In a bid to achieve its target to train one million youths in various employable skills during the 12th Five year Plan (2012-17), the Odisha government has decided to convert the district employment exchanges as career guidance centers.
“All the employment exchanges at the district levels will function as the offices of the employment mission and operate as career guidance centres for the youths,” said state Chief Secretary, B K Patnaik after attending the ‘Skill Odisha Summit’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Odisha chapter in association with the state government here.
Patnaik said, on the basis of screening and assessments done at these centres, eligible youths will be given skill training in different sectors.
The state government targets to provide skill training to at least one million persons during the 12th Plan as against the Government of India’s target of 2.78 million for the state.
Patnaik said, “Achieving the target to provide training to one million youths in the 12th five year Plan is ambitious and we don’t have the official communication from the Government of India to train 2.78 million youths. After getting the confirmation, we will do the necessary arrangements,” he added.
The potential sectors for which the state government is focusing to achieve the targeted pool of skilled manpower are construction, apparel, driving, manufacturing, hospitality and the services industry.
For construction and textile sectors, the target is 0.2 million each while 0.15 million youths will be trained in driving and manufacturing related skills. Similarly, the projected figure for health, security guards, hospitality, information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services and retail is 50,000 each.
For telecom, banking and other miscellaneous sectors, about 50,000 youths will be trained in the 12th Five year Plan.
Speaking at the conference, Dillip Chenoy, managing director and chief executive officer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) said, “Over the next 15 years, the total workforce demand for skilled jobs in Odisha is expected to grow from present levels of 7.6 million in 2011 to 13.5 million in 2026 with compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9 per cent, higher than the population growth rate.”
