Community parks to mould skills of rural youth

Community skill parks in to be set up at district, taluk levels

Rural youth will no longer have to idle away their time for want of opportunities. For, opening at their doorsteps shortly would be community skill parks to identify and mould their skills.

To be branded Kaushal Kendras, these skill development parks are a unique initiative of the Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE), the State’s apex skill development agency and the State equivalent of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

The first of such Kaushal Kendras will be opened at Chavara in Kollam district next month. This will be followed by centres in Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Azheekode. Soon such centres will come up in all districts and then in all taluks.

“They will serve as hubs for the development of skills of the rural youth. These centres are being set up using Plan funds and would have access to funding by the NSDC as well,” Rahul R., managing director, KASE, told

The Hindu . The Kendras will have a highly automated English language lab, to be set up in association with the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. It will offer training in basic functional English, intermediary level of the standard of IELTS, and advanced business English. They will have an assessment and career guidance cell to help assist the rural youth. A high-end digital library complete with a touch screen facility will ensure access to digitised content from across the world. The KASE will subscribe to e-libraries and make it available at the Kendras.

Another important component of these centres will be a multi-skill room with videoconference facility. “It will act as a training centre for that rural hub with facilities for both simulation and hands-on training. There will be round-the-year training in various fields with the support of training and industrial partners. Candidates undergoing training successfully would also get placement,” Mr. Rahul said.