The civic body will soon tie up with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to set up skill development centres for wards of its conservancy workers, as well as Corporation school students, who are likely to drop out by the end of this academic year.
About 5,000 students will benefit from the programme.
The Chennai Corporation will roll out the programme in the next three to four months. “We are targeting children of conservancy workers, primarily because we want them to explore better opportunities,” said a senior official. The Corporation is in the process of collecting data on such children.
With help from the Centre for Science of Learning, run by the Corporation and Quest Explore Discover, the civic body has already identified students likely to drop out of Corporation schools.
“We know who will drop out due to academic issues or other socio-economic reasons. With skills training, they will be able to find jobs easily,” the official said.
Currently, vocational programmes run by the Corporation do not carry certificates from established bodies. “We are hoping to tie up with the National Skill Development Corporation and the National Urban Livelihood Mission to certify the youth,” the official said.
Several corporate firms have shown interest in setting up training centres, partnering with the Corporation, under their corporate social responsibility initiatives.
“CII will rope in a training partner, as well as link students to companies that want to hire them. They will be trained in industries that are highly employable, like retail, IT, automobile and hospitality,” he said.
The Corporation is also in discussions to enable its schools to function after school hours for other learning and vocational training activities.
“We have much infrastructure that is underused. We want to use our schools for maximum hours for public good,” the official said, adding that soon training programmes would be conducted after school hours for not just Corporation school students, but any interested youth, free of cost or at subsidised rates.
“We are awaiting proposals from credible partners to go ahead with the idea,” he said.
