CEMCA Conducted Outreach Programme at NSOU Vocational Study Center

New Delhi, 31st July, 2018: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) supporting Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata through a three-year joint project entitled “Increase Access and Improve Institutional Capacity for Sustainable Development through Vocational Education and Training”. The objective of this three year project is to increase enrolment in different vocational courses of the university so that the disadvantaged rural people can get access to skill development programmes of this university. The students are able to take the advantages of skill enhancement programme by which they can increase their skills and competencies in a particular trade. In the second year of the project CEMCA-NSOU conducted the outreach programme at its study centre namely Nari Sikhsa Samiti, Kolkata on 28th July 2018. Forty one learners attended this program out of which 38 were women. All the five academic counsellors of the centre attended the programme.

On behalf of the Project Team, Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA; Professor Anirban Ghosh, Director, NSOU; Smt. Barnali Roy Choudhury and Shri Sudarshan Roy, Assistant Professor, NSOU were facilitated the programme. The Team members interacted with the Academic Counsellors, Coordinators and the Students of the study centre.

In the first session the team members met with the Counsellors, Coordinator of the study centre and discussed various issues on the CEMCA supported courses with special reference to vocation and employment including teaching-learning process, availability of academic resources, experiences on hands on-training etc. The academic counsellors requested to conduct orientation programme for upgradation of their knowledge and skills to provide quality training and learning.

In the afternoon session, learners of the study centre were participated in the programme. Dr Anirban Ghosh elucidated the vision of vocational courses as a whole and acquainted the learners on different types of courses being offered by NSOU special reference to CEMCA’s support and the different services being provided for the NSOU learners. He also elaborated various scope and coverages of different courses. Mrs. Barnali Roy Choudhury demonstrated on use of NSOU OER repository and ICT services to access the available educational resources for better learning. In this program NSOU team met all the participants individually to make them understand the accessibility of ICT and NSOU-OER repository. During the program a semi structured questionnaire was circulated among the learners and counsellors to get their feedback on various issues like ICT support, teaching learning methods, practical sessions, etc. on respective courses. On this occasion, an exhibition was also arranged where, the garments and designs developed by the NSOU students were displayed during the programme. The programme ended with vote of thanks proposed by Mrs. Rita Banerjee, Coordaintor of the Stuidy Centre.