NEW DELHI: Even as the industry has made public its strong opposition to the enactment of any law to mandate job reservation in private sector for disadvantaged sections, it has sought to focus attention on degeneration in the standard of industrial training institutes (ITIs) and underutilisation of available seats.

Quoting a ground level survey covering 100 ITIs identified by the Government for conversion into centres of excellence, the apex chamber FICCI has said that the quality of the industrial training institutes has been deteriorating in the last few years, with industry increasingly reporting a disconnect between the skills imparted in these institutes and the skills demanded in the market.

Contrary to the general perception, the situation with regard to physical infrastructure and availability of power supply ITIs remains comfortable.

However, factors such as non-availability of computerised numerically controlled machines (CNC), inadequate supplies of raw material and lack of focus on staff training and development are the key impediments in the way of strengthening these institutions, says the survey.

Further, the fact that nearly 51 per cent of the participating ITIs reported underutilisation of seats indicates that the basic industrial trades offered by these institutes are becoming increasingly unattractive in view of their limited scope in terms of creating job opportunities.

It is also noted that as against 107 trades that have been notified by the government, the maximum trades which any ITI covered in the survey offered were just 38, which reflects the deficiency in the capability of the ITIs to ramp up their scale and offer new and more market-oriented courses.

The survey has also brought out the highly skewed nature of the budget allocation for ITIs, with nearly 77 per cent of the budget, on an average, allocated for salaries.

The lion's share being cornered by salary expenses, when viewed in the light of the fact that nearly 89 per cent of the participating ITIs reported understaffing, pointed towards the mammoth task that is at hand.

The survey, which saw participation from 69 out of a total of 100 ITIs to which the questionnaire was administered, highlights the key areas that require focused attention of both the government and the industry for strengthening the country's vocational training system.

It has underlined the urgent need for up-gradation of technical education and skills development system. This should form the core of the human resource development strategy of the government, as it will help meet the twin targets of enhancing competitiveness of industry and creation of job opportunities.

While commending the public-private partnership model for bringing about a qualitative improvement in ITIs, it said that the government should look into the matter of underutilisation of seats, reorient the training system and incentivise introduction of new trades having greater employment potential as this would help attract more students towards the skill imparting system.

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