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NT Bureau
Chennai, May 23:

        The Board of Apprenticeship Training (southern region) will provide training to 2.8 lakh students passing out of vocational, ITI and engineering colleges in the southern region in the 11th Five Year Plan period, said director and adviser of Regional Central Apprenticeship Training A Ayyakannu.

        Addressing a press conference here recently, Ayyakannu said the apprenticeship scheme would help students in a big way.

        'Plus Two vocational students are placed in assembling, testing and related work in MNCs. In automobile factories, engineering graduates may be placed in design, manufacturing or quality control. They are trained in various fields such as manufacturing, automobile, software, pharmaceutical, process and computer hardware industry,' Ayyakannu said.

        Apprentices are given a stipend and on completing the one-year training, candidates will receive a government of India certificate, enhancing their job prospects.

        Currently, the stipend ranges from Rs 1,090 to Rs 1,970 for the various categories. A gazette notification hiking the current stipend amount by 33 per cent is expected soon, Ayyakannu pointed out.

        At present, the Board conducts the interviews and selects candidates but many industries may go to colleges, select students and train them. On 30 May, the Board will hold a walk-in interview for graduates and diploma holders in engineering and technology.

        'The college principals provide the list of qualifying candidates and we identify the candidates and have a walk-in interview. The MNCs coming up in Irungattukottai need many Plus Two candidates. The stipend for these candidates will also be higher,' he said.

        During the 10th Plan, scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) women and physically challenged candidates formed a major portion of the trainees.

        About 12 per cent of the trained candidates belonged to categories such as SC/ST. Eight per cent of the candidates were from minorities and women formed 28 per cent of the 1.40 lakh candidates who underwent the training. 'The future for candidates taking up apprenticeship is bright with more industries providing training and the stipend in multinational companies is also higher. We have identified 1522 industries across the southern states', he added.

        The Board of Apprenticeship Training is a Central government- sponsored autonomous body under the Human Resources Development Ministry in the Department of Higher Education.