Ludhiana, April 15
A workshop for more than 40 heads of government high schools of Ludhiana district was conducted by an IT company at Government Inservice Training Centre (GITC) yesterday. The aim of the workshop was to build ‘21st century schools’ and inspire teachers and students towards computer-based education.

Principal Gurdeep Kaur (GITC) while inaugurating the workshop advised the school heads to resort to innovative education based on computers. She also enumerated some educational challenges to be undertaken by school authorities.

A similar workshop would be held on the GITC premises on April 19.

ICT coordinator Paramjit Singh said the motive of the workshop was to create an experience which would mobilise creative thinking for society, state and nation.

Participants took a keen interest in the interactive session.

Microsoft trainers answered the queries of the participants, who gave their feedback on a booklet provided by the company.

The DEO(S) Ludhiana, Major Singh, also joined the workshop and delivered a lecture. GITC lecturers also attended the session.

Gurdeep Kaur said seminars for Punjabi and science teachers, would commence on April 16 and a total of 35 seminars for teachers would be organised at GITC till January 2008, under the aegis of SCERT.

Shashi Trehan, coordinator, stressed on challenge-based learning (CBL) which focuses on investigating, explaining, resolving meaningful problems. She laid emphasis on the role of multi-media technology in building ‘21st century schools’.

Mandi Gobindgarh, April 15
RIMT- Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Mandi Gobindgarh, arranged a pool campus placement drive yesterday for a Ludhiana-based NetCradle India Pvt. Ltd. As many as 322 students from seven colleges took part in the drive.

S.K. Goyal, principal of the institute, introduced Om Narayan Rai, assistant manager-HR and Yogesh Puri, practice head, to students.

He said Netcradle, under the brand name of Saffronage solutions, called as SRS works with a wide range of industries to link their people, processes and technologies to their strategies. SRS works with its clients to help them become high performing business units and mobilise the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. The company has fetched prestigious American Design Award, said Goyal

On recruitment part he said the company is looking for freshers with degrees in computer science and electronics. Company will be hiring engineers as software trainees and will impart technical training for six months.

On salary packages, officials said initially trainees will be offered attractive stipend plus free meals. After completing six- month training, trainees will be promoted to software developer with salary ranging from 12,000 to 18,000 per month.

Speaking on the occasion Hukum Chand Bansal, chairman, RIMT-IET, said Netcradle is a UK-based integrated software business consultation provider with global presence. He also mentioned that more companies like SaSafaltek Software Pvt. Ltd., Chandigarh, for 2007 batch and Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., Mumbai, for 2008 batch are lined up to recruit students in the month of April.

He also said students can have detailed information about Larsen & Tourbo Infotech Ltd. on college website www.rimt.ac.in.

Harmit Singh Taluja, Head, Training and Placement Department, said the recruitment drive for Netcradle started with company presentation followed by an aptitude and technical test of 45 minutes. B. Tech computer science and electronics engineering students and MCA students passing out in 2007 were eligible to appear in the placement drive.

Out of 322 students 36 had been shortlisted by the company. These students will be called to the company’s corporate office at Ludhiana for the final round of HR interview.

He said students from seven colleges namely, Sri Sukhmani Institute of Engineering and Technology, Derabassi, Butta college of Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana, Punjab University, Chandigarh, Sant Baba Bhag Singh Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar, Swami Devi Dyal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panchkula, Ramgarhia College of Engineering and Technology, Phagwara, and Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhaddal, participated in the placement drive.

Prof. Harsh Sadawarti, vice-principal, expressed satisfaction over the placement drive.