'Earn while you learn scheme' to exploit potential of students

NI Wire

New Delhi

Sat, 29 Mar 2008: 

Considering the recent development in Indian tourism sector, the Ministry of Tourism in an innovative effort has introduced a new scheme ‘Earn While You Learn’ by involving students of UG and PG courses to have active participation in the growth of industry.

Under this scheme as said by the trism minister Smt.

Ambika Soni the college going students in the age group of 18 to 25 years would be trained with tourism travel traits and knowledge so that they can work as ‘student volunteers’ in different activities; the industry has been undertaking on state and Centre level.

However, interested students have to submit no-objection certificates from their concerning educational institution for this course.

The government has also intended to activate the scheme with the introduction of certain educational programmes related to travel and tourism. For this the Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM), the premier institute having branches in Gwalior, New Delhi, Bhubaneshwar and Goa, would select the candidates through a written test for a training programme of 21 days.

The study topics for the course would be finalised by the IITTM with inputs from organisation like the Archaeological Survey of India, the Institute of Archaeology and too from eminent academicians. The set of course aims to add knowledge of students through chapters based on Indian society, culture, historical monuments and also to improve their presentation and behavioural skills.

The proposed scheme also includes seminars and study tours to varied places of tourism interest after the completion of the course and then would be allowed to join any travel and tourism organisation as paid employees on full-time or part-time.

Apart from involving students in development activities by exploiting their immense potential, another most important objective of the scheme is to make students aware of the job market with some first-hand working experience so that in future they would be able to prepare themselves for a better opportunity at the same time giving them a chance to earn. In this way it would further enhance positive values among students by keeping them away from several distractive activities as a usual trend these days.