Uttar Pradesh, which churns out one of the the largest pools of young workers in the country, is impeded by an acute shortage of industrial training institutes (ITIs) and poor training modules, which hardly conform to industry requirements. However, the state is hoping for a change for the better. The state government has lined up new plans to improve the scenario.
To meet industry requirements and improve the standard of ITIs, the government is likely to undertake a ‘Skill Gap Survey’ soon. The survey will provide vital data regarding the availability of industrial workforce, institutes, industry requirements and inventions required to improve the condition. Industry bodies, including Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had already made suggestions in this regard.
“As soon as we get a formal proposal from the industry body, we would begin work on the skill gap survey, which is the need of hour,” state director for training and employment, Anil Kumar told Business Standard. His department was working to improve training, employability and placement of ITI pass-outs.
“The government is trying to remove all bottlenecks in way of churning out desired workforce. The industry is called upon to assist us on this regard,” he added.
Kumar referred to the acute shortage of ITIs in UP and added that over 3,50,000 applicants are vying for 50,000 seats. There is also a huge shortage of teachers in ITIs. Currently, 1,500 out of 3,500 posts are lying vacant. “We are working towards filling these posts, making necessary training equipment available, monitoring and upgrading teaching methodologies and boosting the use of information technology,” he said.
Recently, CII and Indian Industries Association (IIA), in coordination with National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), had conducted events for inclusive skill development in Lucknow. The sessions focused on the crucial need of ‘skilling’ across industries.
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NSDC Chairman and Managing Director Dilip Chenoy had said that Uttar Pradesh could easily become the country’s biggest and best talent supplier. “In UP, you can actually reach the bottom of pyramid and transform the skill landscape in India. Industry should insist on recruiting skilled people,”. He stressed that industry should encourage differentiated focus on sectors and consider reimbursing the cost of trainings to their employees.
Chenoy said NSDC would give 75 per cent funding for training at least 10,000 people annually. At present, there were 30 approved proposals with financial implications ofRs 1,016 crore, he informed. NSDC already runs 4 centres in UP and the target for the state was 80 million skilled manpower.
Meanwhile, the government has 750 proposals for private ITIs pending, 200 of which have reached the stage of final approval. This will add 40,000 seats to the existing capacity.
CII has launched its own Skills Development Initiative, which is aligned to the National Skills Development Agenda to skill 500 million people by 2022.