Skill development programmes off the radar

An ambitious English skill training course runs into teething problems

While the State government is grappling with rise in unemployment among the weaker sections, it has emerged that some of the skill development programmes taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes Cooperative Finance Corporation (APSCFC) are off the radar.

The AP government has given a major thrust to providing Employability Linked training programs and has identified 11 core sectors such as automotives, beauty care and wellness, media, construction and electronics sector, which have the potential of creating jobs. A target of providing skill-based training to 5,000 persons in tune with National Skill Development Corporation has been completed successfully.

However, a new proposal to provide training in English communication skills at a huge cost is kicking off a storm in the corporation. The corporation has allotted ₹10,000 for each participant with no assurance of placement.

While the aim of the proposal is to provide English skills to unemployed youth, the corporation is firming up proposals to provide English certification course ‘DynEd English course’, at a cost of ₹9 crore to 7,000 community facilitators at one go.

DynEd is a high-end computer-based English learning course loaded with a heavy American accent and is suited for graduates entering into service sector and does not offer core skills.

‘No core skills’

“The DynEd programme does not provide any training in core skills. An unemployed youth needs core employable skills. It is also not suited for community facilitators, who have a mandate to create awareness on institutional finance and motivate unemployed youth of SC community to start their own units. And that too, giving the nod to a company for training 7,000 personnel at one go will cost a huge amount to State exchequer,” said a source.

Hyderabad-based NEcX Private Limited, which offers specialized training modules to students of private engineering colleges and corporate companies, has been roped in by the corporation.

While the APSCCFC has allotted 30 students in 10 districts in the State, the company wants it to scale to 500 students per district citing financial viability.