Vocational courses to empower youths

kolkata: in a unique initiative to steer indian youths towards a bright future, vocational academy is ready with its gamut of industry-specific courses. 'vocational academy intends to equip the rural and semi-urban youths with requisite skills in order to develop a skilled manpower by imparting vocational training to them,' said managing director, vocational academy a p srivatsan 'the emphasis would be on quality education and placement by providing structured short-term courses for semi-rural to urban youths to fill the gap in various service sectors including lifestyle, healthcare, telecom, hospitality, food and grocery, consumer durables and entrepreneurship management,' he added. 'we have already tied up with 42 brands. priced between rs 4,999 to 7,499 — the three-month vocational courses aim at churning out industry-ready professionals for various sectors of the economy,' mr srivatsan added. the entire effort would be need based and region specific with minimum enrolment criteria, he added. located at the outskirts of the metro cities, the vocad schools are currently operational in eight places across the nation. according to a survey, 72 per cent of the population under the age of 35 are unemployable.