ITI Jail Road Delhi is a major technical training college in Delhi that offers industry-relevant technical training in a variety of engineering and non-engineering trades. The institution has faced and successfully overcome the obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to strong industrial collaboration, and is currently aiming to provide education and employment to every student.
This interview is facilitated by Quest Alliance.
To learn more about the institution and the training and courses they are providing to students, Team NSN spoke with Mr. Shashank Sonal, Vice Principal of ITI Jail Road, Delhi.
Below are a few excerpts from our conversation. You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel.
Q. What are some of the popular courses offered at ITI Jail Road, Delhi?
A: At our institution, we offer courses in 24 trades, including 15 engineering and eight non-engineering trades. While all of our courses are popular among students, a few, such as Electrician, Electronics Mechanic, Mechanic Motor Vehicle, and Fitter have witnessed an increase in enrollment. Aside from engineering trades, non-engineering trades courses such as Computer Operator and Programming, Fashion Designing, and Technology are particularly popular among students. All of the courses are industry-specific and one-of-a-kind. We give appropriate training to ensure that our students are employable once the courses are completed.
Q. What is unique about ITI Jail Road, Delhi in terms of its courses? What are the top achievements it has achieved?
A: Our ITI is close to a few industrial clusters, which provides students with valuable industry experience. We have a few industrial collaborations available in a few of the trades. We’ve signed Memorandums of Understanding with a few companies in the automotive and food industries, and we’re also providing students with unique opportunities through industrial exposure in those fields.
Our university consistently ranks first in state and national competitions. ITI Jail Road has a decent grading of 2.6, which is the highest of all Delhi ITIs. Apart from the ranking, our industry-alligned courses and world-class infrastructure help our students to become employable.
Q. What are some of the key industries that support ITI Jail Road, Delhi? Please tell us more about your industry collaborations?
A: We have industrial partnerships for various trades. For the two-wheeler industry, we have MoUs with Hyundai Motors and TVS Motors, for the electrical industry, we have MoUs with NVCC India Ltd and for the food and beverage industry, we have MoUs with Hotel Crown Plaza. These are some of our current industry collaborations. These industry collaborations allow us to provide our students with much-needed industry experience while also keeping them up to date on current industry trends.
Q. How do you ensure the placement of the students?
A: Our institution used to have a near-100 percent placement rate prior to COVID-19. Despite the unprecedented COVId-19 outbreak, we continued to provide training and placement assistance to our students. Our students are placed in significant industries, including Hyundai Motor Company, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, and TVS Motor Company, to name a few.
Quest Alliance helps our students in their pre-placement training to prepare them for the future of work. We are also planning to set up a Model Career Centre for ITI students to have placement support.
Q. What were the challenges faced by ITI Jail Road, Delhi during the COVID-19 pandemic?
A: Online training was problematic during the pandemic since most of the training had to be done in person. However, we overcome all of the obstacles by ensuring that our students received ongoing training through a variety of online platforms. We are providing online classes to students via Zoom, and instructors are undergoing training to provide online classes for the effective implementation of the online training.
Since the students do not have smartphones or access to the internet, there are still some challenges. So, our partner, Quest Alliance, stepped forward to provide these services. We also made an effort to provide internet and smart devices to our students. Apart from leveraging online platforms to deliver the training, we are also using certain online resources, such as Bharat Skills, and our instructors are introducing students to short movies for their better understanding.
Q. What is your experience with portals like Bharat skills? How do you see the ease of accessing them?
A: Most of these online tools, such as Bharat Skills websites and other government initiatives, are being used by our trainers to deliver training to students as well as to keep themselves up to date. Tata STRIVE, which conducts skill improvement training, has training initiatives for trainers. Apart from soft skills, we are attempting to develop hard skills and find resources to which our trainers can be sent to upgrade their ITI management skills.
Q. How does ITI Jail Road, Delhi guide students for their careers in the future?
A: The Directorate of Training and Technical Education (DTTE) provides us with correspondence guidance. We encourage students to pursue more at our ITI by providing them with the essential skills. As Delhi has more service-based industries, candidates are sometimes unwilling to relocate for work. So, we encourage students to broaden their horizons and seek employment in a variety of settings.
Also read: How ITI Ambattur is making the youth industry-ready through quality technical education and training
Q. What is your advice to the students who are studying in the ITIs in India?
A: Students must become ambitious by totally identifying with the courses they choose. Things will alter in vocational education after NEP 2020 (National Education Policy). As a result, in order to have good job possibilities, students should be willing to stay in the course they picked. For students, ITI courses should be aspirational. Students should choose to attend an ITI course rather than being forced to do so.
