Here is good news for students who seek vocational training after School Leaving Certificate examination. The government has decided to provide vocational training and scholarship to the 75, 000 SLC students living under the poverty line by 2015.

The Enhanced Vocational Education and Training (EVENT) Project under the Ministry of Education (MoE) would take the Proxy Mean Test (PMT) of the students at exam centers where students will have to fill up a form with details of their financial status.

The students will be allowed to fill up the forms from March 13 to March 24 in 1,776 SLC exam centers across the country.

Vocational trainings would be provided on off-season vegetable farming, mechanics, embroidery, telecommunications, plumbing, electronics, tailoring, painting, herbal plant harvesting, masonry, cookery, among others, targeting deprived groups living in the rural areas and under the poverty line. Dalits, Janajatis and people with disability would be given top priority.

SLC students would receive a 15-month vocational training. However, the government would provide 29-month training to those who fail to cross the iron-gate, said EVENT Director Laxmi Ram Paudel, speaking at the program organized by the Education Journalist Network (EJON) in the capital on Saturday.

Students receiving 15-month program would also get Rs 32,000. Similarly, students enrolled in the 29-month training program would receive a total Rs 60,000 in installments.

The project that was launched in July 2011 in collaboration with the World Bank will spend a total 60.9 million US dollar to implement the program till October 2015. So far, 904 students have already received such vocational trainings. Similarly, trainings for another 908 students will start next week.

The project aims to enhance the capability of the technical education and vocational training sector to produce employable and productive youths for both domestic and international market, said Khim Narayan Shrestha, senior planning officer of the EVENT project.

“One of the key activities of the project is the provision of short-term vocational skills training and job placement to youths from poor and disadvantaged communities and regions by 2015,” he added.

source: republica,17 Feb 2013