PTC goes to school to popularise engineering

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Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) India has launched a pilot project in Maharashtra to offer ProEngineer, the company's CAD/ CAM product for engineering solutions, to 15-20 schools, absolutely free.

The company has been running the initiative at the school level in the UK for the last seven years and in the US since 2002.

"We are now introducing it in India and China due to the high growth rate of the automobile and engineering sectors in these countries," said Greg Sisk, director (Asia Pacific education programmes), PTC.

The programme comes with a three-day training module for teachers. "Schools can also distribute licences to students to install the programme in their PCs thus giving them a free hand to play with the software and thereby helping them develop an interest in mechanical engineering," said Sisk.

According to a study on the Indian automotive industry by IBM and the University of Michigan, India is set to become a global design and development hub for the small and inexpensive car segment. While there is a need for 6,00,000 skilled workers in India, only 3,00,000 graduate every year.

The schools are spread across Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Amravati and Kolhapur. "We are training 650 teachers on the use of our products and by the end of next month we will cover another 2,000," said Rohit Biddappa, marketing manager, PTC.

He added that the teachers in turn would be able to acquaint 10,000 students by March 2008 with the career prospects in mechanical engineering.

If the pilot project is successful, PTC India will roll out the programme in other states.

The firm has an ambitious industry academia programme at the university level where it has tied up with 425 institutes and enrolled more than 2,000 teachers.