The Student Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana (READY) was launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 25 July 2015.
Students Ready - Introduction
The Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) program aims to provide rural entrepreneurship awareness and practical experience in a real-life situation in rural agriculture, and create awareness among undergraduate students about practical agriculture and allied sciences. The program will help in building confidence, skills, and acquiring Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of the locality, thereby preparing the pass-out for self-employment. It also aims to provide opportunities to acquire hands-on experience and entrepreneurial skills. To reorient graduates of agriculture and allied subjects for ensuring and assuring employability and developing entrepreneurs for emerging knowledge-intensive agriculture, it was felt necessary to introduce this program in all the AUs as an essential prerequisite for the award of degree to ensure hands-on experience and practical training.
The Fifth Deans committee has given a detailed curriculum of the Student READY program for all the disciplines in agriculture and allied sciences. The course curricula have been restructured to develop much-needed skills and entrepreneurial mindset among the graduates to take up self-employment, contribute to enhanced rural livelihood and food security, sustainability of agriculture, and be a propeller for agricultural transformation.
The following components are proposed for carrying out one year Student READY program in all the Undergraduate (UG) disciplines
- Experiential Learning on Business Model / Hands-on Training
- Experiential Learning on Skill Development.
- Rural Awareness Works Experience (RAWE).
- Internship / In-Plant Training / Industrial attachment
- Students Projects
Student READY program is introduced in the fourth year of undergraduate education in the following subjects:
- Agriculture
- Agriculture Engineering
- Bio-Technology
- Dairy Technology
- Fisheries
- Food Technology
- Forestry
- Horticulture
- Home Science (now Community Science)
- Sericulture
Five components of Student READY are:
- Experiential Learning with business mode.
- Hands-on training (HOT)/ Skill development training i.e. Experiential Learning without business mode.
- Rural Awareness Work Experience (RAWE).
- Internship/In-Plant Training/ Industrial attachment.
- Students Projects.
Experiential Learning with business mode
Experiential Learning (EL) with business mode helps the student to develop competence, capability, capacity building, acquiring skills, expertise, and confidence to start their own enterprise and turn job creators instead of job seekers. This is a step forward for the “Earn while Learn” concept. Experiential Learning is an important module for high-quality professional competence and practical work experience in a real-life situation for graduates. The module with an entrepreneurial orientation of production and production to consumption pattern is expected to facilitate producing Job Providers rather than Job Seekers. The EL provides the students an excellent opportunity to develop analytical and entrepreneurial skills, and knowledge through meaningful hands-on experience, confidence in their ability to design and execute project work.
The main objectives of EL are:
- To promote professional skills and knowledge through meaningful hands-on experience.
- To build confidence and to work in project mode.
- To acquire enterprise management capabilities.
Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE)
The Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) provides exposure to agricultural students to the natural setting of village situations, work with farm families, identify their problems, and make use of various extension tools for transferring the latest agricultural technologies. The students also get an opportunity to study the various ongoing schemes related to agriculture and rural development and participate in their implementation. The students were given rigorous orientation and familiarization on various issues and problems expected on farmers’ fields and hence gained competence and confidence for solving problems related to agriculture and allied sciences. It has been implemented in adopted villages under the supervision of scientists. Activities focused on intensive observations/ analysis of socio-economic and technological profiles of the farm families in rural areas, participatory extension approach and acquaintance with farming situations, farm practices, and interaction with progressive farmers. Soil testing has become an integral part of RAWE. This helps orient our agricultural graduates for participation in various rural developmental programs. The students also gained first-hand information on industries during attachment with identified agro-based industries. The stipend rates have been enhanced to Rs 3000/ student/ month for a maximum of 6 months for the village/ rural training under the Student READY program.
In Plant Training (IPT)/ Industrial Attachment
Technology and globalization are ushering an era of unprecedented change. The need and pressure for change and innovation is immense. To enrich the practical knowledge of the students, in-plant training is mandatory. In this training, students will have to study a problem from an industrial perspective and submit reports to the university. Such in-plant trainings will provide industrial exposure to the students as well as develop their careers in high-tech industrial requirements. In-Plant training is meant to correlate theory and actual practices in the industries with the following objectives:
- To expose the students to the industrial environment, which cannot be simulated in the university.
- To familiarize the students with various Materials, Machines, Processes, Products and their applications along with relevant aspects of shop management.
- To make the students understand the psychology of the workers, and approach to problems along with the practices followed at the factory.
- To make the students understand the scope, functions, and job responsibilities in various departments of an organization.
- Exposure to various aspects of entrepreneurship during the program period.
Students Projects
There are a number of students interested in higher education and study abroad. Keeping in view their future requirements, a component of Student Project is included to understand and identify problems of their interest and field, experimental setup, taking observations, and writing and documentation in the form of a thesis. Project work provides several opportunities for students to learn various aspects that cannot be taught in a classroom or laboratory. In order to provide such opportunities to the graduates of agricultural science, Students Project is proposed as one of the components of the Student READY. It may be adopted based on the interest of the student and the expertise and facilities available with the College. The Students Project is proposed with the following objectives:
- To impart analytical skills and capability to work independently.
- To conceptualize, design, and implement the proposed work plan.
- Learn to work as a team, sharing work amongst a group, and learn leadership.
- Learn to solve a problem through all its stages by understanding and applying project management skills.
- Learn to do various implementations, fabrication, testing, and troubleshooting.
- Learn communication and report writing skills.
Eligibility
- A student, who is pursuing an undergraduate programme in SAUs/DUs/CAU/CUs of NARES in courses duly accredited by the National Agricultural Education Accreditation Board (NAEAB) of ICAR, New Delhi.
- The student must maintain merit and good conduct as certified by the Head of College/University/Institution. He/She should not remain absent during the programme without prior permission from the Competent Authority.
- The candidate should not participate in any agitation/strike and should not take up any job, even on a part-time basis, or receive any other financial assistance for the same activities during the period.