Chandigarh 2 November
Punjab School Education Secretary Mr. Krishan Kumar while referring to the emerging trend of online (e-learning) education after COVID-19 emphasized the importance of skill development to tackle the current unemployment problem.
During his valedictory remarks at the seven-day training program today, Mr. Kumar said that the importance of skill development has increased tremendously in present time, hence our policies and programs should be the guided by that. He said that in future we could be more successful to tackle the problem of unemployment with skill development. A seven-day training programme of all the Vocational Trainers and Coordinators working under the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) concluded today which was jointly organized by Education Department Punjab and Punjabi University, Patiala.
Dr. B. S. Ghuman, Vice Chancellor, Punjabi University Patiala in his opening remarks explained about the importance of vocational and skill oriented courses. He informed that University has recently started 25 skill oriented courses analyzing the current demand of the market.
The Assistant Director (Vocational) of the department, Smt. Surinderpal Kaur Hira welcomed the chief guests. Mr. Chirnajiv Guha explained about the objectives and courses under National Skill Development Council.
Ms. Slony Kaur, Deputy Manager (NSQF) Samagra Sikhya Abhiyan during the ceremony informed that this training programme was conducted online for two hours every day considering the precautions required due to Covid-19. She further elaborated that during the first two days, training was imparted on soft skills covering topics on classroom behavior management, Personality Development, Body Language, Body Posture, Teaching Skills and more. In the next four days, domain specific training specific to 12 vocational trades under NSQF by Master Trainers. Then, 5-hours training spread in three days was given on how to take online classes, video making, audio quality, editing of videos and various online apps for giving quiz etc available for this purpose.
Sh. Dharminder Singh, State Sports Coordinator,Samagra Sikhya Abhiyan informed that the training was conducted by the team from Center of e-Learning and Teaching Excellence, Punjabi University, Patiala. Dr. G.S. Batra (Director), Dr. Vishal Goyal (Deputy Director), Dr. Gurpreet Singh Josan (Coordinator), Dr. Vikas Deep (Co-Coordinator), Center for E-Learning and Teaching Excellence, Punjabi University Patiala, coordinated the successful implementation of the entire programme. He informed that earlier this team had conducted 8-days workshop for their Special Educators of Punjab.
Dr. Vishal Goyal informed that this training was conducted for 2 hours daily (Two sessions for each Trade) and there was a question and answer session at the end of each session. After the training, all the trainers were given practical assignments which all the participants which were evaluated and discussed about the strengths and weakness of their submitted assignments. The various resource persons for the Soft Skills module were Dr. Shalu Jindal, Dr. Manjinder Kaur Saini and Dr. Meena Thakur. The training in IT module was conducted by Dr. Yogender Pal of IIT Mumbai. The domain specific training related to various fields were conducted by Uday Bahnu Sahana (Construction), Mohendra Singh (Automotive), Ankita Sharma (IT/ ITeS), Dr. Inderjeet Singh (Agriculture), Col. K K Singh (Private Security), Naresh Sharma (Physical education and Sports), Namrat Seth Kundu (Beauty and Wellness), Meenakshi Singh (Healthcare). Jaswinder Singh (Plumbing), Priyanka Tyagi (Tourism and Hospitality), Rajesh Chand Mathur (Apparel) and Pratiksha Jain (Retail).
Mr. Arun Kumar, Coordinator, NSQF Training Programme told about the importance of this training programme. He informed that the video recordings of each session has already been uploaded on the NSQF Punjab Official Youtube Channel which will be an assest for them. Vocational trainers can watch these videos again and again and use this knowledge for continuous improvement in their teaching skills.
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Josan informed that there were 1910 vocational trainers which were trained through live streaming on Youtube. Dr. Vikas deep being from Management background thanked the Master Trainers saying that even though he has had his doctorate in retail but the knowledge imparted by Master Trainer of Retail has enhanced his practical knowledge many times.
Sh. Ashish Jaitley, Assistant Manager (NSQF) said that an online examination of trainers would also be conducted on the basis of the sessions. Mr. Arun Kumar has coordinated with all the speakers, preparing daily schedules, sending details about online joining Google Meet links to Speakers, sending youtube live streaming links to all participants daily sessions single handedly from the NSQF team. Certificates will be issued to the trainers after completion of the training. All the participants of the training programme were highly appreciative of the initiative taken by authorities and thanked the organizers for further honing their skills to impart vocational training more effectively now.
Dr. Gurdip Singh Batra, Director, Centre for E-Learning and Teaching Excellence appreciated the coordination between NSQF team and his team and congratulated all for the successful completion of the workshop which is itself big achievement for Punjabi University Patiala. His team is always ready for any such future endeavors. He presented Vote of thanks at the last. He informed that this centre is doing every effort for serving the society under the leadership of Honorable Vice Chancellor, Dr. B.S.Ghuman.