KOZHIKODE: The vocational education should focus on practical training in developing skills to make it more fruitful, opined IIMK dean Saji Gopinath, while speaking at a national seminar on ‘Job-oriented skill development through National Service Scheme,’ organised as part of the state annual meet of National Service Scheme, Vocational Higher Secondary Education (VHSE) Department at the GVHSS for Girls, Nadakkavu, on Sunday. The seminar was arranged as part of Sidhi 2020, a project of NSS to develop skilled youth through VHSE. He also observed that the VHSE that aims to bring out skilled manpower, which is the need of the hour, is not completely serving the purpose with the outdated syllabus as well as the lack of administration and implementation. The attitude of the government and the public towards vocational training needs to be changed along with the change of syllabus to attract more dedicated students towards it. Although less than 10 courses under the VHSE are outdated, people are having a notion that all the 41 courses are outdated, he pointed out.
He also urged the students to make use of the skills they have and to utilise the resources available. “Most of the students are not doing what they are capable of and NSS volunteers can do much more,” he opined citing the example of an experience shared by a student from GVHSS, Eravipuram, where the NSS unit built house for a poor student of the school, doing everything from fund raising to construction work by themselves.
Samuel Chelliah, head and youth officer, NSS Regional Centre, who spoke on the seminar, urged the students to be job creators rather than job seekers.
“Unlike the common tendency of seeking jobs after studies, the students who have acquired vocational education and various skills through it should create and provide jobs,” he said. He also urged them to get into blue collar jobs as well, to invest time rather than spending it and to earn skills through education.
K K Hameed, former NSS programme officer of JDT Islam Vocational Higher Secondary School and CEO of Al-Abeer Group, urged the students to get into entrepreneurship. “Make use of the business incubators available in the country and incubate your projects and ideas in them,” he said. He also asked them to globalise their thoughts through visits to various places and institutes. “The opportunities that the NSS provides to travel to different places should be effectively utilised. Visiting various places and exploring the resources in various institutions in the country such as the IIMK will help the students in changing their perspective towards the world and in developing the skills,” he observed. Biju K S, programme officer, GVHSS, Tripunithura, who spoke at the seminar, told the students to make use of their skills for the development of the society through the Sidhi Project.