Enabling rural youth in career pursuits through computer education

Singarayakonda (Prakasam district): Youth Empowerment Programme, an AP Janmabhoomi initiative, has been instrumental in transforming the lives of the rural students through computer education and development of employment skills. The students, who took the training in the pilot project at Singarayakonda are confident enough about their future and are ready to contribute their part in the similar social responsible programs.

AP Janmabhoomi is the platform where NRIs from the Andhra Pradesh are investing their resources and time to bring a social change in the motherland. Jayaram Komati, the special representative of Government of Andhra Pradesh in North America is coordinating the AP NRIs for the three major schemes of AP Janmabhoomi including the provision of digital classrooms, upgrading Anganwadi centers and crematoriums.

The AP Janmabhoomi selected Singarayakonda National Rurban Mission (NRUM) Cluster for its pilot project of digital literacy. About 50 candidates were selected from the 7 gram panchayats in the Singarayakonda cluster and they are offered free computer applications training in the local government girls high school.

Sk Jameeulla, MDO of the Singarayakonda said, “As Singarayakonda is one of the 5 clusters selected in the 100 NRUM clusters, we should improve standards in 14 parameters like drinking water, education, health, roads and others including skill development of youth.

The AP Janmabhoomi team took the responsibility of providing computer applications training to the students from May 23 to June 10 as a pilot project. Apart from this skill development program, we are also offering communication skills and resume writing skills for them.

The local MLA Dr Dola Balaveeranjaneya Swamy is arranging a job mela soon for the candidates trained in the Janmabhoomi pilot project.” The AP Janmabhoomi trained a number of interns from engineering colleges to teach computer applications to the candidates.

Tanneeru Chudamani, a candidate trained in the program said, “Computer knowledge is very much required nowadays for any job. But as students from a rural background, we do not have the opportunity to learn computer skills and cannot afford the training at places like Ongole.

This program as part of NRUM and by AP Janmabhoomi helped us learn computer applications. We thank our trainers Hemanth, Chandrika, Ramakrishna, Badrinath and others for teaching us MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications.

Now we are confident enough that this computer knowledge will help us stand on our own feet.” AP Janmabhoomi and government officials are now planning to extend the program to other areas in the state in addition to extending the course for 10 more days at Singarayakonda.

By Naresh Nandam