Bengaluru: Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) launched an initiative to promote entrepreneurship among pre-final-year female engineering students across its affiliated colleges. Around 4,000 students will be trained in entrepreneurial skills, and around 100 of them will be identified to finally build their start-ups.The programme, christened ‘She Innovates’, is launched under the Visvesvaraya Research and Innovation Foundation (VRIF) of VTU. A limit of around 80 students per college was set. Thus far, around 3,400 students registered.These students will be trained by various corporate partners, including Wipro, JAN AI, UN Women, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), and TiE Chapters of Hubballi, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, and Mysuru, in various entrepreneurial skills. “They will be equipped with learning and insight into industry that would help them in their journey as an entrepreneur,” said Santosh Ittanagi, head, execution and operations-VRIF.After the three-month training, students will have to take part in a hackathon, where they will be asked to come up with real-world solutions to problems identified in a rural setting. The students can consider this as their final-year internship. “The motto of She Innovates is to identify the 100 people who really want to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is not an easy journey. Society will discourage you from looking for regular placements and from taking risks. The survival rate is very low. We will be speaking to the families to ensure the selected 100 have the right kind of family atmosphere and support as well,” he added.VTU, which has around 80,000 students in a batch, has around half of them as women. “We designed this programme to recognise and honour the talent of women by giving them greater priority in the engineering field. Many companies came forward to support this initiative. We will also provide mentors to the female students. Priority will be given to students from rural areas,” said Prof S Vidyashankar, vice-chancellor, VTU.Emphasis should be on practical education: VTU“Engineering colleges must prepare students for the job market by providing practical education,” said Prof S Vidyashankar, VC of VTU.Speaking at a principals’ meeting organised on Monday at a private hotel by VTU and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), he said, “It is not that there are no job opportunities today. However, students suitable for the job market are not readily available. As much as possible, emphasis should be placed on practical education.”
