The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to promote internship or apprenticeship embedded degree programs within an educational institution to help the students to learn both field and materialistic learning with the help of these job pieces of training.
The UGC has also released specific important guidelines in internship programs for the affiliated colleges and educational institutions to provide them with an overall framework of the internship degree programs.
The UGC has decided to enforce this critical process in the existing educational program to efficiently help students seek appropriate skills and experience about work during the higher study period.
Universities that are already promoting and offering essential and relevant internship degree programs are also asked by the UGC to provide the details of their programs through a Google Form to the commission by 10th October 2021.
About the Internship Degree Programmes
The internship embedded degree programs and diploma programs were announced by the UGC and the announcement of the Union Budget 2020-21. The primary purpose of these programs was to enhance students’ working capability and skills to make them ready as fresh graduate employers within the competitive workforce.
The UGC guidelines of the apprenticeship embedded degree programs were launched by the ex-Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal’ Nishank‘ in August for all the educational institutions and universities to efficiently guide them about the main aim and objectives of these programs.
These internship-embedded degree programs reflect high importance in the current educational system of India as these programs consist of the ability to improve the employability status of students and further develop deep conceptual knowledge and understanding among students about the subject and its related curriculum activities.
Moreover, these programs constitute a significant aspect of the National Education Policy2020 (NEP 2020) following the global pandemic of COVID-19.
Both the government and citizens had faced severe employment problems, which further emphasizes the need to improve the employment status of India by meeting the demand of employment in the competitive workforce with the help of these programs.
The notice of the UGC also stated that these programs are essential for the students as it aims to make the fresh graduates’ employment ready by enhancing their competencies, knowledge, skills, and attitude, which would further improve the employment condition of India and would also improve the productivity of the country.
Features of the Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP)
The apprenticeship embedded degree program consists of various salient features which reflect the importance of the program within the Indian educational system, and these features could be well understood with the following aspects:
Period of the Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme
- The minimum period of the apprenticeship program is six months that is one semester.
- The period of the apprenticeship is also dependent on the individual student requirement in terms of the course.
Objectives
- To promote the link between the higher education system and the field education through industry or business organization.
- To improve the employability skills of students who are pursuing a UGC level degree program.
Provisions
- The Higher Education Institute (HIEs) is needed to design the educational course in the UGC guidelines and internship embedded degree programs.
- AEDP should be addressed as a significant part of the U.G. degree program as per the UGC guidelines.
- A maximum 50 number of seats should be allocated for internship-embedded degree programs for the 2021-22 academic year.
The Higher Education Institute (HIEs) must sign a prior MOU with the industry for the internship programs before introducing the AEDP within their educational systems.
