Institute of Career Studies and Research

MISSION

To enable the student community and the job-aspirants of Malabar to achieve their cherished goal through comprehensive, integrated and interactive modes of instruction.

About ICSR

Institute of Career Studies & Research (ICSR) is being established under Centre for Continuing Education Kerala (CCEK) to enable the youth of Malabar in general and Malappuram District in particular to secure jobs by getting trained in an institution that has excellent facilities, faculty, expertise and whatnot. The Institute has been set up at the Chamravattom Irrigation Project Campus, Eswaramangalam, Ponnani, and it will be officially inaugurated on 06 June 2010.

Why this institute?
The rural and semi-urban areas in Malabar had for long been lacking in facilities for job-training. They had to depend largely on far-off cities within Kerala or outside Kerala. But the facilities available there are unaffordable to a vast majority of people. Sensing the need of a bona fide training institute in Malabar, the Ministry of Local Self Government, Kerala State, under the Hon’ble Minister Shri Paloli Muhammedkutty, decided upon establishing a pre-examination training centre at Ponnani. As Centre for Continuing Education Kerala (CCEK) had already established itself as a competent and reputed autonomous body under the State Government, running innumerable courses for the young people from the high school level to the civil services examination level, the Ministry sought the help of CCEK in setting up an institute at Ponnani. CCEK under its dynamic Director Shri Mohan Abraham took up the onerous task. A vacant building of the Chamravattom Irrigation Project Office campus was made available to CCEK to set up the office and class rooms of the Institute. The Irrigation Department also handed over one acre of its land in the Chamravattom Irrigation Project Office campus to CCEK for setting up the Institute’s permanent office and classrooms.

Courses Offered at ICSR

1. Civil Services Examination Coaching

The Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for selection to the coveted posts of IAS, IFS, IPS, etc remain a veritable hard nut to crack for a vast majority of our young men and women. This is one of the most prestigious examinations in our country, and tens of thousands of young men and women appear for it for the few hundred posts falling vacant each year. The glitter and glamour associated with the three letters—IAS/IFS/IPS -- are such that there is hardly an Indian youth who does not aspire for it. But passing the Civil Services Examination is a Herculean task—a task calling for one’s total commitment and dedication right from one’s school/early college days.
Till the beginning of 1980, Kerala had a fairly good representation in the Central Secretariat with dozens of Keralites occupying influential posts. But afterwards, for about 25 years, the number of Keralites getting into Central Civil Service cadres went down steadily. It was an alarming situation, for inadequate representation for Kerala at the Central Secretariat is undeniably detrimental to the State’s interests. It was a situation that merited serious diagnosis and effective remedy. A first-rate civil services coaching centre was accordingly established in Thiruvananthapuram by Centre for Continuing Education Kerala (CCEK) with the name Kerala State Civil Service Academy. A similar institution to impart coaching to the civil service aspirants of Malabar is being set up at Ponnani with the name Institute of Career Studies and Research (ICSR).
ICSR offers a comprehensive training programme for the civil service aspirants. And the coaching programme is imparted in two streams, as

1. Regular Batch
2. Weekend Batch

For the Regular Programme, there are two batches: Batch-I (June Batch) and Batch—II (December Batch).
For Batch-I, classes normally commence on in the first week of June, and ends in the last week of November.

Batch-II normally begins in December and ends in the last week of May. Classes are held five days a week, from Monday to Friday. Special classes may be held on holidays also, depending upon necessity.
The students of Batch-I can continue to use the library facilities even after their course is over in November. In fact, ICSR expects them to spend their time at the Institute’s library till just week before the Civil Services Preliminary Examination (which is being renamed Civil Services Aptitude Test or CSAT). [The CSAT is usually conducted in the third or fourth Sunday of May every year.] They should also attend the regular Model Tests conducted at the Institute.

Weekend Batch, intended for employees and part-time course students, will be held only if there is sufficient number of applicants. It is scheduled to begin in the last week of June and end in the last week of April. Classes are held on Saturdays and Sundays only.

Fee Exemption/Concession
50% of the total seats are reserved for Muslim minority students. They are fully excempted from the payment of course fee. However, they also have to pay Rs.1000/- as caution deposit (refundable). 8% seats are reserved for SC students, and 2% for ST students. They are also excempted from payment of course fee. Other categories/communities deserving fee concession/excemption will be identified by the Government. Both the course fee (for open category students) and the caution deposit are to be payed in one installment at the time of admission.

