Vijayawada: The UK experts are set to teach English language and soft skills to one lakh students from AP. The government had signed MoU with the British Council to improve the language proficiency and soft sklls of students enrolled in the higher education institutions in the State. The British Council had last year conducted a study of English language teaching and study in 14 higher education institutions. The Council studied the present standards of the language and soft skills with 139 teachers, 672 students and 90 staff members and decided to improve the language and skills.
Following this study, the State government had invited the British Council to take the initiative and improve the language and skills which resulted in the government signing the MoU with the Council. This would make the British Council to initiate a pilot project that will focus on providing training to students in areas related to spoken English communication, confidence building, better employability, Resume writing and preparation for interviews, which is in line with the State’s vision to transform it into a knowledge hub by developing an ecosystem that is targeted towards youth development and employability.
This pilot project is unique as it offers new and innovative approaches to language learning and assessment, involving flexible, scalable, blended and digital self-access solutions that have been developed, based on an extensive research about the needs of the learners and required parameters of teaching English.
The pilot project offers 150 hours of blended learning model supplemented with mobile learning and English clubs for continued support to students. This initiative will also include the training of 150 master trainers and 2,500 teachers.
The APSCHE and British Council will evolve a coordinated approach in selecting and training 150 highly qualified master trainers to be trained by the representatives of British Council, who will further train 2,500 teachers selected from all across the State. These 2,500 teachers will further provide Face to Face training to 100,000 students enrolled in AP Higher Education Institutions.
British Council director Alan Gemmell thanked Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for giving them an opportunity to partner with the State government on improving the language and employability skills for the youth.
