Amaravati, Dec 17 (IANS): The Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) will impart free online 'personality development' and 'English proficiency' training to all students belonging to the weaker sections of the society, studying in government junior colleges.

"English proficiency and personality development classes to all less privileged students in our (government) colleges," Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) secretary V. Rama Krishna told IANS.

Arja Srikanth, APSSDC managing director said the training programme has been initiated at the request of BIE, which will comprise 105 days of online training to offer foundational skills.

"APSSDC has planned to provide the proposed skill training programmes through an online platform in a phased manner covering all the junior colleges SC students in three sessions," said Srikanth.

The programme will be launched on December 21 at APSSDC head office in Tadepalli, Guntur.

As many as 6,000 SC students studying in 472 government junior colleges are set to benefit from the programme.

Intermediate education in private colleges is highly commercialised and prone to abuse in the southern state, taking it out of reach of students from the weaker sections due to its exorbitantly expensive nature.

The BIE secretary intends to reform the crucial two-year programme, for the benefit of lakhs of students.