How & when to apply

Admission is given on the basis of the performance in the Admission Test conducted in May/June (for Batch-I and Weekend Batch) and November/December (for Batch-II) every year.
Every applicant must take the Admission Test, and the failure to do so will result in the summary rejection of the application.

Application Form
Personality The application can be obtained from the Office of the Centre Co-ordinator on payment of Rs 100/- (one hundred rupees only). It can also be downloaded from our website www. ccek.org. If the application is downloaded from the website, a demand draft (DD) for Rs. 100/- must be attached with the filled-in form. The draft should be taken from a nationalised bank in favour of “The Director, Centre for Continuing Education Kerala”, payable at Thiruvananthapuram. It should be submitted at/sent to The Co-ordinator, Institute of Career Studies and Research, Karimpana, Eswaramangalam P.O, Ponnani, Malappuram District.

1. CIVIL SERVICE FOUNDATION COURSE

The Civil Service Foundation Course 9CSFC) is meant for the +1, +2 and college-going students. As the name of the course indicates, it offers basic lessons in civil services examination, which the civil service aspirants can appear for after their graduation/post-graduation.

Mode of Selection & Admission
In the second week of June every year, the Institute will admit +1, + 2 and college-going students. They will be given intensive coaching in the basic subjects and topics of the Civil Services Examination. Classes will be held from 10 am to 1. 00 pm, in two sessions, each one lasting for an hour and a half. Test papers, quiz programmes and interaction with eminent personalities will be a regular feature.

Faculty
Classes will be handled by reputed college and higher secondary school teachers including those who retired from service. Eminent personalities in various fields, including IAS, IFS and IPS officers will be brought to the Institute as Guest Lecturers. The students will also have the privilege and benefit of utilising the videoconferencing facilities available at the Institute.

Course Details & Duration
For +1 & +2 Students, the courseis of two years’ duration. There will be two modules with which they will be imparted instruction. Module I is for the Freshers and Module II is for those who complete Module II.
For College-going students, the duration is three years. They will be taught with three modules. Module I is for beginners; Module II is for those who complete Module I and Module III is for those who complete Module II.

Application form can be collected from the office of ICSR, free of cost.

2. TALENT DEVELOPMENT COURSE (for high school students)

Motto
“Catch them young and watch them grow.”

Objective
The Talent Development Course )TDC) has been designed with a view to equipping our boys and girls for braving the challenges they face in the competitive fields later in life.
Often it is seen that almost all high school students are vague and undecided about their future. If any one asks any of them what he/she wants to be in life, he/she will say, “I want to be a teacher” as though teaching is the only profession he/she has heard of and considers noble. The students are simply unaware of the enormous opportunities that our country has in store for them. Hence it is the urgent need of the hour to enlighten them on the scope and usefulness of the top cadre posts in the Indian Civil Services.
With this objective, Centre for Continuing Education Kerala (CCEK), the parent body of ICSR, devised a novel scheme: ‘Talent Development Course for High School Students’, and this course has been conducted with spectacular success ever since its first implementation in June 2005.

It is the all-round development of the students that CCEK and Institute of Career Studies and Research (ICSR), Ponnani, aim at. Individual attention would be bestowed on them, and the latent talent of each student would be explored and developed. The Institute will keep in touch with the students even when they are pursuing their + 1, +2, under-graduate and post-graduate studies, through the Civil Service Foundation Course. Once they secure a graduate or post-graduate degree, they are admitted to the Civil Service Course run by the Institute/CCEK.

Course Description

The Course will be of three years’ duration, beginning in the first week of April every year, and ending in the last week of March. In April and May, when the students have the summer vacation, classes will be held three days a week, from 10 am to 1. 00 pm. Once the schools reopen, the TDC classes will be restricted to one day a week—Sunday—from 10 am to 1 pm.
The Course will have three modules comprising (1) Communication Skills (2) General Knowledge, (3) Current Affairs and (4) Numerical Ability and Test of Reasoning. Module I is intended for the beginners, mostly VIII standard students; Module II is for those who complete Module I, (usually for IX standard students); and Module III is for those who complete Module II (usually for X standard students).
The veterans in the field will handle the classes. The students will also get opportunities to interact with eminent personalities, who will be invited to address them frequently

Mode of Selection/Admission

In the first week of April every year, the Institute of Career Studies and Research, Eswaramangalam, Ponnani will admit the students of Standard VIII, IX & X from the schools in and around Ponnani and will give them intensive coaching in the above mentioned subjects.