The Punjab government Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with British Council Education India to start an English language training course for government college students.

The MOU was signed by Amarpal Singh, director, higher education, Punjab and Duncan Wilson, managing director, British Council of India, in presence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains.

Speaking on the occasion, Mann said the ‘English for Work’ course lays a major thrust on all skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking – with a focus on grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. It will help upgrade the employability skills of the youth of Punjab at the workplace and will help them in getting jobs in the industrial and services sector.

Under the MoU, the course will be launched as a pilot project in government colleges for 5,000 students from the academic session 2023-24.

“The ‘English for Work’ course will be an online blended learning course that uses a proven ‘flipped classroom’ approach to combine the flexibility of self-study with live interactive classes,” Mann said.

He said that there will be a pre-assessment test to know the level of the student and a post-assessment on completion of the course. The students will be issued a certificate on completion of the course. The CM said it that this is a step forward towards reversing the trend of brain drain from the state.