Calcutta University will start a training programme for non-teaching staff this month.

A training college is a long-standing demand of non-teaching staff, said Suranjan Das, the pro vice-chancellor (academics) of the university.

The authorities had proposed to set up the college to a visiting University Grants Commission (UGC) team last year. The UGC had agreed to fund the venture.

Under the programme, university employees of various departments can join orientation and refresher courses to learn how to use computers, communicate better and work in an orderly manner.

“Our employees struggle to deal with new acts like the Right to Information Act and need training,” said Soumitra Sarkar, the university librarian and the honorary director of the college.

The training classes will be held five days a week on the eighth floor of the central library building. Groups of the university’s 2,500 non-teaching employees will be urged to undergo the training but their participation will not be mandatory, said an official.

The employees are looking forward to the training. “I want to learn computer operations at the college. My juniors often score over me because of my lack of computer skills,” said Rabi Mukherjee, a university press employee in his 50s.

“I find it very difficult to communicate with the university workers since I can’t speak Bengali. Formal training in basic English for the staff is certainly going to help students like us,” said Jannu Chudal, a journalism student from Nepal.

“The university has been running an Academic Staff College since 1990 to train the teachers. But this is the first time, non-teaching staff are being provided training. An advisory committee will oversee the programme,” said Sarkar.

According to the authorities, the employees of the press need to be trained the most. Hence, a batch from the press will be the first students of the college.

The faculty will consist of teachers and experts from outside. Only the university employees can take part in the programme now. The advisory committee plans to broaden the scope in future and cover workers of affiliated colleges.