Type Jesuit, Catholic Gender Coeducational Phone 020 2643 8632 Founded 1959 | Denomination All faiths Enrollment 350 Number of students 350 | |
Established 1959; 58 years ago (1959) Director Fr. Bhausaheb Sansare, SJ Address Shankar Sheth Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411037 Similar Kohinoor Technical Institute, DE Society's Technical, Meera Society, Motor Rewinding Works, Ghume & Company | ||
St. Joseph’s Technical Institute (SJTI), was opened in 1959 by the Jesuits of the Pune Province, India. It trains middle-level managers – technicians with a combination of practical expertise, theoretical knowledge, communication skills, and management perspectives. Through work-study programs and assistance from abroad, SJTI assists the economically and socially backward classes to respond to a need in industry. SJTI has served as a model for other vocational education and training schools that are being promoted by the Indian government.
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Mission and history
In the midst of expanding industrial growth, St. Joseph’s focuses on providing middle level technical expertise to students who do not find a place within the formal university system. It functions under the auspices of the Pune Jesuit School’s Society.
In the late forties, Jesuit educators observed that there were few facilities for school dropouts. Fr. P. Haefeli, S.J, put boys to work servicing some old buses he'd purchased for St.Vincent's High School. The Pune Jesuits then purchased a plot of land in Pocha Gardens, and workshop and classrooms were constructed.
With Haefeli as its first superintendent, the Institute began functioning in June 1959 with a fabrication department and a carpentry department. While offering training this also generated funds to meet expenses. The first batch of 40 students earned the Maharashtra Trade Certificate for Fitters, Turners and Motor Mechanics. In 1967 the Institute was affiliated to the National Council for Training Programmes in Vocational Trades, New Delhi, to qualify for the I.T.I. trades.
With constant financing and volunteers through Misereor in Germany, the Institute after 1970 directed its program toward educating "middle management" personnel, supervisors and foremen, based on the ‘Meister' training programme offered in Germany, a blend of practical expertise, theoretical knowledge, communication skills, and management perspectives. But industry would not readily sponsor the student-workers for full-time training, so short-term modules in several areas were introduced, including training for supervisory personnel at the factories. SJTI has tie-ups with large companies in Pune including automobile majors such as Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors, Tata, Fiat, and Toyota, along with the Pune Municipal Transport Corporation.
In 1978, short-term evening courses were introduced for students who could not enrol for the day programmes . Physically challenged persons and ladies were also admitted to the courses.
The Institute has a hostel where boys from the Ahmednagar, Belgaum, and Kolhapur districts are accommodated. The fees charged for boarding and lodging are funded by the Xavier Scholarship Scheme.
The institute is a member of Skills for Progress, an all-India association of private technical and vocational training institutes, and prepares students for the National Council on Vocational Training (NCVT) examination in the craftsmen training schemed courses of the Maharashtra State Board of Vocational Examinations.