The Karnataka Chapter of College Connect India, a pilot programme to connect mentors from the IT industry with engineering students mainly from rural areas was recently launched by Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary, Department of IT, BT and ST, Government of Karnataka in the presence of J A Chowdary, IT advisor to CM, Government of Andhra Pradesh and founder of College Connect India. College Connect programme was initiated in Andhra Pradesh last year with overwhelming support from industry leaders to enable youth to get sustained mentorship and acquire required skill sets to face the global challenges in the disruptive age. The Bangalore Chapter is the first of its kind in India, where College Connect India will facilitate connecting industry mentors to educational institutes, especially engineering colleges in Karnataka through its mentor-mentee programme.

Addressing the gathering, Gupta said, “Data is wealth and in today’s day and age with abundance of free data, there is a strong need for mentor-mentee relationship. This initiative will help students in rural areas address problems pertaining to soft skills and will give them exposure to become job ready. By having a sustainable approach in this initiative, the gaps can be mitigated further for the development of student and academic fraternity.”

Select mentors are invited to one of the colleges in Karnataka and after a mentor-mentee session, will select their mentees. In the next step, mentors will identify a few more mentors, through their professional acquaintances for the selected students of about 15 mentees.

Speaking on the occasion, Chowdary said, “We are excited to take this novel initiative outside Andhra Pradesh, and infact, Karnataka is the first state that we are expanding to. We will put in our best efforts to ensure that this programme runs smoothly and benefits as many youth in rural areas as possible.”

College Connect India has already completed its first pilot in Andhra Pradesh by connecting over 18 engineering colleges putting more than 9000 students in touch with over 150 mentors. Out of this, more than 2000 students opted for mentor-mentee connects where mentors are constantly in touch with mentees for the wellbeing of their career.

Sreekanth, MD of DXC India stated that the inculcation of mentor-mentee relationship would create a strong foundation on the core concepts, which are interests among the community. Here technology and some of the learning apps would help greatly.

B V Naidu, managing partner, StartupXseed Ventures LLP stressed the importance of college connect initiative and how it can help in economic growth if we have sustainable approach towards this noble cause.