Skill Development News Digest -150116

The new year has begun with lots of enthusiasm, energy and excitement in the industry, training providers and the government with resolutions and events in the area of livelihood generation vocational programs and sustained measures to improve the skilled landscape of India. Let’s take a quick look at the highlights from various states, industry sectors, government and academia:

News from the states

Jammu and Kashmir: A short program in stitching and tailoring was launched in Dal Lake, jointly by J&K State Social Welfare Board and SSB 47Bn. Another district, Ramban, plans to introduce career oriented vocational skills courses in colleges
Uttar Pradesh : Recently launched training project Sabko hunar sabko kaam by the government, is aimed at getting employment for youth who are poor and semi-literate, with MoUs with the industry.
Assam: IIE aims to facilitate gainful employment in Assam. The MoU signed with Assam State Urban Livelihood Mission Society is a part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) programme.
Arunachal Pradesh: East Kameng district will offer 3-month computer training to 100 unemployed youth by partnering with TeamLease under NULM scheme
Maharashtra: ISHRAE, the Indian Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers launches Job Junction to facilitate employment of trained students.
Kerala: EsPOiR, with the help of Kerala Academy for Skill Excellence (KASE) is setting up skill based training for jobs in oil and gas companies.
Tamil Nadu: 25 schools in Chennai will have vocational skills in 9th and 10th standards from the next academic year. This is an MHRD project, jointly implemented by PSSCIVE, UNICEF and Labour department.
Madurai: Training in nursery skills from DRDA will help converting the unskilled work done through MGNREGS to semi-skilled labour.
Telangana: Mahbubnagar will have a skill development center set up by an Australian firm to help provide skilled labour to 300 industries in the district.
Goa: The government will boost the apprenticeship training coverage; Goa Shipyard Limited would absorb 300 apprentices every year.

Industry-academia connect

High schools: CBSE schools are requested to emphasise on vocational skills courses. According to the board, about 1.54 lakh students have enrolled for various vocational training programs from 1445 schools. This includes skills in retail, security, information technology, automobile technology, travel and tourism and financial market management.
Training for minorities: The proposed loan of $50 m from World Bank for education and skill training will benefits minorities under the Nai Manzil scheme.
Business school: ISB connects with industry and government to develop programs where the faculty will share the responsibility of developing and delivering courses with the industry in 80-20 % sharing basis.

Industry sectors

Handloom industry: The highly labour intensive mostly operating in unorganized sector will benefit from Skill India initiative. This industry is one of the largest employment generator with 7 million artisans and 67000 export houses.
A 3 month training program in the art and craft of Phulkari was launched by Enactus in Lohora village adopted by Panjab University. This will benefit 310 women who also get a business opportunity and exposure to market.
Telecom Industry: According to a skill development report to NITI Aayog Telecom industry will generate 7 lakh jobs in five years in different segments like networks, manufacturing and infrastructure.
Tourism Ministry launches 4 skill development initiatives for youths in connection with Paryatak Mitra and ‘tourist facilitators in North-East’
Beauty and Wellness: Javed Habib Group partners with Indus Edutrain and NSDC to train more than 10000 unemployed youth in various districts for financial inclusion at grassroots level.

New initiatives

ICICI Academy for Skills inaugurates its first centre in Mumbai: According to a press release ICICI Foundation will provide vocational training to over 1 lakh youth by FY17. The scheme, GiftALivelihood is a national wide referral program, offering courses in five disciplines, namely electrical & home appliance repair, refrigeration & AC repair, two & three wheeler service technician, selling skills and office administration.

Government

MSDE would open 7000 ITI s in the next year to double the capacity of 13,105 ITIs, that now trains 1.86 million students. This would build capacity of skill labour for manufacturing sector.
Skill India – 2^nd Phase will focus on skill development programs adopted by Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, UP, TN and Maharashtra and promote them models in the rest of the country.
The recently concluded National Industry Conclave on Skills ensured that the industry plays an active role in skilling initiatives. Seeking sustained commitment from the industry, government emphasized on the need to improve livelihood in rural India through skilling. Other points of focus included CSR for skilling, tax exemption and the need to set up development centers in every district.