Kallam Anji Reddy vocational college to offer free education

It was inaugurated by Shashank Goel, the secretary of Board of Intermediate Education & director of intermediate education, C R Naidu, DIG (Hyderabad range) and Mentor of CAP Project, was the guest of honour.

Speaking on the occasion, Goyal was all praise for Dr Reddy's Foundation for taking the initiative to promote vocational education amongst children from the deprived sections of society.

He said over 30,000 students enroll every year for vocational courses, as against 6.5 lakh students enrolling for general courses at the intermediate level in the state.

The government is also planning to introduce bridge courses for the students from the vocational stream to pursue further studies in professional courses by appearing for EAMCET and other such qualifying exams.

It is considering short-term courses of 3 to 1 year duration for 10th class drop-outs to help them get suitable employment.

K Anji Reddy, the chairman of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, said in his address: "Our goal is to accelerate the process of poverty elimination and the objective of Dr Reddy's Foundation is to create a million jobs by 2010. Our CAPS (Children And Police) programme started 6 years ago for street children has been a success and LABS (Livelihood Advancement Business School) has made an impact by developing marketable skills amongst young adults from economically weak background for them to assimilate into the competitive job market. To get credibility to LABS, we have taken initiative to get accreditation for LABS from an International agency - International Vocational Qualification, UK."

C R Naidu said security industry was the fastest growing industry in the world. He urged Dr Reddy's Foundation to include a course on security, promised full support from the police for its projects.

Prabhakar Varma, the area manager of Plan International, an NGO working in 45 countries towards rehabilitating children from deprive sections, said many countries had evinced keen interest to replicate CAP project.

Nalini Gangadharan, the ED of Dr Reddy's Foundation, said the college was started with the objective to bridge the gap between CAPS & LABS and provide suitable education training to children in the age group of 16 to 18. The junior college will have vocational courses in computer sciences, automobile services, hotel management and nursing.