UGC offers industry-driven skilling courses

Students can now equip themselves with industry and market driven skills in three months to six months, receive certification and also use credits earned from such skill development courses for obtaining their degrees/diplomas.

Hyderabad: In a rapidly changing job market, acquiring required skills play a crucial role for students and professionals for landing a job or stepping up the career ladder.

Students can now equip themselves with industry and market driven skills in three months to six months, receive certification and also use credits earned from such skill development courses for obtaining their degrees/diplomas.

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With growing importance for skilling among students, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has come out with short-term skill development courses in 29 focus areas, with a greater emphasis on practical learning. The focus areas include artificial intelligence, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics, and IoT.

In a recent meeting, the UGC approved ‘Guidelines for the Introduction of Short-Term Skill Development Courses in Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs)’. As per the guidelines anyone who passed senior secondary examination or its equivalent is eligible for admission to any undergraduate programme can take up the skill development certificate courses.

The credit-linked short-term skill development courses are of three to six months duration with each course having a minimum of 12 credits and a maximum of 30 credits.

Bringing in the concept of skill development alongside academic prudence, the UGC allowed learners to use credits earned through skill development courses for their degree/diploma programmes in lieu of the programmes electives. However, a student will be permitted to take at least one and a maximum of two skill development courses during their degree/diploma programmes.

While the academic part of the course will be delivered either in physical, online or hybrid mode, students have to undergo hands-on training in the industry, laboratory or workshops physically.

All Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) that have been included under the Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956, are eligible to offer short-term skill development courses. For introducing these courses, the UGC encouraged the HEIs to establish a Centre for Skill Development courses to be headed by a professor, professor of practice or senior faculty as a director.

“The HEIs should use a credit mechanism to design the course structure. The short-term skill development course must have a greater focus on practical learning. The HEIs may develop a plan to facilitate employment opportunities and internships for the successful students completing the short-term skill development course,” said Prof Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC.