The country needs a huge investment of Rs 6 trillion to train nearly 30 crore people over the next five years, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said today.
"We have a massive challenge to train our people in skill development. We will have to train nearly 300 million over the next five years and if we consider the cost, from entry-level training, it will entail an investment of around Rs 6 trillion," Union Minister of State for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy said at the Maritime India Summit here.
He said the ambitious plan of increasing manufacturing will not materialise till we create "makers in India".
"We are talking about Rs 10 trillion investment in the shipping sector and also we have set a vision of make in India. But I strongly believe that this will not be achieved unless we create the makers in India," Rudy said.
As per global statistics, the Philippines is the largest contributor to the supply of seafarers, followed by China and India.
"We are not seeing this as a cause of concern but we are certainly gearing ourselves to train our people. We know it's a huge task and much is needed to be done," he said.
Rudy further said that the government is creating the right ecosystem to create skilled workforce through the National Skills Qualification Framework, which is a competency-based system that organises all qualification tests according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude.
Under the revamped Apprentice Act, about 1.5 lakh youth
would be given experience in various skills and trades in their various units.
He referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emphasis
That PSUs should make full use of apprentices. Currently, the PSUs engage only 15,000 youth.
The amendment would also help tackle the problem of restrictions imposed by states and inspectors.
Rudy said the National Skills Day will this year be celebrated on July 15, in IIT, Kanpur.
He said an assessment made by the ministry has disclosed that India would need three crore people in construction industry, 1.6 crore in retail and 50 lakh in hospitality and hospitals sectors.
The minister said the present Labour Market Information System (LIMS) that provides information to all stakeholders of labour economy will be renamed to revamp the system.
Rudy said his ministry's focus was on the entry level skills and not higher engineering skills, which is taken care of by the traditional educational system for decades.
The attempt is to make those with entry level skills who may have an earning of Rs. 2,000 or Rs.3,000 a month in villages to equip them with employment that can get them more than Rs.10,000.
These include skills and trades like construction workers, plumbers and beauticians.
As part of skilling with quality, he said 40 Sector Skill Councils have been formed with 4,500-plus National Occupational Standards and 1661 Qualification Packs.
