It was a historic day for the hilly State of Himachal Pradesh when it signed record 17 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) in the field of skill development with various industrial organizations and Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) here today. The MoUs were signed between Himachal Pradesh Kaushal Vikas Nigam (HPKVN) and 17 industrial organizations including three with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in the presence of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. These SSCs represent more than 20 Central Ministries and 50 large Industry Associations which would partner HPKVN in demand based and quality driven skill development.
Technical Education Minister Shri G.S. Bali, Industries Minister Shri Mukesh Agnihotri, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Shri Anil Sharma were also present on the MoUs signing ceremony.The Chief Minister also launched the Himachal Pradesh Skill Development Initiative on this occasion which is aimed at increasing employment opportunities of the unemployed youth of the State both through wage employment and self employment opportunities through appropriate skilling on a mission mode.Speaking on the occasion, Shri Virbhadra Singh said the signing of MoUs with different industrial organizations and SSC’s would give an edge to the State on skilling, assessment and placement issues. He said these SCCs had placed the demand for training of thousands of people from the State besides ensuring placement of the trained youth.
He said setting up of HPKVN was a major initiative of the State Government which would go a long way in providing an umbrella framework to improve coordination and convergence and reduce duplication across the skill development programmes being run by various departments.He said that important part of the skill development initiative of the State Government was launching of Skill Development Allowance Scheme for the educated unemployed youth of the State which had been further liberalized significantly to cover maximum youth within the ambit of this scheme. The Government had also decided to upgrade the skills of building and other construction workers by allocating 20 percent of the cess funds for skilling initiatives. This would give opportunity to a large number of wards and dependents of the working class to aspire for better job opportunities. He also underscored the need to harness agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors for new job opportunities, keeping in view the agrarian economy of the State.Shri Virbhadra Singh emphasized on imparting skills to the youth in various sectors like automobile, construction, home services etc which were growing rapidly in the State. He added that tourism was another important sector where there was a huge scope for the youth to be employed.
Talking about the future plans of the State Government for skill based programmes and initiatives, the Chief Minister said priority would be given for strong engagement with industries association and SCCs to get demand information and identifying internship and placement opportunities. He said the State would notify its own skill development policy and new state-of-art Industrial Technical Institutes would be opened for imparting training in a group of inter-related trades.
With the aim of promoting skills and improving employability of students, the Chief Minister said vocational education in various trades like automobiles, retail, security, health care, tourism and agriculture would be extended in more government schools from 9th to 12th classes. These courses had already been started in 500 schools and about 35,000 students had been enrolled for level 1-4 in eight different vocational subjects, he said adding that 200 vocational labs and workshops had already been established while process for establishing 600 vocational labs was underway.Virbhadra Singh said the State Government was mulling to open Skill Development University in the State which would give fillip to skill development of the youth.
Chief Executive Officer of NSDC Shri Jayant Krishna in his keynote address stressed the need for formal skilling and training for which the industrial sector would have to play bigger role. He said a target of skilling 50 crore people had been set by the Government of India in coming few years which was the largest initiative in the field of skill development across the globe.He also lauded the role of the Himachal Government for taking skill development initiatives, especially for introducing various vocational trades in the government schools.Senior Director, FICCI Dr. Shobha Misra Ghosh in her address said that besides providing training, it was equally important that the trained people get equal opportunities of employment.Earlier, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Dr. Shrikant Baldi in his welcome address briefed about the initiatives of the State Government in the field of skill development and technical education.Managing Director, HPKVN Shri Rajesh Sharma proposed vote of thanks.Director, BoD, HP Kaushal Vikas Nigam Shri Vikramaditya Singh, Chairmen of CII and FICCI, CEOs and representatives of various industrial organizations and senior officers of Government were present on the occasion.