Bridging�the Industry-Academia�Gap

As far as their nature of work is concerned, Indian manufacturing companies are witnessing rapid transformation. Manufacturing firms that were earlier engaged in just testing and other back-end activities are now concentrating on manufacturing complicated engineering products for the global market. Today, Indian companies are also undertaking global projects where accuracy, precision, timeliness and compliance are the basic criteria for success. Hence, the need for industry-ready technocrats is growing; along with technical education of theoretical nature, sound on-the-job field experience in industries has become absolutely essential.

A training session in progress with young engineers at the company’s premises

Grooming the young talent

Rajkot is well known as the industrial hub of Gujarat. At present, hosting 14 engineering institutes in and around, the city is also turning into the educational hub of the state. In order to provide the best industrial exposure to the young talent on technical ground, Jyoti has initiated several programs that intend to bridge the gap between academia and industries. Considering the country-wide need for skill upgradation, the company invites students of various engineering institutes from all over India to conduct their academic projects and in-plant training to gain practical knowledge, and contribute to the movement of technical innovations in India. Through in-plant training, a balanced schedule and focused guidance, the company offers exposure to the activities that make the students ready to work in an industrial environment with hands-on skills. This initiative has boosted the confidence level of many young engineering students to serve in the actual industrial field.

Creating platforms of performance

To address the challenge of maintaining ultra-modern tech-nical laboratories in colleges, the company has established full-fledged learning labs in some engineering colleges. These labs facilitate on-campus leaning opportunity for engineering students during their academic studies. This drive has provided students with the best in-house platform for learning, saving time to be future ready for the industry.

Aligning with the PM’s call

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi repeatedly stresses on the need for technology centres in the country to accelerate the skill building process among the technocrats. Jyoti has already built a dedicated Tech Center to exhibit various engineering capabilities and to train different groups for operating and programming modern CNC machines.

Young trainees at a practical session

The company’s Tech Center is a part of Pradhan Mantri Kaushalya Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Under PMKVY, students with technical back-ground can opt for about 500 hours of training sessions that provide high level of industrial exposure to them. With special selection criteria, many students are taken for special learning programs of different divisions of the company – along with their regular academic schedule. Many students from these batches are offered work opportunity before they complete their academics.

Empowering women in the industry

Compared to the global standard of women’s participation in the manufacturing industry, India is still far behind. As Jyoti is always known as a trendsetter, women empowerment and gender equality are two ongoing efforts in the organisation. The company initiates special training programs for women with or without technical background.

The company has focused training schedules for women to impart them knowledge on CNC operations and programming. Post training, 30 women candidates were absorbed as CNC machine operators in the company. This has created a strong impact on the conventional industrial employment pattern in India.

Learning while working

As learning and skill upgrading is a continuous process, on-the-job training is one of the key concerns in Jyoti. Work, Learn and Upgrade combination has been set by the organisation, and under this policy various training programs are conducted on and off campus to enhance the knowledge-base of its employees.

Such learning sessions are framed and executed in close association of renowned academicians from the region. This process helps to bridge the gap between the industry requirements and academic research. Such programs have helped in creating strong bonding not only within the organization, but also in spreading the same to the society. Jyoti adopts active training programs of IMTMA for different skilled employees to boost their confidence and personal growth.

The company gets involved in many technical events and competitions at various engineering campuses to motivate students and support innovative designs, automation and technology developments to bring out the hidden talents and nurture them for the future industrial developments.

Creating a strong technological foundation

In order to contribute to the growth of the nation, Jyoti has associated with higher educational research works to bring innovation and strengthen the country’s technological base. Though the company owns a state-of-the-art on-campus R&D center, it supports various special R&D programs of different IITs for impactful innovations in the machine tools sector.

Such programs have already transferred a great amount of knowledge and experience between academia and
industry. These developments are also boosting research activities and creating impact in advanced manufacturing, and defence research sectors.

Source: Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd