Dalit students pass International IATA exam

CHENNAI: Sixteen Dalit candidates have passed the IATA Foundation examination conducted by the International Air Transport Association, Montreal, Canada. They were sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Limited (TAHDCO).Of the 16 candidates, 13 have been placed in private sector in tourism and travel management, a press release said on Thursday. The TAHDCO identified Kuoni Academy for the tourism and travel management program. The institute trained 20 candidates for the foundation course on IATA and `40,000 was spent on each candidate. TAHDCO has sponsored this type of training for Dalit students for the first time.The State government, through TAHDCO, conducts various training programmes for the welfare of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste converted to Christianity to improve their skills for employment.A sum of `25 crore has been earmarked under Special State Assistance for 22,000 trainees. The training programs include plastic production through CIPET, apparel manufacturing technology training through ATDC, footwear manufacturing training through CFTI and FDDI and cinematography training through NFDC.