Skill Development Ministry emphasis for ITI’s equivalent to Class 12

The Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Mr. Rajiv Pratap Rudy said HRD ministry is also in agreement to make two-year diploma courses at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) equivalent to Class 12 in order to ensure greater participation but waiting for committee’s report at an ASSOCHAM event .

“We are trying to create an ecosystem where this aspiration is created”, said Mr. Rudy, Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship while inaugurating ‘Skilling India Summit,’ organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).Mr. Rudy said, today about 17% of engineering graduates and 15% of management graduates are unemployable or unemployed. Out of 18 Lakhs seats, nearly 8 lakhs engineering seats are vacant. Now, we have created almost 18 lakhs seats for ITIs and 18 lakhs seats for engineering.

“We have a professor of mathematics, literature but we have no professor for buildings, no professor for plumbing, beautician”, said Minister. “I am happy that after one and half years at least in the space of skills in the ecosystem that we have been able to give the language for skills which is not being recognized so far.  We expect from state governments and partners from the industries and also expect from the people who have huge infrastructure system and who understands the language of skills”, said Mr. Rudy.

The employability of person who speaks English is 30% more than any other person getting regular environment, said Mr. Rudy. Our Prime Minister has launched the Skill India programme which is seen as complementary to the Make in India initiative. He said that we mentioned earlier also that there is need to create of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).Mr. Sunil Kanoria, President ASSOCHAM said, less than 4% of our workforce has received any formal vocational training, and this figure is in stark contrast with 75% in Germany, 80% in Japan and almost 50% in China. Majority in India have acquired hereditary skills or learnt on the job.

There is plenty of talk about potential for partnerships with corporate sector and even foreign training institutes. In fact, these skill-gap figures will get any potential investor interested. Since I keep interacting with investors from around the world, I too have discussed with them on this matter. I have asked them why not enough investments are materialising despite PM’s stated goals.

Mr. Kanoria further said, the feedback that I have received is that the investors are not clear where to start from – there are so many different government bodies and agencies running skill development with little synergy and often leading to duplication of efforts. For instance, both the Ministry of Labour& Employment (MoLE) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) created their own sector skill councils to identify India’s skill development needs, even as the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been setting up Sector Skill Councils since 2011. Ideally a Labour Market Information System (LMIS) should be the one centralised resource for such exercises, preferably under MSDE. Minister Sir, my request to you is to ensure that your Ministry takes on this crucial task of co-ordination among government agencies so that optimum use of resources is ensured and there is no overlap.

Others who also spoke during the conference were Mr. RohitNandan, IAS, Secretary, MSDE, Ms. PanuddaBoonpala, Director, ILO DWT for South Asia & India, Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, IAS, Joint Secretary, MSDE, Mr. Surendra Singh, IAS, MD, UPSDM, Mr. Gaurav Goyal, IAS, MD, RSLDC and Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General.

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.