Kolkata to make vocational courses more job-oriented
With less than 1% of West Bengal’s youth going for vocational training courses, the state government has sought the advice of industry to make this segment more popular and job-oriented.
By TNN |
KOLKATA: With less than 1% of West Bengal’s youth going for vocational training courses, the state government has sought the advice of industry to make this segment more popular and job-oriented.
The decision comes at a time when nearly 80 lakh qualified students are unemployed in the state. “Large scale of unemployment in the state is largely because of such low interest in vocational training courses. At present, some 40,000-odd students enrol for vocational training programmes and unless the numbers increase the situation will worsen,” said Chakradhar Maikap, the state’s technical education minister.
| US-based Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) is in talks with Jadavpur University to set up a campus in Kolkata. The Kolkata facility will primarily focus at delivering vocational training of global standards, said Jadavpur University vice chancellor Shyamal Sanyal. “We have sent our faculty members at NVCC to understand how they provide various vocational courses for students who opt out of school or college. NVCC is one of the largest vocational training institutes in the US and we will soon finalise the details for the Kolkata centre,” said Mr Sanyal. |
Mr Maikap was talking at a seminar organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) in association with Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
The minister said that there are few vocational training centres in the state for students who drop-out from schools. “The government wants to focus in this segment largely and want the advice of industry and chambers of commerce to revamp the entire curriculum. The state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is also taking keen interest in it,” said Mr Maikap.
The state is also going to set up vocational training centres in secondary and higher schools across the state. “The thrust will be in the rural areas and we intend to set up 500 such centres every year,” Mr Maikap added.
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