Hyderabad: ULBs fail to provide internships to students

Hyderabad: Are students studying in the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in Telangana not getting training and internship opportunities to gain practical experience and exposure?

The question has assumed significance following the Union Ministry of Education, University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) joining hands to roll out a maximum number of internship opportunities.

For this, several Union Ministries, departments and State governments have been asked to create internship opportunities for students across the Central and State government entities over five years.

As part of the same and to start with, Ministry of Housing and Urban Financing has been advised to launch the scheme across 4,400 urban local bodies (ULBs) and 100 smart cities with the number of internships expected to be scaled up over five years.

However, since the announcement has come in August 2020, only the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) could provide fewer number of internships to the students. According to Osmania University sources, students from other corporations and municipal bodies continue to struggle to get internships. The civic bodies and government departments, public sector undertakings should notify the internships on their websites keeping in view the academic calendar of the State, so that the students can apply for the same.

Apart from the ULBs, the Centre has also advised providing student internships in all the 100 smart cities in the country. But, two smart city projects of Warangal and Karimnagar are yet to take off in Telangana.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior faculty member from the Osmania University said, unlike Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, the number of technical colleges affiliated to OU are less. But, students from the non-technical courses do need internships and practical training in different departments.

However, lack of initiative and inter-departmental coordination is leaving students with no clue as to where they can search for internship and practical training in the State government and its allied departments and entities.

For example, the Centre has advised the State government to utilise the college laboratories for soil testing during the summer vacation. This advisory intended to make use of the existing infrastructure and pay some stipend to the students during vacation, besides bonding them to the field of agriculture and get them exposure to the testing labs protocols.

When contacted State Agriculture Secretary Dr B Janardhan Reddy, he said, "The existing labs in the colleges are not suitable for carrying out the soil testing."

Adding to this, Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Navin Mittal said that there was no specific circular about using college laboratories received by the education department.

Meanwhile, the AICTE said that it was creating an artificial intelligence-based platform to act as a matchmaker between the HEIs and the ULBs offering internships. It includes internships for fresh graduates for one year under The Urban Learning Internship Programme (TULIP).