JOIN USRetail business, computer skills for arts students
The department of collegiate education will carry out a pilot project at 38 colleges in two regions of the State where students of Humanities and Social Sciences will be taught retail business, entrepreneurship, computer skills, written skills as part of their degree courses.
The first of its kind in the State, the project will be implemented by the Department of collegiate education in association with the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC), the Karnataka Skills Commission and the Universities.
According to reliable sources within the department of higher education, the pilot will be carried out at 16 select colleges in Kolar and 22 colleges in the Gulbarga-Bijapur region.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, the Commissioner of the Department of Collegiate Education, Nagambika Devi said the idea behind the project was to make arts graduates employable.
A shift in focus
“Often the focus is on science and commerce students but the objective of this project is to make arts graduates employable,” she said.
The project will feature two modules, an abbreviated course for students who are in their final year and a more comprehensive module for students of first and second years.
“The course for the final year students will be a six month finishing school module after which the skills will be assessed. But, junior students will undergo a more comprehensive skills training programme,” a source said.
The stake holders have already had a preliminary meeting and the project will be ready to kick off by the end of September. And Kolar and Gulbarga-Bijapur regions have been selected as the intention was to carry out the pilot in both the Northern and Southern areas of the state. In fact, the idea to teach additional skills to students of humanities was part of the 26 recommendations that the Knowledge Commission submitted to the Chief Minister earlier this month.
“Our department will be implementing the project in co-ordination with the universities while the Knowledge and Skills commissions will provide funds for the project and be a supervisory authority,” Devi said.
She added that depending upon the response and impact the project will be extended to other regions in the state.
More BA grads
The project comes in the wake of a report with the Knowledge commission, which stated that more than 45 percent of the graduates each year in the state are BA graduates. Further, the report suggested that a large number of them were not fit for employment.