DHARWAD, October 21: Through a new education programme, “Naipunya Nidhi”, the State government plans to impart training in job and life skills to three lakh degree students every year with focus on developing entrepreneurship skills, Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande has said.
He was inaugurating “Sahayoga Conclave 2013”, a job fair organised by the Department of Collegiate Education and Janata Shikshana Samiti at JSS College here on Sunday.
Mr. Deshpande said that although there was a rush at the regional-level job fairs being held in the State, many students from rural areas and semi-urban areas lacked job skills, communication skills, life skills and as a result, they were unable to get jobs in reputed companies.
Considering the need for training them in developing skills, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had come out with the “Naipunya Nidhi” programme, which would be comprehensive in nature and would make students industry-ready, he said.
Elaborating on the potential of entrepreneurship in the era of globalisation, Mr. Deshpande said that the new education programme would focus on developing entrepreneurship qualities among students so that they would become employers rather than employees.
Potential
The Minister said that North Karnataka region, particularly Hubli, Dharwad and Belgaum, had the potential to start own businesses and considering the potential, both the Union and State governments had launched a series of subsidy schemes to motivate those taking up self-employment.
He advised young graduates not to remain satisfied with getting a job in a multinational company but to make efforts to become employers instead of ending up as an employee.
Mr. Deshpande said that agriculture processing units could be the best option to start with as they did not require huge investments. He appealed to teachers not to make the youth a liability but help them develop into the nation’s assets.
Referring to absenteeism among lecturers in government colleges, he said that the government would install biometric machines in every government college to ensure that teachers engaged their classes regularly.
Director of Collegiate Education B.L. Bhagyalakshmi said that the “Sahayoga” programme launched during 2009-10 had helped 15,000 students get jobs in various industries and companies. Over 80,000 students had be given job training.
Finance Officer of JSS College Ajit Prasad said that over 2,500 students from 82 government colleges registered for the job fair in which 60 companies participated.
JSS Secretary N. Vajra Kumar and MLA Vinay Kulkarni were present.
