German body selects Cane &
Bamboo Technology Centre
By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, June 12 – The city’s Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) has been selected by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) for the implementation of the National Vocational Training System (NVTS) in the entire North-east region. In this regard, both CBTC and GTZ have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the GTZ/NVTS will support the CBTC in developing a regional network for effective use of bamboo to promote livelihood options and skills for men and women for sustainable employment and self-employment.
CBTC director Kamesh Salam said the technical cooperation would address various issues regarding creation of job opportunities in the bamboo sector. Quality training services would be established for meeting the needs of the informal sector. In keeping with the vision of creating employment opportunities at the doorsteps, the focus will be on development and implementation of demand and market oriented curricula, he said.
Innovative training methodologies will be developed and implemented under GTZ/NVTS scheme to attract workers in the informal sector to learn new skills which would enhance their employability in the bamboo processing industry in the region. New training fields would be identified and created. To ensure greater reach, a system of collaboration, linkages and networking with relevant stakeholders would be developed.
According to Salam, the prime concern of employers is to employ workers who possess standardized and approved skills and with due certification. To address this, a credible system for skill testing and certification in the identified fields of work for pilot implementation will be developed. The implementation will be through the Centrally sponsored scheme of the Directorate General of Employment and Training under the Ministry of Labour.
The training and skill upgradation courses would be conducted in the existing training institutes in the North-east. The CBTC, which originally came up in 2000 as a UNDP and Department of Science and Technology (DST) project, is presently implementing the North East Regional Bamboo Mission (NERBAM) of the North Eastern Council, Shillong.
Once the NVTS gets underway it will be monitored and documented so that the process can be replicated elsewhere. The various activities envisaged under the system will be conducted till December 2007. Depending on the success of the pilot phase of NVTS, and if the system framework so developed under it is accepted for extension to other fields of work, it will become a reference module for implementation of future proposals of GTZ for promotion of the informal sector in India, Salam informed.
A two-day operational planning workshop was conducted by the CBTC and GTZ recently at the office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Guwahati. The session was inaugurated by S Dkhar, regional director, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts). Apart from officials involved in this sector, the NVTS senior technical advisor Anita Sharma was also present along with Josef Eickenseer, a leading international expert on bamboo processing skills. The workshop concluded with the emergence of a detailed operational plan, which will be adopted for the implementation of the NVTS in this region. |
