Chennai: As part of the National Skill Development Mission, AICTE has amended its regulations to permit engineering colleges to conduct evening ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) at their campuses.
The first amendment to the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) regulations 2012 has permitted the engineering colleges “to run courses of any other regulatory body by using the existing facilities or by creating additional facilities as per provisions without affecting the quality of education.”
The engineering colleges also need to take prior approval from the council before starting the evening ITIs. The idea is to impart skill training to the unemployed youth either to get employed or self-employed.
“Basically, we want engineering colleges to start ITIs in the evening where the colleges having facilities which is not used fully,” AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe told Deccan Chronicle.
“Engineering colleges can run any programme which is governed by a regulatory body. Arts and science, commerce courses are not being governed by any regulatory body. So, colleges can’t run these courses,” he explained.
SA engineering college principal P.K.Nagaraj said, “Engineering colleges are having better infrastructure compared to ITIs and polytechnic colleges. So, definitely, they can provide better training with the well-qualified faculty
members.”
He said this move also can adversely impact the ITIs and Polytechnic colleges as students will show interest in joining the ITIs running by the engineering colleges.
More than 100 engineering colleges in the state are finding it difficult to survive with lesser enrolment of students this year. This amendment in the AICTE regulations may just give some breather to the engineering colleges.
