VIJAYAWADA: About one lakh students from government colleges and universities in the state will be imparted English-speaking skills, APSCHE chairman Prof S Vijaya Raju said.An MoU will be signed with British Council in April first week in this regard and the government is exploring this possibility to help students overcome communicating in English and also enable them get better employment opportunities. Coaching of master trainers will begin in April last week. S Varadarajan, secretary of APSCHE, told TOI "We will call for applications from English lecturers and other faculty of engineering colleges, degree colleges and universities, who are proficient in the language and shortlist 250 of them. The British Council will select 150 of the shortlisted candidates and train them for four to six weeks in Andhra Pradesh ."According to the APSCHE officials, the 150 master trainers will then train 1,000 trainers, who are also teachers and faculty members of engineering and degree colleges. Once the trainers are imparted with English training knowledge and technology, they will be made incharges of a few colleges in their areas. The trainers will go to each of these colleges and teach the students for 75 hours.The programme will be managed by the state government. Former principal secretary, education, Sunita Dwara and present principal secretary Adityanath Das worked towards making this project a reality. Vijaya Raju said: "We shall take necessary initiatives to see that majority universities in AP shall find place in top ranks in the years to come. APSCHE shall guide and motivate the universities towards this direction."It is to be noted that Tirupati-based Sri Venkateswara University was adjudged the best in south India by 'The Times' survey recently, he claimed. Guntur-based Acharya Nagarjuna University stood second and Visakhapatnam-based Andhra University stood fifth in the rankings.

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