Training to improve job chances of youths

BHUBANESWAR: As a majority of the workforce does not possess marketable skills and there is a huge gap in the demand and supply of skilled manpower, the State Government on Tuesday decided to enhance the capacity of about 10 lakh youths during the Twelfth Plan period.While vocational training will be provided to a lakh youths every year through placement-linked training programmes, the State Employment Mission has planned to upgrade the skills of about five lakh youths under Modular Employable Skills (MES) programme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.The objective of MES is to provide vocational training to school dropouts, existing workers and ITI passouts to improve their job chances by optimally utilising the infrastructure available in Government and private institutions and industries. Besides, existing skills of the people will be tested and certified under the scheme, said Employment Mission Director Arabinda Padhi.The skill development programmes will be conducted through the existing industrial training institutes (ITIs) and industrial training centres (ITCs).Presently, the State has 612 such institutes.Chief Secretary BK Patnaik who reviewed the skill development programme at a meeting here on Tuesday directed the Employment Mission Directorate to undertake a skill mapping in the State to find out the actual need of skilled manpower in various sectors vis-a-vis the demand-supply gap.He further suggested that the existing ITIs and ITCs should be inspected by a multi-discipline team to find out the infrastructural facilities available in each of the institutes and the quality of the training programmes.The team should comprise representatives from industries, technical personnel and officials of the district administration.Secretary of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Development Department Santosh Sarangi suggested that the MES training provider should have infrastructure of their own.The State Government has requested the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to do the job of skill mapping. The NSDC has in turn engaged Earnest and Young for the job.Padhi said the VV Giri National Labour Institute, New Delhi, will assess requirements of trainers.