CHENNAI: A training school for enhancing employability of fresh graduates across various industry sectors opened in Chennai on Saturday.

The School of Employability, run by the Reliance division NIS Sparta, was formally launched by the Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, G. K. Vasan.

Mr. Vasan said employability as much as unemployment was an important concern that the country was faced with. He hoped training schools would equip candidates with skills required for employment by industries.

According to the Minister, legislating amendments that would extend job opportunity and compulsory employment across the country was part of the proposals of the UPA Government on the labour front.

Mr. Vasan paid rich tributes to former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj on the occasion and recalled the latter's contributions in the fields of agriculture, education and industry.

Addressing a press conference, S. Subramanian, zonal head, NIS Sparta, said it was proposed to launch seven employability training schools in Tamil Nadu in the next two years. The concept, piloted in Tamil Nadu "in view of both the volume of fresh graduates as well as their aptitude," will gradually be implemented across the country.

The training school at Vivekananda College will train graduates in batches of 30 students each. Students are selected on the basis of a simple aptitude test and put through either a five-day fast track programme or a 15-day 100-hour training schedule.

The training programme, which incorporated a generic and a specialised training segment in the candidate's industry of choice, will ready aspirants for jobs in telecom, banking and finance and other service sectors. The soft skills training would groom candidates for sales, customer relations and a host of backend functions, said Mr. Subramanian.

Initially, the school plans to train two batches a month and around 800 candidates a year. The NIS office here can be contacted on 30332400.

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