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For mission ?Skilled India?, ITIs to undergo makeover, tailor courses to needs

Govt has decided to revamp the antiquated training centres that will skill over 20L youth annually.

With a focus on creating jobs for youth, the government has decided to revamp the antiquated industrial training centres that will skill over 20 lakh youth annually and devise special courses based on industry needs.

The move is a part of the labour ministry?s massive overhaul of the near obsolete Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and skill development institutes that would now be armed with revised curricula, new courses and an expanded reach across the country.

The ministry, will set up 1,500 new ITIs across the country and another 100-odd such centres in North East and Left Wing Extremism affected states, has also taken advice from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to locate some of these institutes in industrial clusters.

?Based on inputs from the Prime Minister, the new institutes will not only be set up in so far uncovered areas but majorly in industrial clusters so that students can be trained according to industry needs and placed with these companies,? said a senior official involved in the development, adding that the first preference to requests from industry.

But while these ITIs will be set up by the year-end, the ministry has also decided to allow the existing institutes to meet the immediate needs of industry by offering courses of their interest.

To this end, the ministry has also decided to formulate courses for the skill development institutes based on industry needs. Firms will have to sign agreements with the Directorate General of Employment and Training to avail these specialised courses and will recruit at least 80 per cent of the students for a minimum of six months. The specialised courses will be run for an 18 month period and based on their success in terms of placement will be continued on a permanent basis.

?There has already been a lot of interest from companies in sectors such as manufacturing, construction, chemical and even e-commerce. We will be holding discussions with industry chambers later this month,? said the official.

Industries with at least 300 permanent workers can sign such MoUs with the DGET. The labour ministry is also banking on the over 2,500 industry bodies in the MSME sector to recruit the students.

PM Narendra Modi has stressed on his vision of transforming the country into a ?Skilled India? and the government is expected to go much beyond the targets set by the UPA government.

Currently, there are 11,000-odd ITIs being run by the government as well as on PPP basis with a seating capacity of 15.5 lakh students. The new ITIs being planned will train 4.5 lakh students.

The labour ministry is also fixing the biggest challenge before these ITIs in attracting students ? outdated curricula that had little use for employers. ?Starting this month, new courses will be offered to students. The existing courses have also been reviewed and revised to be in tune with modern industrial techniques,? said another official.

While the full scale exercise is still on for all 11 sectors where skill training is given, the DGET has already revised 63 courses and also introduced 21 courses such as mechanic auto body repair and painting, housekeeping services in hotels, beauty and spa services, welding and ITeS courses such as information technology, computer hardware and network maintenance, software testing assistance and data base system assistant.

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First published on: 04-08-2014 at 07:58 IST
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