2 days ago
Admissions begin in Government ITIs after preparatory exercise spanning months to fill seats early on in 2025-26
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The Directorate of Employment and Training, Coimbatore region, is learnt to have reached out to Government schools to ensure enrolment in the Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) early on in 2025-26.
For the 2024-25 academic session, the last date for admission was extendedthree to four times, even till the start of this year, as vacancies could not be filled for the one and two-year programmes, despite the various freebies, in most of the 12 Government ITIs in the Coimbatore region covering The Nilgiris, Erode, Karur, and Tiruppur districts.
According to principals of Government ITIs, they have not been getting the desired cooperation from the Government schools.
The last four years, in particular, have been tough to fill the seats. Even after the additional rounds of extension of the last date for admission, about 20 per cent seats remain unfilled, despite each candidate completing the programme have four to five offers from industries during placement, a principal of a Government ITI said.
Parents in rural parts are not in favour of blue collar jobs for their wards, and are still unaware of the existing provision for progressive lateral entry of candidates completing ITIs into polytechnic and engineering programmes, principal of another Government ITI added.
According to the ITI heads, there used to be a heavy competition for securing seats until five years ago.
Now, most of the admitted students account for those who have not been able to secure admission in Plus One, or those who fail to get through Plus One.
In the recent months, heads of the Government ITIs and the faculty had fanned out in their respective districts, with the assistance of the Block Development Officers, and Women Self-Help Groups to reach out to the parents, sources said.
Students are told that those interested in taking up admission and get equipped for securing jobs early in their lives will be entitled to freebies like tuition fee, bicycle, laptop, bus pass, uniforms, footwear, drawing kit, NIMI (National Instructional Media Institute) books, and a monthly assistance of ₹750.
In addition, the students from Government schools taking up ITI programmes will also receive ₹1,000 per month under the Tamil Pudhalvan (for boys) and Pudhumai Penn (for girls) schemes. The maximum age limit for admission is 40 years for male, and the ceiling has been lifted for female applicants.
