Through Punjab’s Hunar Sikhya pilot, Class 11 students are being trained in specialised trades, given exposure to industry through internships and offered opportunities to secure employment after Class 12. For students in four Ludhiana government schools, vocational education is no longer confined to classrooms.
The pilot has been rolled out in four government schools in the district — Government Model Senior Secondary Schools at PAU, Dhandari Khurd and Hambran, and the government girls’ school at Sahnewal. Each school offers two specialised trades aimed at developing skills relevant to industry. At Government Model Senior Secondary School, PAU, students of the digital design and development trade underwent internships in June. The training has also led students to develop projects based on everyday needs.
Teacher Jatin Arora said 15 students had subsequently secured direct placements. Two Class 12 students of the PAU school, Krishna and Shivam, have developed an app as part of their Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) trade.
“The aim is to help students get jobs immediately after Class 12,” he said. Arora, however, said students enrolled in Hunar Sikhya no longer had the option of lateral entry into undergraduate courses, describing it as a drawback of the programme.
