Minister of Technical Education and Sports, Moulvi Imran Raza Ansari today announced that the government will establish incubation centres in Polytechnics of Jammu and Kashmir to harness the entrepreneurial potential of the State’s youth.The Minister said that one incubation centre each will be established in Boys Polytechnic Jammu and Women’s Polytechnic Srinagar.The move, he said, is aimed at making State Board of Technical Education (SBTE) more effective and result-oriented.Ansari was chairing a meeting of various officers of the Technical Board in Jammu where he stressed the need for making polytechnics proactive in hunting and harnessing skills in youth.While terming the vibrant polytechnics a sign of the progressive society, the minister also directed the department to go for increasing the number of placement cells in polytechnics.“Polytechnics should play a proactive role to train and place students in right jobs by organizing campus recruitments,” Mr Ansari told the meeting. “It goes without saying how polytechnics are doing wonders in many parts of the world.”
“There was a time in the past when the youth of the state would line up before the employment exchanges to register their names,” he said. “One of the reasons behind that disheartening trend was the lackadaisical approach adopted by our polytechnics. Now, we need to change that by flipping the image of the polytechnics for the overall good of the society.”Ansari assured his full support to what he called “striking a significant change” in the State through skill development.While stressing upon the officers for introducing the incubation centres in polytechnics across the State, Ansari said government would support and encourage start-ups to become successful entrepreneurs.“Already many youth have left the government and overseas jobs to start their own entrepreneurship ventures in State,” he said. “We must encourage others to follow this positive trend by creating right training facilities and environment in the State.”The activities in the incubation centres will include liaisoning with industry/ user organizations, conduct of placement interview, counseling of students/ trainees, conduct of placement fairs, training of students in accordance with industry and any other activities required for training, counseling and placement of students.