VIJAYAWADA: Although there are no full-fledged facilities in the State for the visually impaired and partially visually impaired students to be given an opportunity in the corporate sector, there are as many as 176 types of jobs available in India that are based on digital skills in the sector.
However, their dream has now come true after enrolling in the Advanced Employability Course for the Visually Challenged (AECVC) on Bilmey Software, which is being provided free of cost by Enable India, a non-profit organisation based in Bengaluru that works for those with special needs.
Under the auspices of Vijayawada’s Andhra Loyola College Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs (HEPSN) wing, the college has become a state-level platform for this programme for the first time in Andhra Pradesh. “In the era of advanced technology, persons with visual impairments should not be left behind. Empowering them with employability skills is the need of the hour,” said Fr GAP Kishore, Principal of Andhra Loyola College (ALC).
Earlier, people seeking employment used to go to Bengaluru to get this high-end training in order to get placed in the corporate sector. However, the same training is being imparted at ALC by the trainers from Enable India,” said Correspondent Fr M Sagayaraj. While many students trained under this programme have got placements in MNCs, several students are able to take the exams with the support of scribes provided by the volunteers of HEPSN-ALC.
Speaking to TNIE, a student who got placement in an MNC, Kavala NVSS Pavan, said, “I am a person with vision impairment, currently working with Allegis services (India) as a senior talent acquisition executive with a package of `8 lakh per annum. I got this chance in MNC with a high cadre with the training on Bimley software by Enable India in Andhra Loyola College.”
Speaking on the latest training, visually impaired alumni from Andhra Loyola College and also the Executive Director of Enable India, Moses Chowdari Gorrepati, said, “You may be blind but can be trained to live independently. You are also capable of living a decent life. With the support of the founder of Enable India Santhi Raghavan expanded it to AP and the training sessions will include mobility sessions, employability sessions, webinars with experts, self-learning courses and submission of project work.”
Nearly 20 visually impaired students are studying in Andhra Loyola College in various degrees and inter streams, of them, nine final-year degree students are getting training with the specially designed Blimey software from the second week of December. From Feb 3 to the end of June 3, the students will attend the sessions at the training facility of Enable India in Bengaluru.
Speaking to TNIE, the coordinator of HEPSN Dr G Sahaya Baskaran said, “This advanced employability full-time course for 6 months integrated with an internship for final year students will cover intensive training on understanding disability-specific skills, understanding company expectations and developing skills for employment as per industry standards. The college will provide free infrastructure and laptops and trainers of Enable India will train the students. Graduates with basic computer knowledge of screen readers are eligible for this training. They should have basic communication skills in English,” he added.
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