The Professor of Practice (POP) is an opportunity for industry stalwarts to offer their expertise to students so that firms employ them.
India is facing a skill shortage because graduates lack practical skills vital for the job.
Further, around 80% of Indian engineers are unemployable because they lack practical skills vital for placement.
This entails hiring industry experts with proven expertise because it will bridge the gap between theory & practice.
India is experiencing a jobless growth because most jobs are in the high skill segment experiencing talent shortage.
Further, the college curriculum stressing on theory with little emphasis on practical’s is aggravating the problem.
The Professor of Practice will address this because these industry experts will transmit practical skills vital for placement.
The UGC has drafted the guidelines for hiring POP because HEI will have 10% of their faculty strength as POP.
Further, they are not required to have research publications or PhD, which are the criteria for hiring academic faculty. Through the POP, UGC will address the skill gap graduates face while looking for the job.
These industry experts will have a tenure of 1 year extendable up to 3 years & the maximum duration will be 4 years.
Further, their hiring will be exclusive to the hiring of academic staff because they are industry professionals with hands-on skills.
Retired faculty are not eligible for POP because these positions are for the industry experts.
For the POP role, the person should have a minimum experience of 15 years, at the senior level.
This is a marvelous opportunity for people experiencing career stagnation to pass on vital skills to students.
Professor of Practice is inevitable for India
As per the Hindu experts from fields such as engineering, science, media, literature, entrepreneurship, social sciences, & fine arts are eligible.
It includes civil services, armed forces, among others, are also eligible for these positions.
Further, skills are unrelated to education because skills nurture with practice.
A magnificent example is Paytm founder Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who was the first engineer from his place to get admission to Delhi College of engineering (DCE).
DCE, now known as Delhi Technological University, is one of India’s premier engineering institutions which has nurtured legends like Mr. Vinod Dham, popularly known as the Pentium Engineer who designed the Pentium chip.
Mr. Sharma was uncomfortable when he found his professors were interacting only in English & had a tough time interacting with them.
This subdued him to spend major time in labs practicing his coding skills. This was a turning point because he mastered crucial computer science concepts improving his fundamentals.
Likewise, with strong fundamentals, he established Paytm, one of the most revered mobile payments company.
Moreover, the learning is that practical skills are the key for a successful career because they prepare for the job.
Further, today’s youth should gain skills because skills pay the bills. Use your free time to gain job ready skills because firms hire those who are job ready.
VGI Meerut
In this regard, Dr. Sudhir Giri’s run Venkateshwara Group of Institutions is doing a commendable job by offering internships that foster practical skills for the job. It is one of the oldest institution set up to improve the quality of teachers in UP.
It provides scholarships to meritorious students because we promote affordable education for all. A separate Jan Kalyan Department helps in getting scholarships because we cannot leave the deserving without education.
The UP B.ed counselling will take place in the last week of September as universities will declare results by Sept. 15th. Students should take provisional admission at VGI because those ranking lower cannot get aided colleges.
Further, around 5.7 Lakh candidates competed for over 2 lakh B.ed seats.
Once counselling begins, lower rankers may get substandard colleges marring their career prospects because the college plays an important role in their life.
