Governor Bandaru Dattatraya has emphasized on learning the skills with the changing times so that trained youth could get employment opportunities as per the demand.The Governor was speaking in a National Webinar from Raj Bhavan on “Importance of Digital Skills for a Better Tomorrow” organized by Himachal Pradesh University Shimla and EduSkills, today.He congratulated HP University for taking this initiative and providing the learning opportunity to their students through Indian Society for Technical Education, EduSkills and all their global learning partners. He said that India lacks skills and as per the data available, the country has only 4 percent skill, while the U.S. has 34 percent and 27 percent in China. “If we want to become a world power, then our youth must be skilled”, he added.The Governor expressed contentment that Eduskill has chosen Himachal to impart skill to the students. He said that the literacy rate in the State was quite good and was over 89 per cent, but the skill percentage was low. In such a situation, free training would be provided by the World Leader Brand through EduSkill so that employment opportunities could be available in big industrial houses.
Shri Dattatraya said the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the education sector, accelerating the shift to digital learning models, as educational institutes remained closed in the wake of the virus outbreak. While other sectors were now going through an 'unlock' and restart of activity, schools, colleges and universities could be amongst the last to return to 'normalcy', he added.The Governor said that the National Education Policy was a concrete step towards realizing the resolve of self-reliant India. In this, provisions have been made to address the current imperfections of the education system, while the preparations to meet the internal and global challenges of the changing India of the 21st century was also reflected through skill development.Earlier, MoU was signed between HP University and EduSkills.Dr. Pratapsinh Kakasaheb Desai, President, Indian Society for Technical Education also gave a keynote address on the occasion.Prof Aman Kumar Sharma, Chairman, Computer Science, HP University welcomed the Governor and Shubhajit Jagadev, Executive Director, Eduskill Foundation proposed vote of thanks.Ramesh Padmanabhan, Director, GLS-India & South Asia, Red Hat, Lokesh Mehra, Head-AWS Academy, South Asia, Amazon and Murugan Vasudevan, Head South Asia, Corporate Affair, Cisco also spoke on the occasion.