Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya and Builders’ Association Signed MoU
Inspector General of Police, Western Zone, Tamil Nadu, Sanjay Arora (right), Swami Atmaramananda, secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya (second right), G. Srinivasan, chairman of the Builders’ Association of India, Coimbatore centre, (second left) and B. Jayaram, chairman of the training committee of the association (left) at the signing of an MoU between Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya and Builders’ Association of India in the city on Friday. Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya and Builders’ Association of India, Coimbatore Centre, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Friday to train students for the construction sector. The association will construct a training yard and a hostel for the students at a cost of Rs. 85 lakh on the Vidyalaya premises. According to B. Jayaram, chairman of the training committee of the association, nearly 300 students will benefit through the centre annually. The boarding and administration costs work out to Rs. 52 lakhs a year and this will be borne by the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Women Development for two years.
Three main courses will be conducted initially for bar bending fitters, masons and shuttering carpenters. The classes will be held for three months at the institute and for 12 months at a construction site. Chairman of the association G. Srinivasan said the courses would commence in January 2009, after completion of the infrastructure works. The agreement envisaged the need for a training institute to produce qualified and certified artisans for the construction sector, on a par with other industries.
After two years, the association proposed to introduce courses for plumbers, electricians, crane operators, mechanics and laboratory technicians. The school of construction artisans would have the latest tools, equipment and formwork materials. Speaking at a function organised for signing of the MoU, Sanjay Arora, Inspector General of Police, Western Zone, Tamil Nadu, said nearly 60 per cent of the workforce in developed countries were trained. It was roughly 28 per cent in some of the developing countries. In India, it was just 5 per cent.
“In our system, we are producing very competitive individuals but a weak society. The project will make the society strong,” he said. This brought together students, institutions and industries and thus would deliver collective benefit. Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya Swami Atmaramananda stressed the need to incorporate values as the basis of any activity. According to G. Murali, principal of the ITI-Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, the target group for the course would be school drop outs and unemployed youth in rural areas. The institute would facilitate student enrolment and provide faculty for the programmes.
