Principal Secretary, Skill Development Department (SDD), Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, today chaired a meeting to review Yuwaah action plan and skill mapping of youths of Jammu and Kashmir.The meeting was attended by Special Secretary, School Education Department; Joint Director Planning SDD; FA SDD; Chief ADAP UNICEF; Education Specialist of UNICEF; Principal, Research and Consulting, Yuwaah Partner and other concerned officers through physical and virtual mode.
During threadbare discussion, a power point presentation was given by the representatives of Yuwaah Partner of UNICEF highlighting the functioning and present status of ongoing survey of the scheme and steps being taken up for conduct of survey.
They apprised of present status of education, employability and engagement of youth (15 to 29 years) which constitute 27.8 percent of Jammu and Kashmir population, more than 12.5 million people. This percentage in J&K is higher than the Indian average of 27.5 percent.
They also informed that economic classification of population reveals that 34.47 percent of the population is a part of work force and the youth participation rate is 40.9 percent lower than Indian average of 41.4 percent. Besides, 66.81 percent of young people have been enrolled in Secondary Education, 58.6 percent of young people in Senior Secondary education and 24.8 percent of young people have been enrolled in higher education.
Principal Secretary stressed upon the concerned authorities to understand the interest of youths and requirement of present market where the youth will be engaged and provided employment opportunity in their home districts.
Dr Samoon emphasized upon them to ensure speedy completion of the exercise of survey skill mapping of youths of JKUT so that the government could provide them different platforms as per youth skills.
He said that the data source is very important in order to find out the job opportunity in different potential sectors of Jammu and Kashmir.Dr Samoon said that agriculture, construction, manufacturing, forestry, wholesale and retail trades, repair of motor vehicles and education have broad potential for maximum placement. He said that proper counseling and interaction with youth has crucial role in choosing better skill courses.