Bhubaneshwar : With skill development programme high on its agenda, the State Government directed departments concerned to come up with action plans within 10 days for providing skill training to unemployed youths.
Setting an ambitious target to provide quality skill training to eight lakh youth within three years, the Government has made an outlay of `1,000 crore and sought a loan assistance of an equal amount from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for setting up eight advanced skill development training institutes in the State.
At a high-level meeting on skill development, Chief Secretary Aditya Padhi directed the departments to adopt ‘common norms’ for all skill development courses and have a uniformity with regard to curriculum, duration of training, quality training and selection of project implementing agencies (PIAs). He further advised the departments to work out medium and long term courses in line with National Skill Quality Framework (NSQF).
Emphasising on quality of the training programme, Padhi advised the nodal departments and agencies to develop appropriate logistic and infrastructural arrangement along with modern workshops and hands-on-practice facilities in training centres.
The meeting decided that credible and qualitative training providers in the field should be given preference to utilize the infrastructural support of the skill development centres and other Government buildings available at sub-division and district levels. The Department of Skill Development and Technical Education was asked to consolidate the existing infrastructure and focus on quality development in training and skilling.
The Chief Secretary also directed to focus on high-end skill training in manufacturing, construction, production and service sectors to achieve the goals of ‘Skilled in Odisha’ campaign. These sectors have greater demand in the job market and also fetch good reputation for the youths, he added.
The meeting also resolved that the Skill Development Programme (SDP) should be an appropriate synchrony of general education, skill training, employ-ability and entrepreneurship. The departments were further advised to indicate the required budget and quality ensuring arrangements in their action plans. Meanwhile, the State Government has started working to set up the eight state-of-the-art skill training institutes in partnership with ADB.
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