THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Aimed at equipping the youth with the latest skills required for emerging job roles, the state will soon set up over 200 skill development centres that would provide free training in advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT).
The project, to be implemented by Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK), will target youth below the age of 21 years, who have passed Class X. Under the Union Education Ministry’s Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project, the state has received assistance to set up 236 skill development centres. General Education Minister V Sivankutty had recently announced that 210 such centres would come up in the first phase.
According to SSK officials, the skill development centres would be set up in select high and higher secondary schools. To ensure wider reach, all 168 Block Resource Centres of SSK in the state will have at least one skill development centre. The remaining centres will be allotted based on the needs of the districts concerned.
“All skill development centres will have two batches of 25 students each. Each centre will offer two courses of six months’ duration from diverse fields,” an official with SSK said. Those who successfully complete the course will be awarded National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) certification. The timings of the batches will be fixed in such a manner that even school and college-going students up to the age of 21 can attend the classes conveniently, the official said.
The Union government had conceptualised the skill development centres to mainly benefit ‘out-of-school children’ who are not enrolled in any school or dropped out at any stage before completing elementary education. However, owing to the very few numbers of such children in Kerala, Class X has been proposed as the minimum eligibility criteria for enrolment to the skill courses in the state.
“Placing minimum eligibility criteria of Class X would ensure that the latest IT-enabled vocational courses can be introduced to the beneficiaries with ease,” the official said. As per the preliminary discussions with the general education department, the services of Vocational Higher Secondary Education (VHSE) teachers would be utilised for conducting the classes.