In order to emphasise the importance of English in higher education, every undergraduate degree course at Gujarat’s first public skill university, Kaushalya – The Skill University (KSU), will now include English as a required subject, as well as lessons in ethics and etiquette.
The state government recently announced that English will be made a mandatory subject beginning in Class 1 in all government primary schools beginning in June 2022. The subject is currently taught in government schools in Class 3.
The university, which is set to commence six undergraduate degree and 50 diploma courses with an initial intake of 600 students from June 2022, will also provide mandatory lessons in ethics and etiquette.
The programmes, keeping in line with the National Education Policy 2020, will follow the choice-based credit system (CBCS).
“Looking at the demand for English skills and soft skills from the industry, it has been decided to include these as mandatory subjects in the first semester for all degree programmes,” said Anju Sharma, principal secretary, department of labour, skill development and employment.
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) has collaborated with the department of labour, skill development, and employment to conduct and simplify English exams as well as English language classes in the state’s Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).
Two credits for English and two credits for Ethics & Etiquette will be part of six degree courses offered in its first year — BSc in transport technology and electric mobility, BSc in steel technology, B Com in insurance and banking, BA in tourism and event management, BBA in logistics, and BCA in cloud computing.
For all these courses, an industry representative has been tied up with. “Every programme is industry collaborated with a compulsory one-year apprenticeship module and 30 per cent skilled courses. Some of these names in the industry are HDFC Bank, Amazon, ArcelorMittal, Adani Logistics Limited, Maruti Suzuki. These industries have also been tied up to conduct instructor training programmes in each sector,” added Anju Sharma, who is also the ex-officio vice-chancellor of KSU.
Till the campus is ready at Shilaj in Ahmedabad, for which the state government has allocated Rs 38 crore in this financial budget, the university will run from Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute in Ahmedabad.
Along with offering courses with higher employability prospects, the government intends to upgrade its 525 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) by affiliating them with the Skill University.
The university has already affiliated with five ITIs and upgraded them to skill institutes offering undergraduate courses, in addition to affiliation with eight industry-run and sponsored skill institutes.
KSU aims to facilitate skill development among youth, as well as “entrepreneurship development,” in line with the state government’s slogan of “not be a job seeker, but a job creator and giver.”