The Kerala Academy for Skills Development (KASE) has given accreditation to the Kochi-based Hedge School of Applied Economics to launch Kerala’s first skill development centre in the financial services sector.

At an event held to present the accreditation certificate here on Monday, Labour and Skills Minister Shibu Baby John said that though Kerala was highly literate, financial literacy in the State was poor and hence people’s participation in the capital market was very low.

His department, which runs KASE, had earlier on decided that the first skills development programme would be in banking and financial services. KASE had intended to ask Dubai Media City to set up the first facility for this. When that did not become a reality, Hedge School of Applied Economics, a venture of Hedge Equities, had come up with a better idea, he said.

The Minister said he was proud that Kerala was the first State to have launched the skills development centre envisaged under a Central scheme for scaling up young people’s skills. KASE was much ahead of the Rs. 300-crore centre to be located at Ahmedabad which was announced by the Prime Minister.

R Rahul, Managing Director of KASE said the government had examined several models for the academy and the functionaries had visited several institutions in India and abroad. Alex K Babu, CMD of Hedge Equities, said the school would aim to produce top-class financial services professionals in Kerala.

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