To make students employable during graduation and to teach them professional skills, University Grants Commission (UGC) is introducing a new special degree course called Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Program (AEDP). In this course, designed keeping in mind the National Education Policy 2020, students will be given the practical knowledge which is in demand in the industry. UGC has prepared draft guidelines for conducting this degree course. These guidelines were reviewed in the UGC meeting held on October 3. Soon these will be made available on the UGC website and suggestions will be sought from people and stakeholders. This course can start from January-February 2025. In 3 or 4 year university degree course, students will get industry based training as well as stipend.
According to the draft guidelines, AEDP is designed to enhance the employability of graduate students by incorporating apprenticeship training in their degree courses.
Emphasizing the importance of these guidelines, UGC Chairman Professor M. Jagadish Kumar said, ‘Students will get theoretical knowledge as well as experimental education, which will lead to competencies expected by employers. We urge all eligible higher educational institutions to take advantage of these guidelines and start AEDP courses from the academic session of January-February 2025.”
Universities ranked in the top 200 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) can launch this course. Universities which achieve at least one grade or 3.01 score from NAAC can also get this course done. Professor Kumar has appealed to the universities of the country to join this campaign.
Institutions that meet the eligibility criteria can add apprenticeship to their undergraduate courses. In this, students will get academic credits on their practical training. The draft also states that the credit system will be based on hours of training. 30 hours of training will be equivalent to one credit. This means that 40 credits can be earned during a one-year apprenticeship. If it is a three-year course, then students will have to undergo training in collaboration with the industry for at least one semester and maximum three semesters. If it is a four year course then there will be minimum 2 and maximum 4 semesters of training. In the guidelines, a lot of emphasis has also been laid on collaboration between higher educational institutions and industry.
Who will give stipend during training
In case of starting a course in collaboration with the industry, the stipend will be given to the students directly by the industry (as per the Apprenticeship Act 1961). Whereas in case of registration through National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATL) portal, the government will give stipend.
UGC will also implement a post-training tracking system, whereby higher education institutions will be able to track the career and progress of students who have completed the AEDP course. This will provide feedback on this course.