Oscar Fernandes urges industry, NGOs to be equal partner in skill development programmes

India needs to impart relevant skill to 10 million people every year to reap the benefit of globalization, Oscar Fernandes, Union Minister of state for Labour and Employment, said at International Conclave on Skills Development here on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Dec.12 : India needs to impart relevant skill to 10 million people every year to reap the benefit of globalization, Oscar Fernandes, Union Minister of state for Labour and Employment, said at International Conclave on Skills Development here on Wednesday.

"To achieve this objective, the government is opening new industrial training institutes (ITIs), vocational schools and skill development centres. Industry should come forward to be equal partner in the initiative," he said.

Highlighting the importance of skilled manpower in the socio-economic development of India, Fernandes called upon both industry and NGOs to join hands with the government.

"Skill development should be high on governance agenda and state governments should work closely with industry in this direction," Fernandes said, adding that around 12.8 million people join labour force every year, but India has infrastructure to train only 2.5 million people. He said there should be effective public-private partnership to bridge this gap.

Fernandes said: "We should aim to make India skill capital of the world. According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, The world will have skill shortage of 46 million people by 2020. But being a young country, India will have a surplus of this scarce resource. Apart from meeting its own requirements, India also should be able to export manpower."

He added, " Our population is not a problem, but an asset. We should provide our workforce world-class training and skill to excel in the new world order. The objective of providing skill is to provide employment. At the same time, we need to train large number of people to train people."

In his welcome remarks, Vijay Thandani, Chairman, CII Education Committee and CEO, NIIT Ltd, said, "There is a need to recognize skill needs in the context of changing scenario around the globe. Industry and institutions are more than willing to help the government in creating skill development programmes."

Lt Gen S S Mehta (Rtd), Director General, CII, said, " The world is moving to thousands of skills and these skills are meant both for organized and unorganized sectors. The number of school dropouts is increasing. If we don't check this trend, it would pose serious threat to society"

The CII also talked about skills guild at the conclave. The CII skills guild is the delivery arm of CII Skills Initiative. The purpose of the Guild is to bring together all the delivery partners and facilitate training.

Earlier, Fernandes felicitated participants of WorldSkills International 2007, held in Japan.

ANI