the students from the platform based on the skill set they are looking for and can also conduct interviews, co-ordinate with students, offer internships and provide job offers.
“This was a much-needed facility as rural and government engineering college students were deprived of job opportunities compared to those in cities like Bengaluru and Mysuru. Whenever I read reports on highest placement packages offered to students at some of the colleges in Bengaluru, I feel pity for those enrolled at government colleges and those located in rural areas, “ said a senior professor of a private engineering college in Bengaluru.
The university is also setting up a digital students support system where real -time career counseling will be provided to students.
Speaking to DH, Vidyashankar S, Vice Chancellor VTU said, “This is mainly to reach out to the students and colleges located even at the remote places and provide equal opportunity to all our students in getting placement opportunities. The platform will be launched in first week of March.”
Meanwhile, VTU has also decided to direct all affiliated colleges to setup placement cells and dedicate a faculty to look after the activities in the cell.
Varsity officials said that the placement officers at the colleges should not be roped into teaching. “Placement officers should be exclusive to manage placement activities and we will issue directions to colleges in this regard,” Vidyashankar said.