Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Aug 24: The IGNOU-MSDE (Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship) Extension Centre at Udhampur was inaugurated today by Dr Sandeep Gupta, Regional Director In charge.
Assistant Regional Directors, Dr Asha Upadhyay and Dr Vikram Singh were also present at the inaugural ceremony. The chairman of GK Educational Trust, Gaurav Khajuria and Project Director, Raghav Sharma along with a number of students undergoing skill development programmes were present and interacted with the IGNOU team.
In his address, Regional Director Dr Sandeep Gupta informed that more and more IGNOU Extension Centres will come up in Jammu region in days to come with the aim to serve the student community and create awareness about the benefits of IGNOU programmes. The students can visit IGNOU Extension Centres for admission guidance, online assistance and pre-admission counselling, etc, he added.
“We have had a series of meetings with local ITIs, Jan Shikshan Sansthans and are hopeful of establishing more Extension Centres in the region. We have also requested the Principal Secretary, Deptt of Skill Development, Govt of J&K to help us in establishing IGNOU-MSDE Extension Centres for the benefit of local populace,” said Dr Vikram Singh, Assistant Regional Director.
Dr Asha Upadhyay, Assistant Regional Director, said that the partnership between MSDE and IGNOU aims to conceptualise, plan and implement the envisaged framework for candidates from skill training Institutions like ITIs, NSTIs, PMKKs, JSS and others to provide them the pathway to register for and complete their graduation degrees.
Earlier this year in January 2022, IGNOU and MSDE, Government of India, entered into an MoU for linking vocational education and training to higher education for trainees attached to National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI), ITIs, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK) and Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) for their upward mobility.
Under this MoU, 32 NSTIs, 3000+ ITIs, 500 PMKKs and nearly 300 JSS were proposed to be looped in with IGNOU as Registration Centres and Work Centres for hands-on training with the aim that the students would get an opportunity to join the three-year degree programme of IGNOU and shall have easy access to attain higher education.
As a part of this initiative, four Extension Centres have so far been established under the Regional Centre Jammu at Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras in Udhampur, Reasi, and Poonch and Kathua districts in collaboration with G K Educational Trust.
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