The Hindu Business Line : Imparting SKILLS to service appliances

THE Tiruchirapalli Regional Engineering College Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP) is setting set up a chain of institutions to train technicians to service modern household appliances.

These training centres would have modern facilities with curriculum developed in collaboration with global leaders in household goods manufacturing. The centres are to be set up in the public private partnership mode.

The project assisted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is to set up a series of Skills and Knowledge for Improved Livelihoods and Living Standards (SKILLS) Academy of TREC-STEP.

At the formal inauguration of the SKILLS Academy here today, Mr R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TREC-STEP, said that such academies would come up with public-private participation. Two had been set up in Chennai and more would be coming up in Bangalore also.

The move to set up the SKILLS Academies is based on TREC-STEP's earlier initiative Vocational Training for Employment Generation, in Tiruchi, which was also backed by the UNDP and DST.

Over the last three years more than a 400 students were trained, the courses streamlined and refined. The students were found successful in gaining employment and in setting up their own ventures, he said.

The project is now being extended over a wider area. Typically, students with secondary school education can receive training here in servicing and maintenance of electrical and electronic equipment.

They would undergo three months training in two streams - electronic equipment and electric equipment, particularly air conditioners and refrigerators.

Dr Maxine Olson, the Resident Representative, UNDP, said that the ability to provide high quality employment is key to poverty alleviation.

UNDP studies have shown that in developing economies the quality of life, especially health and education, does not always match the rate of economic growth.

The challenge of improving quality of life is providing quality employment. SKILLS Academy is a step in this direction, she said.

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