Students Vouch For Apprenticeship-Linked Degrees: Report
A significant percentage of students, as well as employed learners, believe apprenticeship-linked degrees are more useful as employability is fast becoming the key outcome that learners are expecting from higher education, says a study.
A significant percentage of students, as well as employed learners, believe apprenticeship-linked degrees are more useful as employability is fast becoming the key outcome that learners are expecting from higher education, says a study.
According to a study by Schoolguru Eduserve, a TeamLease company, nearly 71.18 per cent of students interviewed prefer a degree that embeds some form of skilling, of this 65.41 per cent believe that apprenticeship-linked degrees are more useful while the rest prefer traditional degrees that our colleges or universities offer.
The Current Learning Landscape: Learner's Perspective study is based on a survey among 3,905 respondents of which 79.6 per cent were traditional learners and 20.4 per cent were employed learners in the range of 18 to over 35 years across the country.
The study further revealed that not only students, even employed learners feel the need to re-look at our current college education system. Both the type of students, traditional learners (69.1 per cent) as well as employed learners (49.81 per cent) feel it can help them with better job prospects, it pointed out.
"Be it traditional learners studying in higher education institutions or employed professionals enrolling for completion of their incomplete degrees, both are looking at learning additional skills that will help them fulfil their career aspirations," Schoolguru Eduserve Founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj said.
Though this year saw multiple positive reforms like the National Education Policy (NEP) and UGC's announcement encouraging universities to introduce apprenticeship or internship embedded degree programs, the country's education system needs to be better aligned with the aspirations of youth through universalisation of employability embedded courses, he added.
As per the study, 66.83 of the employed learners and 82.6 per cent of traditional learners are worried about their job prospects in the near future. More than 53 per cent of the employed learners and 48 per cent of the traditional learners have undertaken at least one short certificate course in the last two years.
As per the study, there is a need for corporates to incorporate up-skilling as a critical element. Meanwhile, the study noted that course popularity was the driving force for course selection amongst employed learners (37 per cent), personal interest made youngsters opt a particular stream or course for learning (35 per cent). In terms of financing, most of the youngsters were supported by their families (70 per cent), whereas in the case of employed learners it was self-funded (78 per cent), it added.
