Mangaluru: Board of Apprenticeship Training (BOAT) (SR), Chennai & Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Bengaluru, in collaboration with Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management, organized an apprenticeship fair for engineering graduates/diploma/general graduates at Sahyadri campus which saw 800 students of Karnataka & 27 companies participate in the BOAT job fair. Suresh Kumar, assistant director, BOAT; Mohamed Ansar, joint director, directorate of Technical Education, Bengaluru, were the guests for the inaugural ceremony along with Manjunath Bhandary, chairman, Bhandary Foundation.

Manjunath Bhandary, while addressing the gathering urged the students to develop interest, commitment, involvement and discipline in the job they are assigned. He also emphasised on the growing need for SMART skills and encouraged them to work on it. He appreciated the government of India for providing opportunities to students through apprenticeship training. He stressed on the importance of initial 3 to 5 years in building a strong foundation through learning. He brought to light the recent trend in downfall of students opting for mechanical engineering and how this would impact the core mechanical based companies.

Suresh Kumar shared the process of registering under BOAT. He also mentioned that Karnataka ranks 3rd in India for apprentice training. He highlighted that National Apprenticeship Training Scheme in India is a one year programme equipping technically qualified youth with practical knowledge and skills required in their field of work. The apprentices are imparted training by the organizations at their place of work. During the period of apprenticeship, the apprentices are paid a stipend amount, 50% of which is reimbursable to the employer from government of India. He mentioned that the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of Government of India for Skilling Indian Youth.

Mohamed Ansar, joint director, DTE spoke on how best one can initiate IT industries for Apprenticeship. “Mechanical companies are more into apprenticeship and we have to focus more in getting the IT companies for Apprenticeship that would help the software Engineers to get into a company,” he said.

Rajesh GS, DGM of System Control Technology Solutions, spoke about how houses are converted into rented offices for engineering development & how companies focus on developing their own product.

Kiran Deshpande, Kirloskar Toyota Textile Machinery, addressed the problem as to how the present generation look for easy job. He spoke about how important is the first 3 to 5 years to build a foundation through learning.