Skill Development News Digest – 201117

This fortnight has seen some key events like 4th International Conference on Life Skills & Livelihood Skills – Leveraging Digital India for Rural Empowerment at Hyderabad and the Skill India Summit: Skilling India for Global Opportunities: 17th November at Chandigarh. We are sure these events have seen many active discussions and deliberations on skills, employability and vocational training. Besides, there have been many initiatives and happenings that made headlines during the first half November. Here’s updating you with the next edition of skill development news digest 010917.

Click here to view the latest edition of Skill Times from NSN November 2017

News from the states

Andhra Pradesh: The NRDC India team recently made a visit to the largest solar park in the world at Kurnool in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Kurnool has a 1,000 MW solar park, the largest single-location operational solar park in the world.

Assam: A 13-day long skill development training programme part of the PMKVY held at Biswanath College of Agriculture came to an end recently. Ram Prasad Sharma, MP, Tezpur parliamentary constituency, was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony.

New Delhi

1. The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has roped in a private online service aggregator to promote jobs with a minimum assured monthly wages for urban poor trained under its skill development programme. An MoU was signed between the ministry and UrbanClap.
2. Singapore opened its first skill development centre in Assam to impart vocational training to youth. It is the first country to open a centre of this kind in the northeast, where the Prime Minister is keen to usher in development and attract investments in several areas such as food processing and tourism.
3. India, for the first time found a place in the top 100 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business global rankings .Annette Dixon said that when a country improves its (ease of) Doing Business rankings globally, its economy performs better, particularly in terms of supporting Small and Medium Enterprises , overall growth and jobs.
4. Under Clause 135 of the Companies Bill, 2012 requires targeted companies to spend a prescribed amount (2%) on CSR for the applicable fiscal year on activities specified under Schedule VII of the Act and to report on the same.
5. A workshop is being organized by BECIL in collaboration with IASC-SSC on 27 November to discuss the importance of skilling, certification and accreditation of the manpower deployed in cable TV distribution.
6. Indian Railways has decided to send its staff members for “skill-based training” to enhance their productivity and efficiency levels.
7. The Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, addressing a Session on ‘Critical issues concerning Skilling and Training of Security Workers’ said that the  promotion of private security industry is very crucial  for a robust economy.
8. The Army has undertaken an initiative to improve awareness levels of the students of Jammu and Kashmir. As part of this they took students to industrial centres of Delhi, Noida and Gurugram. Counselling sessions on the courses that were being offered by the institutions were also held, to make the students aware of the career prospects in their chosen vocations.
9. The National Skill Development Corporation has partnered with Google to train young people in the development of Android apps.
10. GIST announced its partnership with Mettl, an assessment technology company for Training and Education purposes, to enhance the reach of its scholarly content and online assessment technology for higher education institutes across India.
11. Amitabh Kant the CEO of Niti Ayog said the digital world is going to change the way factories operate, the digitisation process will leadi to job losses, but it will also create a lot of of highly skilled employment opportunities in the long run.

Gujarat: 1. To achieve Swiss quality and precision standards for job-works and services for other industries, Rajasthan-based RS. India has invested Rs. 300 crore in the manufacturing unit. The processes at the unit will be machining, sheet metal, surface treatment, painting powder and lacquer, heat treatment and assembling. 2. Private engineering colleges are struggling to place their students unlike the IITs, which have seen a significant rise in pre-placement offers this year. These colleges are a source for entry-level recruitments by the IT industry.

Himachal Pradesh: In the recent Himachal Assembly Election: Congress promised 1, 50,000 jobs while BJP focused on skill development. The results will be declared in December.

Jammu: Intex Technologies, has tied-up with Livelihood Initiatives for Empowerment, a New Delhi based Trust working in the skill development sector for wage employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship, to set-up the ‘Intex-Life Entrepreneur Development Center for training youth.

Karnataka: In Karnataka the state-run buses may soon have more women drivers with the government formulating a special policy to reserve 50% of drivers’ posts for women in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation.

Kerala: Kudumbashree Mission plans to offer job-oriented skill training to 15,000 youths as part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission through 45 agencies in 93 urban areas of Kerala they will also ensure placements for them.

Maharashtra

1. The State Bank of India has announced a donation of Rs 1.2 crore to the Queen Mary’s Technical Institute in Pune for upgrading its training infrastructure for disabled soldiers.
2. The financial services industry has decided to use apprenticeship models to recruit and develop talent pool for niche and new segments that are evolving in the sector.
3. The government has taken the first step towards helping entrepreneursby setting up a few start-up incubation and skill development centres across the nation, these initiatives are yet to enter cities like Thane and even Mumbai.
4. With the country facing skill gap, a lot of companies are depending on apprenticeships, which is giving it the much-needed impetus, as per a survey.

Manipur: Imphal has made all preparations to host the first ever North East Development Summit on November 21 and 22 at its City Convention Hall. This Summit will showcase the economic potential of the North East and explore the potential of NE India as an investment hub.

Odisha: Odisha Skill Development Authority and Singapore-based ITE Education Services (ITEES) have signed a MoU for skill development in the state. ITEES is a subsidiary of Singapore’s prestigious Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

Tamil Nadu: National Institute of Technology in Trichy obtained “UK India Education and Research Initiative” UKIERI project. Being a joint project between UK and India, the project will focus on development of highly skilled teachers and trainers on pedagogical methods, capacity building and engagement with industry and employers.

Telangana

1. The IKEA Foundation inaugurated a retail training program for women in Telangana called Disha in partnership with the UNDP and India Development Foundation (IDF). This programme plans to skill one million women in more than 10 industries by developing core competencies and helping them gain employment.
2. The Government has targeted to train 9992 Scheduled Caste candidates with a total outlay of Rs 169.86 crore under Skill Development Programme during 2017-18.
3. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra is offering free coaching in various courses to interested candidates under the PMKVY scheme, informed Matti Rama Krishna in a statement released in Khammam.

lnternational

1. Aditya Pratap Singh Rathore Represented India in the Automobile Technology skills category, and won the country’s first ever Medallion for Excellence. This was organised by the Abu Dhabi Center for Technical & Vocational Education and Training (ACTVET) and is the largest skills competition to date.
2. Due to lack of adoption of several scientific and technological innovations the education sector is facing a lot of challenges in meeting the skill demands. Offering a solution to this, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is emerging as the new alternative of futuristic education