Saturday, Sep 04, 2010
Job skills are taught as part of corporate training

Bangalore: Enrolment in many Government First Grade Colleges (GFGCs) the State has shot up this year, thanks to the job offers received by hundreds of final year degree students who underwent short-term training in their respective colleges last year. A large number of parents are reported to have evinced interest in admitting their children to government degree colleges, where the Department of Collegiate Education had introduced the training programme in life skills and job skills under Sahayog, a public-private partnership. The 100 hours of training offered to the students in spoken English and other life skills besides accounting, non-voice BPO, Tally and other job skills to enhance the employability of the students studying in government degree colleges has caught the fancy of not only parents, but students as well.

While parents preferred the admission of their children to 118 colleges where Sahayog had been launched last year, a majority of students in the final year degree course are looking forward to the commencement of the programme, which will be offered by select private agencies specialised in corporate training. Commissioner of Collegiate Education N. Nagambika Devi said many principals had reported that students preferred to join government colleges with Sahayog programme.

The department was under pressure from principals of many colleges to launch Sahayog in their institutions. "We will be introducing Sahayog in 82 more colleges this year.

The agencies providing training too are encouraged by the response from the students," she said.

Rajashekar Hebbar, Principal of GFGC, Barkur, Udupi district, where the enrolment had increased from 293 last year to 421 this year, said many parents enquired about the training programme and the job prospects before admitting their children to the college. "Does this college have the job training programme, placement facility and campus recruitment?", was what many parents had reportedly sought to know from the Principal. M.K. Nayak, Principal, GFGC, Bijapur, said the college strength had increased to 600 from the previous year's 465 and many of the final year degree students were eager to register for Sahayog this year.

"More awareness about the programme will certainly draw students and their parents towards government colleges," Mr. Nayak said.

L.N. Mahendrakar, Principal, GFGC, Shimoga, and Nagaraj, Principal, GFGC, Vijayanagar, Bangalore, too point out that Sahayog had become one of the factors luring students and parents.

Mr. Nagaraj said the student strength this year had increased to 1,950 from 1,700 previous year.

"We got feedback from colleges that students are showing interest in Sahayog and there has been increase in enrolment in such colleges. However, we are yet to analyse the process as it was introduced only in January this year," said M.K. Sridhar, Member-Secretary and Executive Director, Karnataka Knowledge Commission, which had initiated the concept of Sahayog.

As many as 6,488 students (2,658 boys and 3,830 girls) of final year degree courses were trained under Sahayog last academic year.

About 650 of them had job offers, said Manika Ghosh, Special Officer, Department of Collegiate Education.

Sahayog module included 100 hours of training - 40 hours in life skills like confidence building, spoken English, interpersonal skills, body language, and 60 hours of training in accounting.