Karnataka govt introduces industry-ready apprenticeship-linked degree, promotes women entrepreneurs

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is working towards making education more aligned with the industry demands, further to introduction of a unique degree programme with apprenticeship last year, the Minister for Higher Education, M C Sudhakar said on Thursday. Speaking at the Global Women Entrepreneurs Summit here, he said the programme is currently offered in four streams, B.com in Logistics, Retail, E-commerce and Banking and Finance where the students get to undertake apprenticeship in the 5th and 6th semesters. According to him, these students would be industry-ready. The government was looking at other focus areas too as to improve skilling, particularly in government institutions, and has started working with industry partners to make the syllabus relevant to the industry needs. On the surge in the number of women entrepreneurs in Karnataka, the Minister said it was heartening to see that they were achieving enormous success in entrepreneurship, in a male-dominated society. The number of girls who are graduating from various educational institutions is growing and nearly 70 per cent of the girls in any institution do well, including walking away with more gold medals, he said. "This trend would continue and there would be more women entrepreneurs in the near future, further signalling how women were getting empowered," he added.

Irrespective of gender, the Minister said, the government was aware that the present education system was not conducive for industrial growth and the department of education was seriously looking at this issue.The focus areas would shift to skilling and entrepreneurship, and the syllabus had to become dynamic than static for which industry inputs would be essential.

Bengaluru has the necessary infrastructure for innovation as can be seen with the growth of many startups and the IT industry thriving.However, with rapid technological developments, he said, it was necessary for educational institutions to be in sync with what is happening in the industrial realm.