E-Content for Skill Development and Education
AMMACHI Labs uses computerized vocational education training (cVET) to make education accessible and interesting. The smart classroom concept was introduced into the many training centers across India to enable a learning environment that would scale up skill training, maximize student participation and enhance learning.
The heart of this innovative learning approach is the high quality, visually engaging, rich and dynamic courses which are unique to AMMACHI Labs. This top-notch content has been proven to be a successful way to engage students into developing the skills they need to succeed and offers sustainable solutions to entire communities. As our training moves into rural villages in India, the courses we offer are designed to maximize participation and will offer alternatives to many individuals seeking new opportunities to better themselves and their families.
Some of the sectors which our courses target include: construction, manufacturing, health care, garments, home decor, agriculture, automotive.
The courses are offered in multiple languages including: English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya.
The courses we offer include:
Assistant Plumber
Fabric Painting
Artificial Jewelry Making
Soap Making
Tailoring
Neck-Tie Making
Backyard Composting
Hair Styling
Tiling
Two Wheeler Servicing
Mushroom Cultivation
Amrita Foundation Course
The SAVE (Sakshat Amrita Vocational Education) Project.
The project started with a grant from Ministry of Human Resource and Development (Govt. of India) to develop two vocational training courses and a haptic simulator for skill training. As one of the pillars of the National Mission on Education using ICT, this project since has been expanded to form a national level consortium to participate in the development of over 300 courses and simulators for various trades by 2017. AMMACHI Labs has developed an end to end training model from curriculum development to full training courses including simulator software and hardware design for deploying vocational educational courses to the masses. The project spreads over several thrust areas including TEL, serious games, haptics, motor skill learning, HCI, instructional design and vocational pedagogy.
SAVE is creating government certified innovative multimedia enriched computerised vocational education and training (VET) modules that will be used to teach millions in India. SAVE is a project of AMMACHI Labs, a center of technological innovation breaking new ground in the field of computer human interaction, developing applications that have high social impact, designed to improve quality of life for the economically backward communities of the country.
The training software includes indigenously designed, low-cost and durable haptic technology to assist in skill development minimising dependency on expensive heavy-duty tools, machinery and materials.
SAVE is poised to shatter conventional limitations in providing vocational training on a broad scale to some of India’s least-served populations. The unique application of haptic technology to vocational education will minimise the need for materials and tools. Additionally, the accessibility of SAVE further minimises required infrastructure. SAVE is engineering customised haptic devices, which will enable skill development with maximum efficiency.
This is an inter-disciplinary project that involves engineers (mechanical, electrical and electronics, instrumentation, computer science), social workers, educators, instructional designers, artists, artisans, medical experts, and psychologists.
This initiative has plans to bring vocational training and empowerment to different constituencies in Kerala. Moving forward, the focus is on developing software that would teach skills starting with the construction industry and meet Amma’s vision of training 10,000 people.
A Workshop on Vocational Education and Haptics and Convocation of first women plumbers trained by AMMACHI Labs, was held in part during the International Conference on Technology Enhanced Education at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala on January 3, 2012.
The workshop provided the participants with gainful insight in to the development, deployment and advantages of ICT in vocational education and training.
The workshop also featured tutorial sessions on common household repairs presented by India’s first batch of women graduates of the computerized MES Plumbing course developed by AMMACHI Labs. At the graduation ceremony organised as part of this workshop, Shri. Dilip Chenoy, CEO, National Skill Development Corporation, India, awarded all seven women graduates of India’s first-ever computerised course in plumbing their trade certificates.
Having successfully completed the course, the 7 women completed a 3-month apprenticeship with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham as Assistant Plumbers, after which they plan to leverage their training into an income generating activity through their self help groups.