The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Need to partner private education providers stressed

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Wednesday, Aug 18, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Need to partner private education providers stressed

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: ‘Unconventional networking' and ‘innovative collaboration' with private education providers outside the university system are essential to provide skill development to India's work force, said V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), on Monday.

Speaking at the launch of short-term hospitality courses by Everonn Skill Development Limited (ESDL) to be certified by IGNOU, Dr. Pillai said only 5 per cent of the total work force in the country had some sort of skill certificate and it would be possible to improve on this only by partnering with private sector education providers.

“We can also bring them into the formal system by allowing them to upgrade their certificates to diplomas and over time, through the community college system, to degree certificates.”

The hospitality course would also have the advantage of helping school dropouts as the minimum qualification for some of the courses is Class VIII.

P.S. Lakshmi Narayan, general manager, Academy for Culinary and Hospitality Studies, ESDL, said as a pilot move, seven or eight of the 20 planned courses would be launched in five centres.

Two centres are in Chennai, one in Tiruchi and one in Madurai. The fifth centre would be in GRT Radisson, exclusively for the hotel's employees, he said. The plan is to enrol around 1,000 students in the first academic year, with courses ranging from one to six months.

In the second phase, 7,000 students in 30 centres spread across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh would be enrolled, he said.

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