"The Punjab Government is determined to make every youth of the state fully skilled so as to help them brighten their future thus combating the unemployment problem.The officers of the Technical Education Department are working really hard under the Skill Development Mission." These views were expressed here today at the ICICI Academy of Skills in Government Polytechnic College, Khoonimajra by the Technical Education Minister, Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi on the occasion of a felicitation function to honour the zonal level winners of Punjab Skill Festival-2018 'The Battle of Skills'.Congratulating the winners, Mr. Channi said that hard work is the only key to success in life and there is no substitute to it and further said that the spirit of healthy competition act as the driving force to move forward in life. He added that his department is leaving no stone unturned to provide skill training to the youth, making job avenues available to them and help the skilled youth to start new business ventures besides conducting free training courses for skill development of the youth. The minister also said that the Punjab Government is organizing zonal level competitions throughout the state as part of the Skill Festival-2018 to hone the creative talent of the youth.
Earlier, the Secretary of the Technical Education Department Bhawna Garg elaborated that these competitions were held under the aegis of the World Skill Competitions and 7300 youth had got themselves registered for the zonal competitions with 4666 of them being found eligible on the basis of Date of Birth. These competitions were held at various places in Punjab from 20-23rd March, 2018 and saw the participation of 953 youth from 39 trades with 96 making it to the state level competitions. The zonal winners were honoured at ITI Khoonimajra.The 96 selected youth would be imparted special training for 7 days and they would take part in state level competitions from 1-3 May, 2018. After the state level competitions, National level competitions would take place and those coming out with the flying colours in the National Level competitions would show their skills in the World Skill Competitions to be held in Russia in 2019.On the occasion, Additional Director Technical Education Department Mr. Mohanbir Singh and Mrs. Daljit Kaur along with GM of Punjab Skill Development Mission Mr. Sukhwinder Singh were also present.