Kakinada, Dec 02nd: To develop  the overall skill of trainees and provide good placements with handsome salaries in the industrial sector, the Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET) under the Union ministry of labour and employment, has identified local government industrial training institute (ITI) for upgrading into Centre of Excellence (CoE) a few years ago, and sanctioned crore of rupees in advance to set up state-of-the-art equipment for imparting better practical knowledge to trainees. Though the ITI management utilised the funds fully, results have not proved the efficacy of the new programme.

Only 68 students got jobs in 2009 as against 91 students in 2008. Sources said that it happened due to lack of awareness among students about the CoE besides the effect of global recession, while the management maintained that almost all admitted students were getting jobs and the CoE was performing well in all aspects. The given funds were utilised by the ITI management to construct a separate building at a cost of Rs 1 crore and setting up of latest machinery with the rest of the money. Later, it started running multi-skilled courses from 2006.

A total of 91 students of the first batch successfully passed out and got jobs in 2008, while only 68 students got jobs in 2009. ITI principal V. Srinivasa Rao told this newspaper that the CoE was a boon to students. All meritorious students got jobs easily. Several industries are visiting their institute and taking students. Unfortunately, only 68 students got jobs this year. To overcome this problem, we will only select candidates who get more than 500 marks in Class X.