The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : ‘Scarcity of skilled workers’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

‘Scarcity of skilled workers’

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There are a total of 455 million jobs available in India. Out of this 89.7 per cent of the jobs are in the skilled category.

“But unfortunately we do not have enough skilled workers in our country to meet the requirement,” said M.N. Gunavardhanan, director, Employment and Training here on Sunday.

He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘International Day of Disabled Persons’ at the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped (VRCH) in Nalanchira.

“Even after 60 years of Independence, our priority is to go for a government job. Nearly 60 per cent of the graduates in our country are unemployable. The problem is not lack of jobs but lack of required skills,” said Mr. Gunavardhanan.

According to him, out of over 40 lakh candidates registered at the various employment exchanges in the State nearly 38 lakh do not have the required skills. “As a result we are able to provide jobs to only 10,000 candidates a year,” he said.

Indira Ramakrishna Pillai, former chairman, State Social Welfare Advisory Board who presented the theme of the function – Decent work for persons with disabilities – lauded the efforts taken by the centre in rehabilitating the physically challenged.

The centre at Nalanchira is one of the 10 institutes for the disabled functioning in the country.

The function was attended by V. Satheesachandran Nair, deputy director, VRCH; Wilson, Thattarunthundil, director, Malankara Social Service Society; Atul Budhraja, principal, Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology; and Syed Ghasi Mohiddin, former deputy director VHRC.

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