Principal Secretary Skill Development Department (SDD), Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon today stressed on the officers of the department not to leave any seat vacant in any of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). He asked them to start the admission process in these institutes early and aware people about the same using mass media.The meeting was attended by Secretary SDD, Nazim Zia; Director SDD, Sudarshan Kumar; Secretary Technical Board, Firdous Itoo, ITI Superintendents, other officers and Industrial Chairpersons of these Institutes.Dr Samoon urged upon the officers to convince students to go for admissions in these institutes as there is a huge gap between the senior secondary pass outs and those opting for receiving higher education. He asked the officers to make these skill imparting institutions hub for producing the skilled workforce that has market utility and are in demand outside.The Principal Secretary impressed upon these officers to look for starting courses that are relevant and job fetching. He asked them to assess the industrial needs and frame courses and curriculum as per it. He asked them to focus on making the students trained in the trades offered instead of merely issuing certificates to them. He advised them to shun the courses that have grown obsolete and redundant.Dr Samoon asked the officers to conduct exams on time and also make results time bound. He advised them against the undue stretching of time period of courses.
He asked them to establish placement cells under the Chairmanship of the industrial persons so that the pass outs are assisted in finding the jobs at the end of their course. He emphasized on conducting at least one placement drive each year by each ITI of the UT.Dr Samoon also asked the non-official, industrial chairpersons of the ITIs to regularly conduct the Institute Management Committee (IMC) meetings. He encouraged them to give their inputs in these meetings regarding the enhancement of quality and type of skills to be imparted in these institutes. He further exhorted upon them to point out the loopholes and suggest the corrective measures so that both the students and industries are the beneficiaries at large.The meeting was informed that there are 52 government and 34 private ITIs in J&K offering 71 courses with an intake capacity of about 18000 students. It was further given out that J&K has 11 women ITIs also. It was said that placement of students has been made a regular feature from the last few years and hundreds of pass outs have been provided jobs during this time.The meeting was also informed that several centrally sponsored schemes have been rolled out by GoI that are changing the skill scenario nationally and here as well. It was said that under these schemes upgradation of ITIs under public-private partnership is done with the assistance of the government and in partnership with the Industrial houses.Besides these the upgradation of existing institutes as model ITIs is also done. Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) in progress aims at improving overall operational environment of ITIs by taking number of reform activities in these institutes. It was further given out that on job training is provided along with stipend to the apprentices through the Apprenticeship Training Scheme. Moreover hospitality and other modern courses like robotics, e-commerce, cloud computing etc are also envisaged to be offered through ITIs so that the skill gap is filled by the pass outs produced from our Industrial Training Institutes.