Higher Education Department Introduces Four Innovative Apprenticeship-Based Degrees

From the 2024-25 academic year, the Higher Education Department has announced the introduction of four new apprenticeship-embedded degree programs (AEDP) at 45 government first-grade colleges in 21 districts. Students will receive a paid apprenticeship throughout the fifth and sixth semesters of the program.

The four new degree programs are BCom in retail, logistics, e-commerce, banking, finance, service, and insurance.

The courses are meant to boost students' employability. As many as 1,373 students have already registered for these programs. 51% of the students who have accepted admission are girls, 81% are from rural regions, and 96% are SC/ST/OBC.

In the first and second years of this program, students will attend traditional college classes, and in the final year, they will receive apprenticeship training from employers. Based on their capabilities, students will receive a stipend ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 18,000.

The Centre for Research in Schemes and Policies (CRISP) provides the curriculum which university boards of study have authorised.

On Tuesday, business leaders from several sectors, including banking, logistics, retail, and microfinance, gathered at the Karnataka State Higher Education Council to express their support for providing students with apprenticeships.

According to Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar, the programmes are being implemented in a phased manner, "Since people are coming to know about these programmes, there is a request from some colleges, and some elected representatives are also showing interest. So next year, there will probably be a big demand. We want to see how things will shape up in the due course of time. CRISP hopes to expand the programme to include manufacturing, bio-technology, information technology and more sectors next year," he said.