Siemens to sign MOU with Tamil Nadu government, train University students

The German conglomerate will be investing Rs 5,000 crore worth of software. Around 10 per cent of this amount—Rs 54 crore will be given by the State government is giving ten per cent, according to those in the know.

The core of these training centres, ‘Centre of Excellence lab’ will be located at the Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai, while the other four centres will be stationed at Murugappa Polytechnic College, Avadi, Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology, Vellore, University College Of Engineering, Villupuram and Anna University, Kanchipuram.

Speaking to DTNext, Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering G Nagarajan, said, “The training centres are being opened to impart skill development on automotive technology. Students with a back ground in Engineering, ITI and Polytechnic can be join the training courses. There will be certificate courses of varying durations, though the time span for each course is not decided. It will most probably be between a week and a month. The focus will be to equip students from the design stage of a gadget to product management and lifetime maintenance.” 

Sharing more on the project, Nagarajan said, “The courses are open to all and not exclusive to the university students alone. Training in such skills will make them more employable. As of now, the course is free for the first three years.’’ Explaining the synergy with Siemens, he said, “For the first two years, Siemens will run the centres and they will impart training to the students. In the third year, the faculty here will be trained and only by the fourth year will we be taking over.”

According to Nagarajan, although the project had been in the pipeline for the past two years, the MOU will be signed soon.

Anna University will be conducting a 15-day training programme for over 600 engineering students in February and March. Final year students who have excelled in studies, as well as those whose parents have an annual income of less than Rs 4 lakh will be selected for the programme which will be held in three phases, staring from mid-February. The training sessions are aimed at improving their knowledge and soft skills and helping candidates land good jobs. Students from 13 affiliated colleges and from two colleges in Tiruchy and Coimbatore are part of the free training programme. A six-member team comprising lecturers, professors and experts from the industry will conduct the training sessions to be held in Chennai, Tiruchy and Coimbatore divisions.