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Karnataka’s Chetana project empowers 400 students with technology skills

•    Week-long residential training programme inaugurated at Infosys Mysore campus, to be held between May 5 and 11

•    Students are offered a variety of skill development sessions from Design workshops to nutrition orientation

•    Samsung provided Tablet devices to offer Chetana Scholars a greater technology learning experience

Department of IT, BT, Government of Karnataka

Bengaluru, 5th May, 2017: Government of Karnataka launched its iconic Chetana programme to mentor 400 secondary exam topper girls from State-run schools with technology skills.

The Department of IT, BT of Government of Karnataka announced the week-long training camp between May 5 and 11 at Infosys Mysore Campus as part of the programme to empower the meritorious students from the State in new-age technologies and offer training on soft skills. Honourable Minister for IT, BT and Tourism Shri Priyank Kharge inaugurated the programme and encouraged the students from different parts of Karnataka.

These students are called as Chetana Scholars.

The Chetana programme provides mentorship for two years to 10th passed students from government schools and offers them a great opportunity to get hands-on training in technology through residential camps, workshops oragnised by industry experts, winter schools and other sessions for a better career building.

Crafted by the Department of IT, BT, Infosys and Samsung, this year’s residential training camp is providing Chetana Scholars training in information technology, Maker’s session by National Institute of Design, Science Session on Lab in a box, spoken English and soft skills development, health and nutrition orientation, industry visits, Yoga sessions, goal setting and stress management workshop, fitness and sports, and sessions on other co-curricular activities.

The scholar students are provided with one Samsung Tablet each during their seven-day residential training camp at Infosys campus for a greater and holistic technology learning experience using the device. Samsung also provided hands-on training to use those devices and take the training programme beyond just classroom-based lessons.

BSNL has offered high-speed internet connection to extend an uninterrupted access to knowledge and gave 400 SIM cards for the Chetana Scholars.

Commenting on the residential training camp under Chetana, Priyank Kharge said: “This programme is going to empower these topper students with technology skills. The right exposure to industry best practices will significantly help them hone their skills too. Chetana is aimed to educate, empower, mentor and support the highly talented human resource from Karnataka in a big way. Through this, we are showing them the right track for setting future goals.”

During this programme, various other activities are also organised to ignite interest in technology of the students. These include exposure to
state-of-the-art facility at the Infosys campus and visit to other industry campuses in Mysore, group building exercises, sports events, movie show, nature walk, yoga, and interaction sessions with leaders from fields such as science, technology, arts, medicine, sports.

Interestingly, the scholars are getting an exclusive opportunity to attend Design thinking workshops.

Beyond this training, more such residential programmes are planned for their October vacation to impart knowledge on different existing and emerging areas of information technology.

The Chetana programme was started last year and 356 topper students from various Government Schools across Karnataka took part. It was conducted in April 2016 at Infosys Mysore campus. Samsung provided chromebooks for the Chetana Scholars last year to offer a better experience of learning and conducted training sessions to teach how to use those devices.