A virtual meeting was held today under the Chairmanship of Talat Parvez Rohella, Commissioner/Secretary Higher Education, with the representatives of UNDP. The meeting was also attended in person by Director EDI Ghulam Mohammad Dar, Rubina Kouser, Director JKSLRM, Dr. Peerzada Mohammad Yousuf, Director Colleges and other officers from the Higher Education.The meeting was organized for setting up of Youth Employment Service (YES) Centers for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Colleges of Jammu and Kashmir.It was informed by the officers from the UNDP that it can help build workforce employability and industry readiness by equipping young people to make empowered choices through a robust career guidance and counseling programme, providing 21st century skills to youth, providing exposure to the world of work through internships, apprenticeships, facilitating access to jobs through industry outreach and to follow up post placement to provide mentorship and handholding. Ensuring the right of access to decent work, self-employment, and opportunities for training - especially for young people - is one of the main challenges governments and societies face given the important economic, fiscal, and social costs that unemployment and inactivity entail.
Despite the very different national dimensions, countries need to ensure that in the future, their workforce capacity will leverage inclusive economic growth and fair societies. Effective policy interventions are needed to guarantee that young people stay connected with the labour market throughout their working life, in particular, those facing vulnerability and at-risk of exclusion.Talat Parvez, Commissioner Secretary Higher Education Department informed that helping young people acquire quality jobs is of primary concern. The consequences of poor transitions into a changing world of work can be observed in: long-term unemployed young people in developed countries; unemployed university graduates in emerging countries; and those in low-productivity family farms in low-income countries.Employment services are one of the most cost-effective mechanisms to link jobseekers to available work. These services can be delivered by public, private, and non-government providers to all unemployed and active jobseekers. Assisting young people, however, often requires a combination of mainstream services and targeted approaches for a successful transition into employment.The representatives were accordingly informed to submit a concrete proposal to the Higher Education Department on the above lines to make the youth of J&K more skillful and job ready.