Fourteen candidates will receive entry-level skill development training free of cost at the Signal and Telecommunication Workshop in Podanur under the Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY) initiative, which was launched across 75 centres by Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday.
This is one of the two railway workshops from Southern Railway that was selected for this initiative, the other being Carriage and Wagon Workshop at Perambur in Chennai.
An official from the Podanur workshop told The Hindu that the 14 candidates were mostly from rural backgrounds in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and will be provided training in two trades – electrician and machinist – over the next three weeks.
In the inaugural batch, seven candidates will receive training for electrician trade and seven for machinist trade from two dedicated supervisors and other experts at the Podanur workshop, he said.
The training programme will comprise theoretical and practical learning and the candidates will be awarded a certificate at the end of the course.
The RKVY initiative will continue for the next three years and the Signal and Telecommunication Workshop in Podanur expects to train around 20 candidates per batch in the subsequent sessions, according to the official.
A press release from the Southern Railway said that participants were selected from applications received online on its website. Candidates who have passed Class X and in the age group of 18 to 35 were eligible to apply. However, the candidates cannot claim to seek employment in Railways on the basis of this training, the release said.
Southern Railway published notification through newspaper advertisements on August 18 and invited applications from eligible candidates with September 15 as the last date for application. The option of online application through a centralised website for the RKVY training programme will be made available soon, according to the release.
R. Deepa (22), a graduate from Dharmapuri district, who applied for the machinist programme at the Podanur workshop, said she applied for this programme based on her relative’s suggestion.
Abishek (22) from Kozhikode in Kerala, who had completed his B.Tech in Information Technology, said he plans to appear for Railway Recruitment Board examination after completing this training programme.
