STUDENT SELECTION & ORIENTATION
Student selection procedures of ASAP for the year 2015-16 was started by inviting new Government and Aided Higher Secondary Schools and Arts & Science colleges. After reviewing the infrastructure audit of the new institutions, short listing of institutions are done. Re-mapping of institutions with SDC was carried out followed by the orientation sessions by Programme Managers at institutions detailing the ASAP course structure. The orientation programme helped interested students to register online for ASAP with the help of the institutions. ASAP has collected the first year student data from the ICT cell of Higher Secondary Department and was linked with the ASAP Management Information System( MIS). Registered students were counselled by PMs and scores were given with a 40 % weightage to annual family income, immediate job requirement, Socio Economic factors( BPL / APL) and 60 % to the counselling score considering general suitability of the candidate, immediate job requirement, part time work exclusive interest in ASAP and readiness for OJT / internship in a distant location. An auto generated ranked list was published and the first 35 students were admitted to the foundation batch.
Development & Implementation Of Skill Aptitude
ASAP aptitude test was designed after detailed analyses of various job roles of courses offered by ASAP and the ones that have been identified newly, based on the industry demand. A team was formed under the leadership of Dr. Immanuel Thomas, Professor and HOD, Psychology, University of Kerala, Kariavattom.
Team members included Shri. Shiju Joseph, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Government college for Women, Trivandrum Smt. Maya Menon, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Government college for Women, Trivandrum Dr. Sonia George, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Government college for Women, Trivandrum Dr. Shibu K, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Government college for Women, Trivandrum Dr. Lakshmi Prem
The preparations for the developing the framework of the test began during July 2015. Three workshops were coducted for analyzing the requirements of the test and to know the peculiarities of the skill courses and the sectors offered through ASAP. The test has been designed based on the principle that there are three dimensions that significantly determine the choice and successful completion of a course- 1) An Interest in that course, 2) a behavior pattern that suits the course, and 3) the aptitudes required for the course. The ASAP test battery aims to identify these aspects of the students. ASAP skill aptitude test was developed in both English and Malayalam. Each job role requires a specific combination of one or more aptitudes, a group of interests and a set of personality dimensions. In other words, there could be an ideal candidate with an ideal set of these factors for each course / job profile. The match between the candidate’ s profile and the job role will ensure better student performance and satisfaction, and low drop-outs. The expert team of psychologists has attempted to scientifically construct an aptitude test to suit the present context since July 2015. This work has been modeled on several such works done across the globe. A step-wise description of the work carried out within a short span of time by the team has been summarized below:
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