Indrajeet Prajapati, 23, had thought he was destined to drive auto-rickshaws to support his family when JN Tata Vocational Training Institute opened its unit in Jharia in August last year.
A resident of Kalimela Dungribasti in Jharia, Prajapati, who had to leave studies after Class X to support his daily wage-earner father, had been driving autos for 10 years. But he never let his hunger for learning die.
Now he is a student of JN Tata Vocational Training Institute and aspires to become an electrician.
Prajapati is one of the 91 trainees who made up the first batch of the institute that offers electrician, site safety supervisor and mechanical fitter courses.
He will soon undergo on-the-job training once he completes the electrician course.
“I am thankful to Tata Steel for giving me this opportunity. I am doing my best and believe that I will find a suitable job. I want to repay the loan my father had taken for my education and want him to rest when I become employed. That’s my dream and I am inching towards it slowly,” Prajapati told The Telegraph.
Currently, 35 persons are being trained as site safety supervisors, 33 as mechanical fitters and 23 as electricians.
Tata Steel management and union had decided to set up the JN Tata Vocational Training Institute under the mentorship of Shavak Nanavati Technical Institute to provide quality training to local youths in the company’s areas of operation.
The institute also facilitates the placement of trainees with appropriate recruiters in the region.
The courses offered by it are accredited by the government’s National Skills Qualifications Framework.
ST/SC candidates with outstanding performance during training are provided partial or full reimbursement of the course fee at the end of successful completion of training.
The site safety supervisor course is of six-month duration while the two other courses take one year each to complete.
The course fee is Rs 29,500 inclusive of 18 per cent goods and services tax (GST).
JN Tata Vocational Training Institute has enrolled 1,520 trainees 2019-20 in Jharkhand and Odisha and offered 100 per cent placement to all of them.
