Industry experts to train students to develop employability skills

Kolkata: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (Makaut) is adopting industry partnership model in a number of courses to guarantee job for the students.

Professionals from industries will be giving the training and after completion of the courses will directly engage the students in various projects.

"We have come up with a new extension campus at Bankura and there we are offering degree course in

Animation and Media Science. Work for the post production of films have started shifting from Mumbai and South

India to Kolkata as the cost is much less here. We want our students to cater to the demand of the industry," said Saikat Maitra, vice-chancellor of Makaut.

It may be mentioned that Bollywood films are very much in demand in foreign countries too and the turnover of Bollywood industry is much higher than that of Hollywood. Maitra said that the university is coming up with a new technology of Photo Realistic Animation at its campus in Haringhata , Nadia. " The modern animation films like the Lion King or the Jungle Book has this new technology which add to the visual element," he said.

According to Maitra, digital content is very much in demand nowadays with mobile users remaining hooked to their cell phones.

As per latest reports, 90 crores people in the country have access to smartphones and Indians on an average spend three hours a day with their mobile. Telecom experts have stated that this will go up to 5 hours a day in the coming years. Makaut is following the same industry model in their degree course in hotel management that is being imparted in Salt Lake. The students are being subjected to real life training at a reputed hotel chain so that they get employed after the course.

The university conducts a Combined Entrance Test (CET) for admission in these courses and students after passing their higher secondary or equivalent examination will have to clear the examination for admission in the courses. Both the courses come at a total cost of around 2 lakhs and the university has already tied up with a nationalized bank which is ready to provide educational loan.

"We are gradually working upon introducing this model in more and more courses that are offered by us," Maitra said.