More skill development centres soon, says Govt

NEW DELHI: The Central government has decided to set up 1,500 new industrial training institutes(ITIs) and 5000 development centres under PPP mode to meet the challenge of imparting skill to 500 mn people by 2022. The scheme would be called as 'kushal vikas yojana'.

While speaking at the global skill summit organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(FICCI) here, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, labour and employment minister, said,“These facilities will be created in the unserviced blocks, including hilly, difficult and backward areas so that large unskilled workforce of these areas could acquire skill.”

Mr Kharge also said 500 ITIs are already being upgraded under one scheme, 1,396 government ITIs are being upgraded under another scheme. Currently, the country has a current workforce of 450 million, but only around 9% are engaged in the organized sector. In total, just 5% of the entire workforce has marketable skills. Around 12 million people are expected to join the workforce every year for the next 10 years in India. India has 2,076 government-run ITIs and 5,529 privately run Industrial Training Centres (ITCs).