The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Skills development programme launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 21, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Skills development programme launched

Special Correspondent

It will help dropouts and the unemployed upgrade their skills

Over one million youth will be trained
in five years
Ten districts have been selected to implement the pilot project

Bangalore: The modular employable skills (MES) development programme, under the National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) of the Union Labour and Employment Ministry, was launched by P.P. Prabhu, adviser to the Governor of Karnataka, here on Thursday.

This has been developed to help workers, the less educated, school dropouts, the unemployed, victims of child labour, and graduates from formal education and training institutes pursue excellence in vocational training.

MES, according to the Directorate of Employment and Training, is also called ‘minimum skills set’, which will enable the youth to obtain employment. The skills are imparted by professional training institutes or through professionals in formal and non-formal ways for gainful employment.

This allows skills upgradation, development of multi-skills , multi-entry and exit, vertical mobility and lifelong learning opportunities in a flexible manner. Over one million people will be trained in five years or their existing skills tested and certified under the modular framework.

Feature

A salient feature of the programme is that the testing and certification of the skills of trainees is done by independent assessing bodies and industry associations, which are accepted all over the world. These bodies will not impart training to ensure that it is done impartially.

Lauding the programme, Mr. Prabhu asked the implementing agencies, particularly in the Union Labour Ministry, to transfer power and funds for its speedy and effective implementation. There was no proper devolution of funds in the field which has been the cause for tardy implementation, he said.

He said that the industry should be involved at all stages of implementation, as it was they who needed the services of the skilled workforce. Hoping that the youth would become employable after they were trained in the strict regimen of the new system, Mr. Prabhu said that this would improve productivity too.

Start of programme

S.J. Amalan, regional director, Regional Directorate of Apprenticeship Training (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa) said that India needed five lakh vocational training providers. G.G. Hegde, secretary, Indian Society for Training and Development said that 10 districts have been selected to implement the pilot project and district coordinators had already been appointed.

Skills needed

H.A. Keshava Murthy, secretary, NCVT, said that there were more than five lakh industrial training institutes in the country and 7.5 lakh seats were available.

While there was a demand of 12 million skilled workers in the country, there were only 2.5 million skilled work force. The small-scale industries do not have certified skilled workers and hence were unable to get international recognition.

Mr. Murthy said that the Union Labour and Employment Ministry had allocated Rs. 750 crore for training skilled workers. Of this, it had already released Rs. 63 crore. He called upon the State Government to take the lead in implementing the programme, which will solve the unemployment problem in the State. B.L. Sridhar, principal secretary to Government spoke on the occasion.

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