Training and placement officers (TPOs) of colleges affiliated to the Gujarat Technological University gathered in Ahmedabad on Saturday discuss placement-related problems.

For the GTU, the upcoming placement process in the first half of next year will also be a litmus test of its “Innovation Council” initiative, an academia-industry linkage whereby thousands of final-year students have been working on projects given to them by industries in the hope that they would satisfy these industries and get jobs with them, apart from practical experience.

The ideas shared by the TPOs ranged from GTU tying up with companies that offer certification programmes so that students’ resumes look better to developing placement brochures, much like the IITs and the IIMs do.

Estimates by university officials indicate only 55 - 65 per cent of all diploma students and 30-35 per cent of all degrees students from the 300-plus colleges affiliated to the GTU get job offers.

GTU’s Vice-Chancellor Prof Akshai Aggarwal said that by January next year, a compulsory soft-skills course is likely to be introduced.

"We must take care our engineers are good engineers, and our pharmacists are good phramacists. But we also need to package the product well," he said.