Objectives
The ARISE On-Campus program sought to enhance engineering students' skills and capabilities for easy integration into the workforce. A training to upskill final year engineering students in technical skills such as programming languages, web development, and soft skills such as business etiquettes, and communications, was conceptualized and implemented. The program was piloted between 2015-2017 and then scaled up and implemented from 2017-2020 in Tier 2 and 3 engineering colleges in major IT hub cities – Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. The program came to a close in 2020, and an impact assessment study was undertaken in 2022 to understand and assess the impact and program implementation processes.
Development Solutions (DS) was involved in the assessment and documentation of the impact of the ARISE On-Campus Program.
Approach and methodology
The study aimed to assess the impact of the program on students, colleges and training partners and involved process assessment. While the ARISE On-Campus program was implemented in six locations, to enable comparative analysis across locations, and proportionate sample distribution, the samples were categorized into three locations – Delhi-NCR, comprising colleges/ students in Delhi NCR and UP; Hyderabad, comprising colleges/ students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; and Bangalore-Hosur, comprising Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
It was a multi-year intervention, which involved a substantial number of students, colleges and programmatic stakholders. To effectively access multiple perspectives, a comprehensive mixed methods approach was adopted to assess its impact. This included secondary data analysis along with primary quantitative and qualitative data collection.
The secondary data analysis comprised review of program documents and MIS data shared by NASSCOM foundation and internet based review on the status of engineering education and employability.
Primary data was collected through both quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the quantitative data collection, 2 surveys (a self-filled survey and a phone survey) were conducted with the students through questionnaires. For the qualitative data collection, interactions were conducted with stakeholders through in-depth interview guides.
372 phone surveys were completed with students and 84 in-dept interviews with students and stakeholders. 574 students also responded to the self-filled survey form circulated among the students.
Results
The different methods threw light on different aspects of program - from ascertaining impact in terms of numbers to determining reasons for outcomes and tracking implementation processes. The study contributed to assessing and documenting the nature and impact of the program on students to ascertain whether it had enabled better skills and job opportunities, promoted career progression, or improved personal and familial standard of living. The study also reviewed program processes by assessing the implementation approach and mechanisms of the program and determined whether it had any impact on training partners and colleges.
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