Empowering Skills, Enriching Lives: NTTF - A Journey of Excellence (2009)
Channel: Rahul Koroth
Date: 15/11/2011

Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) is a prominent private educational trust in India, with campuses all over south India. It was established in 1963 with Swiss co-operation, in order to provide purposeful quality education with excellent employment opportunities, with qualifications that are widely accepted by industries in India and abroad. NTTF has one of the most rigorous Diploma Programmes in India with emphasis on practical and hands-on knowledge. NTTF graduates are renowned for their practical skills in the industry. NTTF implements its programme of technical training in mechanical engineering, electronics, information technology & computer engineering and mechatronics streams at postgraduate, graduate, post diploma, diploma and certificate levels. It operates 16 training centers, located at Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Coimbatore, Dharwad, Gannavaram, Jamshedpur, Pune, Tellichery, Trivandrum, Tumkur, Goplapur, Tuticorin and Vellore.

            The Nettur Technical Training Foundation - successor to the CSI Technical Training Institute - was established on 12 April 1958 as a joint venture between Church of South India and HEKS (Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen der Schweiz),[1] Switzerland, with the objective of promoting technical education. Per HEKS website, the initial funds for the project was raised as offertory collections from the regional established churches in Zürich, Aargau, Basel and Schaffhausen. It was realized that there was a future for an institution imparting training in precision tool and die-making to augment the rapid industrialization of post-independence India.
On 24 November 1959, Mr. Kaderkutty, managing director of Western India Plywoods, Valapattanam, Kannur, formally inaugurated the training center at Nettur. The first batch of tool and die-maker trainees, 16 boys, were admitted in November 1959. The first batch appeared for NCTVT (National Council for Training in Vocational Trades, presently known as NCVT) in January 1962 and completed the four-year course in 1964. The initial plan was to keep the duration of training to 3.5 years, but the same was later extended to four years from the very first batch.
Alfred Frischknecht, Swiss technical expert, was the first appointee of the HEKS to establish the first training Centre at Nettur, Kerala. He was a great visionary with a passion for talent and a staunch believer in the concept of self-help. He took charge as the first principal of the Nettur centre and successfully surmounted all the teething problems and gave a strong foundation to the institution. After seven years in India, he joined HEKS headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland to be in charge of development projects.
It was realised from its inception that the institution would be a costly one to set up and still costlier to maintain. The Church of South India placed some of its land and buildings at Nettur, Tellicherry at the disposal of the institute. Some buildings were reconditioned and a few new ones were constructed by NTTF. The donor agencies assured the necessary funds, supply of adequate machine tools and accessories and deputation of technical experts from abroad.
1964 saw the establishment of a training centre in Dharwad, Karnataka again on property donated by the CSI church of Karnataka. Another center was established in the same year in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. The headquarters was moved to Peenya, Bangalore after the establishment of a world-class toolroom and training center in 1978.