The Context
Around 800 new students join this college every year. Even though the college is situated at the heart of the city, most of the students come from rural areas and that too from poor economic background. We understand that they have no other means to develop their inborn talents. So, we organize a wide range of courses and programmes for developing soft skills, life skills, and entrepreneurial skills, artistic and academic talents. Continuing Education Sub Centre is an Institution run in the Government College for Women for the last sixteen years. This Sub Centre comes under the Government of Kerala Initiative, Centre for Continuing Education, Kerala. There are at present 15 teachers and three office staff under this sub-centre which was started with the aim of equipping women employable and self-reliant. This sub-centre is under the control of a 9 member advisory committee with the Principal of the College as President and a teacher of the institution as Manager.
Objectives:
- To mould an individual into a good human being, efforts are undertaken by the college authorities to cultivate personal skills needed for a good life.
- To develop soft skills, life skills, and entrepreneurial skills, artistic and academic talents among students
- To conduct non-formal courses and to help women gain skills and knowledge, and to provide training that could lead to jobs or often self – employment.
- Aim of equipping women employability self-reliant and thus economically independent.
- Training the students (girls) for self-employment will not only help them but also their family.
Students who get enrolled in this college are welcomed with an induction meeting in which they are imbibed with an awareness of the tradition and history of the college, the various programmes that are offered as well as the rules and regulations to be observed in the campus. The Continuing Education Sub Centre of the college offers a large number of skill development courses. At present, the sub-centre offers 340 courses, which include training in various skills, interior decoration, toy making, embroidery and craft, beautician courses, fashion designing, numerous painting and computer courses. In addition to these courses, the subcentre is conducting 6 government-approved short term courses on DCA, Tally, MS Office, DTP, Data Entry, Word Processing and Beauty Therapy & Beauty parlour management and two one-year diploma courses in Fashion Designing and Beauty therapy & Cosmetology. These courses are conducting under the approval and supervision of the Centre for Continuing Education, Govt. of Kerala.
All the courses run by the subcentre are self-financing and thus generates its own resources. A share of the profit earned is given to the college, which in turn, is utilized for its development. Thus, the students are getting double benefit out of the sub-centre. They are equipped with skills which enable them to seek self-employment and to be responsible citizens who are useful to the society. As there is no age limit for attending courses in this centre, students ranging from the age of 3 to 75 are undergoing training on various courses. In the IT sector, diploma in computer application and short-term courses like MS office, Data entry, DTP Data Entry, Word processing and Tally are being conducted. All these courses are approved by the Govt. of Kerala, and students get benefit on KPSC appointments. The sub-centre is conducting another Govt. approved diploma course on Beauty therapy and beauty parlour management, of duration 1 year. In addition to these, several short-term courses like painting, stitching, craft etc are also being conducted. The students belonging to SC, ST and BPL categories are giving fee concession for Govt. approved courses.
For the college-going students, separate classes are being conducted from 7.30 to 9.30 am and 3.30 to 5.00 pm. As a result of this, the students can come out of college after studying job-oriented courses also. Apart from this, short-term courses like Cooking, Yoga and Music is being conducted for housewives. All the courses conducted in this centre have a separate syllabus. The syllabus followed for Govt. approved courses are directed and approved by CCEK and KPSC respectively. The syllabus for other programmes is being prepared by the concerned teachers of the sub-centre and submitted to the CCEK for approval, after placing the Advisory Committee of the sub-centre. The courses will be conducted after getting approval from the CCEK. The examination pattern for the Govt. approved courses is as per CCEK, conducted by the Controller of Examinations of CCEK and the certificates are issued to the students by the centre directly. Examinations for other short-term programmes are being conducted by the concerned Faculty members. Those who fail in the examination are given the chance to appear for the examination along with the next batch.