Tap areas for skill development

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa has the potential for skill development in several areas which can create employability and employment opportunities to make people economically independent. S Ramadorai, adviser to the Prime Minister on skills development, told mediapersons here on Monday that construction industry, tourism and hospitality sector, health and related services and IT and IT-enabled services have much potential in the State.Ramadorai, who was on a day’s visit to the State, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, several ministers and officials to discuss State-specific strategies on skill development. He said that 91 ITIs and 415 skill development centres will be set up to boost employment generation in the State.Underscoring the need for employment generation, Ramadorai said that the Government should ensure that any training is focussed on employability. He said that with the Ministry of Human Resource Development pushing for vocationalisation of education, a national vocational education qualification framework is being put in place that will allow lateral shifts between mainstream and vocational education. He said that vocational courses will be introduced in schools. Colleges and universities will also be encouraged to offer vocational courses.Ramadorai discussed plans and strategy of the Prime Minister’s Skills Development Council to achieve the target of 500 million skilled worker by 2022. He said that scale of achievement, effective implementation, real time monitoring and the extent of use of technology determines the success of a scheme. Unless these happen, we will have problem in the implementation of various programmes, he said.Stating that promotion of apprenticeship is a powerful way of enabling job training and direct absorption into industry, Ramadorai said that the local industry and the small and medium enterprises can play a big role. The State Government can also be a facilitator in this initiative, he added.Industry Minister Raghunath Mohanty, Minister of State for Higher Education Badrinarayan Patro and Minister of State for School and Mass Education Pratap Jena were present.