Organised Field Training for Engineering Students as a Part of Curriculum

Field training during summer vacation is an essential part of the curriculum of the technical education in our country. Training period varies from six weeks to eight weeks, generally. It is observed that generally the students are sent to certain organisations through the help of the Institute mostly to their home towns or places nearer to the home. Students report back to the institute after the desired period and some viva etc. is conducted for the evaluation to be done. It is observed that the students produce a certificate from the concerned organisation just by his contacts. Surprise checkings have shown that rarely the students are present on the job site or come regularly and work honestly during this period. Precious time is lost and the gain is negligible. Students on field training does not know some time about the organisational structure of the place where they are deputed. In this way the purpose of field training i.e. Industry Institute linkage and institute-real life situation exposure is totally lost. This inhibits the genuine growth of a technical student in terms of institative and responsibility. This paper stresses the need for the supervised field training and the tools of evaluation to used at the host organisation for doing a judicious and proper grading of students. It also stresses the need for permanent field training stations for the teaching institutes which will make the system more effective and meaningful.