NSDC Chairman S Ramadorai meets Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal
Bangalore, June 24, 2016: With Skill India’s special focus on Assam, the largest state in North East, and to extend more opportunities to the youth of the state, Mr. S. Ramadorai, Chairman, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) & National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) today met the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal to fast track the skill development initiatives for youth in the state.
In the meeting, Shri S Ramadorai shared NSDC’s plan of setting up a regional office in Guwahati to ensure focused implementation of development skill initiatives in the State, amplify mass awareness campaigns and ensure better coordination with state government. The office will also help in capturing the local requirements and in reviewing the progress of skill development closely. Commenting on the meeting, Shri S Ramadorai said, “Assam Government is completely aligned with the goals of Skill India and we are certain to see some great support in creating a successful skill development model in the State. Hon’ble Chief Minister emphasised that it is crucial to leverage the demographic advantage and assured NSDC with all the necessary support, which will scale up skill development efforts in Assam.”
Emphasising the importance of skill development, Chief Minister Shri Sarbananda Sonowal said, “Skill development is the only route which can transform lives of the youth of Assam. We have decided to intensify skill development efforts in the state so as to ease out the problem of unemployment. We have assured NSDC to help them with the necessary infrastructure for creation of state-of-the-art training centres in the State.”
Assam's Minister of Labour & Employment Shri Pallab Lochan Das stated that we will work hand in hand with NSDA and NSDC to upgrade the skills of youth of Assam, so that they can get meaningful employment including self employment. To integrate all skill development activities undertaken by the State including Central Government schemes, Government of Assam has decided to start a department exclusively for skill development. We will create a dynamic database of unemployed youths and skill development opportunities.
The discussions laid down the success that the private partnership model has seen in upgrading the ITIs in Assam. Leading corporates like Castrol, Bosch, Tata Motors and others have partnered with ITIs in Assam at Nagaon, Tinsukia and Rowta in PPP mode and to develop the ITIs into state-of-the-art skilling centres. These engagements have resulted in increase of the training capacity by three times. Additionally, driving simulators were also installed in the ITIs. At the Women ITI in Guwahati, a partnership was enabled with Lakme for training and placement of female candidates in Lakme Salons. This shows how the PPP engagement has already resulted in increasing the employability of youth in Assam.
During the meeting Shri Ranjit Barthakur, Chairman FICCI North East Advisory Council said, “FICCI has been working closely with NSDA and NSDC in taking forward the skill development initiative under various schemes. While it is important to address the skill gaps and create an employable workforce, it is more important to provide employment opportunities and that is where FICCI can play a vital role in partnership with the Government."
"The potential for skilling and employment could be anywhere between 2 to 4 million youths within 5 years.” He added.
Shri Jayant Krishna,CEO, NSDC said, "We have so far covered 21 district of Assam through its 98 affiliated centres of training partners to extend skill development opportunities to local youth making them more employable. There are focus sectors identified which offer these courses to the local youth. These sectors include Agriculture, Apparel Sector Skill Council, Auto and Auto components, Banking and Financial Services, Building, Construction and Real Estate Services, Capital Goods, Healthcare, Informal Sectors, IT and ITES, Media and Entertainment, Organized Retail, Security, Telecom, Textiles and Clothing, Tourism and Hospitality Services."
Skill India’s flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is a monetary reward scheme to encourage the youth to opt for skill development. There have been 32,000 students enrolled in the PMKVY scheme in 2015-16 for free training to students in Assam. NSDC also conducted several Kaushal Melas to mobilise the youth in Assam. Under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), NSDC trained 2225 personnel in Assam in 2015-16.
National Skill Development Corporation, through its skill ecosystem will ensure that the courses run in Assam are aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) which is a competency based framework that organises all qualifications according to a series of levels of knowledge, skills and aptitude. NSDC will ensure quality training and managements of the structured skill development programme.
About National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP), with 51 percent equity held by private sector and the balance 49 percent by the Union Government. Formed in 2010, NSDC is a professionally run not-for-profit company that includes 40 Sector Skill Councils and over 274 training partners with over 6952 training centres spread across over 500+ districts in the country. NSDC is mandated to skill 150 million Indians by 2022. As of 31stMay 2016, more than 84,20,050 (cumulatively) people have been skilled across 33 sectors.