British Council to train 1L students in AP

​Amaravati: The state government entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the British Council at Velagapudi here on Thursday, to launch a pilot project to improve the soft skills and employability of one lakh university and college students in the state.

On this occasion, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that his government wants to make Andhra Pradesh the best state in the country by 2029. “A major part of this vision is to develop the state into a knowledge hub, by strengthening the current education system,” he said.

The Chief Minister had asked the British Council to explore other opportunities and partnerships in the field of education to help increase the employability of students.

The Chief Minister said that there was an urgent need to promote other languages in the state apart from Telugu and English. “Students should be encouraged to learn other languages such as Hindi and Tamil and they also should take up courses in foreign languages,” he added.

The state government invited the British Council last year to investigate the situation of English language teaching and learning in 14 higher education institutions, whereby in July- August, 139 teachers, 672 learners and 90 staff members participated in the programme.

The outcomes of the study suggested that there is a strong need to improve language proficiency and soft skills of students enrolled in the higher education institutions in the state.

In this backdrop, the state government entered into a partnership with the British Council to provide training to students in areas related to spoken English, communication, confidence building, better employability, resume writing and preparation for interviews, which is in line with the state’s vision to transform it into a knowledge hub by developing an ecosystem that is targeted towards youth development and employability.

What makes the pilot project unique is, it offers new and innovative approaches to language learning and assessment, involving flexible, scalable, blended and digital self-access solutions that had been developed, based on an extensive research about the needs of the learners and required parameters of teaching English.

The pilot project offers 150 hours (100 hours of face- to-face interviews and 50 hours of online English) of blended learning model supplemented with mobile learning and English clubs for continued support to students.

This initiative would also include training of 150 master trainers and 2,500 teachers. For effective implementation of the project, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) and British Council would evolve a coordinated approach in selecting and training 150 highly qualified master trainers to be trained by the representatives who would further train 2,500 teachers selected from across the state.

These 2,500 teachers would further provide face-to-face training to one lakh students enrolled in AP Higher Education Institutions. Alan Gemmell, director, British Council India said, “We will fulfil the chief minister’s ambitious goals and provide support to the state in improving the educational opportunities and employment skills of the learners.”