Best Practices 1
Title of the Practice:
DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAY KAUSHAL KENDRA
MAHISHADAL RAJ COLLEGE
(A Centre of Excellence for Vocational Studies)
Skill Development Programme Sponsored by Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India, under the supervision of University Grants Commission.
Objective:
To create skilled manpower for industry requirements at various levels and act as finishing school by providing supplementary modular training programmes so that a learner, irrespective of his/her training background, is made job ready with necessary work skills (soft, communication, ICT skills etc) and fill the gaps in the domain skills measured against QPs/NOSs.
Context:
Despite with over 50% of population under the age of 30 years, India is facing a demand-supply mismatch as the economy needs more ‘skilled’ workforce as well as managers and entrepreneurs than produced annually. This programme aims to provide formal training to school dropouts and XIIth pass candidates (constituting almost 59% of total job seekers in East Midnapore), thereby increasing their employability. The Mahishadal Raj College, DDU KAUSHAL Kendra will focus on providing vocational training at the Higher Secondary and University levels that will be dovetailed into the National Vocational Educational Qualifications Framework.
Practice:
Courses have been selected following detailed survey of the economy, demography, and industrial opportunities in surroundingareas. At present, DDU Kaushal Kendra offers B.Voc. in Automobile, Health Care, Medical Laboratory Technology, Hospitality Management, and Retail Management and Operation.
Evidence of Success:
Approximately 70% students from the B.Voc. courses secure jobs through campus placements in reputed companies such as Hero, Royal Enfield, Ashok Leyland, Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors (for B.Voc. in Automobile); Max Fashion, Pantaloons, Reliance (for B.Voc. in Retail Management and Operation); Organ Diagnostic Centre, Sanjiban, Micro Lab (for B.Voc. in Medical Laboratory Technology); AMRI, Institution of Neuro Science, Rubi Hospital (for B.Voc in Health Care); Hyatt Regency – Kolkata, The Fort – Raichak, Shiv Vilas – Jaipur (for B.Voc. in Hospitality Management).
Problems Encountered and Resources Required:
There is a mental inhibition among the masses against vocational training. It was a challenge to acquaint them with the emerging market structure and the job roles in demand. Lack of governmental effort in spreading vocational education specifically at secondary and higher secondary level added to the reluctance of the candidates for vocational training.
Vocational education requires elaborate laboratories, appropriate equipment, and modern technologies to facilitate the production of readily available workforce in the job market. The DDU Kaushal Kendra has managed to establish a state-of-art centre with all these facilities, aiding students in up-skilling themselves.
Best Practices 2
Title of the practice:
Need-based Course Design and Learner-centric Language Training
Objective:
To design Language courses as per the needs of learners and job market. Being a rural college, most of the learners come here from Bengali –speaking families. Learning languages like English and Hindi is important for the students to enhance their communication skills and as well as to find jobs.
Context:
Most language courses are by nature prescriptive and thus hardly care for individual need based, learner centric training. Our college has taken initiatives to assess the specific needs of the students and conduct the tutorials without any extra tuition fee. Many first-generation learners have found our bilingual language learning beneficial as a part of their grooming process.
Practice:
The college makes arrangement for an interactive counselling session for students of different disciplines in the CG room of the college. A Digital Language laboratory is running with some success to aid this process of development. The students arecategorized into three groups based on their communicative efficiency in English and Hindi into three sections – comparatively strong students, learners with working knowledge of the language, and weak students – and methods are devised to address their specific shortcomings.
Evidence of Success:
The Practice has changed the discourse in Faculty and students as to what is learned and the methodology of it. The overflowing demand for our language courses is a testimony to our popularity as well as our success. Apart from knowledge providers and software companies, many industry-based companies in Haldia haverecruited our students with optimum language skills.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required:
Most of the learners come from rural backgrounds and do not have regular access to internet and interactive communication outside the boundaries of the college. To combat this, we encourage our learners to get enrolled in NCC so that they may have a wider exposure to language communication outside the purview of the college. The students of the college also often take part in educational tours to different parts of the country as a part of their subject programmes.
