AICTE recognition for students imparting skills in rural areas

BHUBANESWAR: Vice-Chairman of All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) Dr MP Poonia on Saturday said the national body will offer recognition to management colleges and students if they initiate skilling in rural areas of their catchments.“Students can impart skills to 70 men and 30 women of a village. If the skilled villagers start earning `6,000 per month, the students will be awarded by AICTE on a national-level,” Poonia announced while addressing the Odisha Management Colleges’ Association (OMCA) Conclave-2017 here.

Poonia also stated that the students submitting a detailed project report (DPR) on how to double the income of a village will also be awarded at a national level.Similarly, AICTE will extend financial support to management colleges if the colleges send the list of the entrepreneur willing to guide the students. “AICTE will bear the entire expense of entrepreneurs coming from other parts of the country to Bhubaneswar for guiding the students,” he said.

Poonia said, technical education institutes of the country have a massive infrastructure but only 20 lakh students have taken admissions in the current academic year. There are 10,300 technical education institutions in India with an intake capacity of 38 lakh seats but as many as 18 lakh seats are lying vacant, he informed.

There are a lot of opportunities in rural areas and management students must launch Startups in villages, he said adding, apart from trying for jobs, students should establish their own Startups.
“There are around 6.5 lakh villages in the country. The management students should focus on rural areas and launch Startups. The students should adopt the reverse trend of taking the skilled manpower from the urban to rural areas,” the AICTE Vice Chairman said.

Poonia also said education system of the country is very expensive which is why many students are not able to pursue higher education. He urged colleges to make use of AICTE’s Margdarshan Scheme under which a mentor institute can conduct programmes for technical upliftment of member institutions. The mentor institutes will be financially assisted by the council.MSME Minister Prafulla Samal, who attended as chief guest said about 32 per cent employment is provided by the micro small and medium enterprises. The Minister assured to cooperate with OMCA. OMCA president Arya Patnaik and working president Saroj Sahoo coordinated the conclave.