Centre for skill development opened

CHENNAI: There is a dire need to train the trainers before the trainees, is how T V Jayaraman, CEO of Everonn Education Limited, summarised the premise of their ambitious project, the first part of which, the Master Resource Centre for Skill Development, was inaugurated in Chennai on Monday. This centre is the first of its kind in the country, with similar ones coming up in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad by the end of this fiscal quarter. “We are attempting to develop ‘Master Trainers’, who are highly qualified, to impart industry-specific skill training to the unskilled masses in our country,” explained P Kishore, MD, Everonn Education Ltd.The facility at Perungudi was inaugurated by S Ramadorai, Advisor to the Prime Minister, National Skill Development Council. In his brief address, the VP of TCS said that this project should “look to increase the employability of youth, not merely within the country but also overseas.”The general idea of the programme is for these master trainers, who will be equipped to train young professionals in every leading industry using international-standard content, to work through Everonn Multi Skill Development Centres that are slated to come up across the country. “We are looking at setting up centres in 270 places in India through which we can hopefully make 1.5 crore people employable over the next decade,” said an ambitious Kishore. This is in line with a joint venture between Everonn Skill Development Ltd and NSDC called ‘International Skills School’.With a target of setting up 70 centres in the first year, he announced that with 20 centres close to ready, another 59 centres would be ready within 30 days. The proposed number of MRCs stands at 12 with a vision of training 58,400 master trainers across this period. Well-equipped and aesthetically designed, the MRCs as well as the training centres will have aspirational infrastructure, said Kishore.The Government of Tamil Nadu is working towards introducing several advanced concepts and technology-powered learning in vocational institutes, announced Santosh Mishra, Director-Employment and Training. “We have several exciting projects in the pipeline that will make the government’s education structure smoother within two years,” he added. B Santhanam, MD, Saint Gobain Glass India, advised the centre to enforce soft skill training even amongst the bottom-rung staff. He also announced that Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) would be happy to collaborate with Everonn to put up a technology-showcase and related themes.