Commissioner Secretary, Skill Development Department (SDD), Saurabh Bhagat today remarked that Modular Employable Skills (MES) can lead Jammu and Kashmir to new era of development as this will amplify employability avenues for youth here. The Commissioner Secretary made these remarks while chairing a meet to review the progress on implementation of various schemes by Jammu and Kashmir Skill Development Mission (JKSDM).
The meeting was attended by Mission Director, JKSDM, Leena Padha; Special Secretary, SDD, FA/CAO SDD, and other concerned officers both in person and through video conferencing. During the meeting, Saurabh Bhagat held a comprehensive review of the various schemes and initiatives undertaken JKSDM and assessed the progress, achievements, and challenges faced by the JKSDM to empower the youth of Jammu and Kashmir with relevant skills and employment opportunities.
Addressing the officers, the Commissioner Secretary remarked that skilling is an important way to make youth more employable. He highlighted that Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha is very keen on skilling of youth and is personally monitoring the progression of skilling components across Jammu and Kashmir.
Saurabh Bhagat emphasized upon the officers to maintain convergence with other departments for bridging the skill gap and enhancing employability avenues for the youth of J&K. He called upon the officers to devise an action plan for collecting the data of youth identified during Back to Village programmes and trained under different schemes of SDD.
He asked them to develop a single portal in consultation with Deputy Commissioners were all the departments can upload the data regarding training provided to youth under different components of SDD. While reviewing the progress of PMKVY, Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) and India Skills Competition schemes, Saurabh Bhagat called upon the officers to create maximum awareness among the regarding these schemes so that they can take due benefits of them.
He called upon the officers to study the models of other States and UTs on Skill development and replicate the best practices of these models here. He also asked them to conduct Skill Gap analysis regarding the youth aspirational policy.
During the meeting, Mission Director, JKSDM informed the Commissioner Secretary that more than 85000 youth have been trained under different schemes of SDD. She further informed the meeting that 20480 and 2320 persons were trained under PMKVY 2.0 and PMKVY 3.0 respectively by the Mission.
It was also given out in the meeting that the JKSDM has the preparations for PMKVY 4.0 and also developed mechanism for training of youth to be identified under next phase of Back to Village.