Setting up the agenda for ushering in an era of ‘Skill Revolution’ in the country, the Punjab Chief Minister and Chairman of Sub Group on Skill Development Parkash Singh Badal today emphasized the need to evolve a common framework at the national level with an ultimate goal to employability and livelihood opportunities under the skill development mission.
Delivering his keynote address during the first meeting of Sub Group of the Chief Ministers on Skill Development here at the NITI Aayog, the Chief Minister said that to achieve this objective a massive campaign with missionary zeal was required to meet this challenge of skill development. Thus, every state has to focus on specific sectors, which have potential for employment and above all, skill training would have to be integrated with placement and employment.
The Chief Minister said that India today was the youngest country in the world with 65% of its population below the age of 35. However, he said that our country faces serious problem of unemployment specially amongst rural youth and lower strata of the society adding that skill Development of our youth could help in solving the problems of unemployment and poverty. Mr. Badal bemoaned that at present our country was far behind the other countries in skill development as it had just 12% of the working population, which was vocationally trained as compared to 96% in Korea, 80% in Japan, 75% in Germany. “World is increasingly becoming a global village, we therefore need to skill our youth for employment abroad as well” he added.
The Chief Minister pointed out that according to estimates, the country needs to provide skill training to 109 million new entrants to the job market and around 460 million people to be reskilled and upskilled upto 2020. He said that for realizing the dream of our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to make India an economic super power, we have to impart skill training to each and every youth of the country.Hailing the Prime Minister for his far sighted, bold and timely initiative for setting up of Sub group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development, the Chief Minister said that we already have empowered our citizens with Right to Information, Right to Education, Right to Food Security etc and now time has come when we have to give Right to Skill to every youth in the country. He said that while the country may have a common framework at the national level, every state has to focus on sectors, which have potential for employment adding that the skill training must be linked to placement and employment. Mr. Badal said that the mobilization of target population particularly the rural youth, weaker sections and women would require special campaign to make them aware of skill training and motivate them to take the advantage of skill training programs.
The Chief Minister said that the state Skill Development Missions would have to really work in mission mode and they would be required to be strengthened at the district and block level. Underscoring the need for strengthening the State Skill Development Missions, to enhance capacity and improve standards of skilling, he said that private sector participation in skill development must be explored besides suggesting ways and means for improving partnership of private sector in curriculum development, delivery mechanism, certification etc. “We have to propose measures to expand skilling programs to every nook and corner of the country and thereby suggest measures for adopting successful experiments and sharing best practices of different states” added Mr. Badal.
Highlighting the skill development initiatives taken by the state government, the Chief Minister said that we have set up Punjab Skill Development Mission to bring all Skill Development programs and policies under one umbrella. He said that wheels have been set in motion for setting up Skill Training Institute in partnership with M/s Tata Motors in automobile sector and with M/s Larson and Toubro in construction sector, which have proved very fruitful with trained youth going to countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bhutan etc. Likewise, Mr. Badal said that in order to meet the growing demand for skilled manpower of industry, we were setting up multi skill development centres. “We are also setting up skill development centres in sectors such as healthcare, construction, automobile etc besides focusing on skill development and skill upgradation in the field of agriculture, dairy and other allied activities, which will provide a good opportunity for self employment to our rural youth” added Mr. Badal. He also shared his experience to open Maharaja Ranjit Singh Preparatory Academy at Mohali for boys, which has yielded remarkable results in restoring Punjab’s pristine glory and upmanship in the Defence services. On the basis of this successful model we would soon start another such academy for the girls to ensure their presence in Indian Army.
Summing up the discussions, the Chief Minister said that he fully realized that the Sub-Group on Skill development headed by him was an onerous task assigned by the Prime Minister but he however was confident to complete this task positively by June 25th as the deadline fixed by the Prime Minister, with the cooperation of all the states and NITI Aayog. To accomplish this task in the time bound manner, he announced to hold such meetings region wise i.e. in North, South, Eastern and Western part of the country. Mr. Badal said that this would not only enable all the states to participate in the meetings to be held in future but would also help the Sub-group to elicit their views in a far more wide spectrum and holistic manner.
The meeting was attended by the Chief Ministers of Assam, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chattisgarh besides several dignitaries and senior bureaucrats representing other states and Union territories. The Chief Minister was accompanied by Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Special Principal Secretary Mr. KJS Cheema, Secretary Technical Education Mr. Rakesh Verma and Resident Commissioner Punjab Mr. K Sivaprasad.