Srinagar: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today urged upon the officers of Skill Development Department (SDD) to create a mechanism of ranking their institutions on the basis of placements made by them in addition to feedback from students about the course content delivery.
He made these remarks in a meeting held to take stock of the working and progress made by this department regarding skilling of youth in the UT.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, SDD; MD, Skill Development Mission; MD, National Health Mission; MD, NRLM; DG Budget; Director SDD; Chief Engineer, R&B Jammu/Kashmir and several other officers of the department.
Dr Mehta impressed upon the officers to make a comprehensive skill mapping plan at panchayat level in association with all skill imparting institutions. He asked them to rope in the local PRI’s in identifying the skilling needs of an area so that the actual requirements of that area are met. He advised them to identify the skill gaps and market requirements and aim for filling the same by admitting them in ITIs and Polytechnic Colleges.
The Chief Secretary also instructed these institutions to track pass outs and record their profiles for their better management. He stressed on creating awareness about various entrepreneurship schemes like Mudra, Tajesvi, Start-up Stand-up India so that they have clarity about future prospects.
He enjoined upon them to make enhancement of their income as a key indicator to measure their performance. He asked them to involve the students in maintenance of premises of these institutions. He also stressed upon them to mould their courses in view of government policies like One District One Product (ODOP), identification of new tourist destinations, designing and other areas. He asked them to invite trade practitioners as trainers in these institutions.
Dr Mehta entrusted the Rural Livelihood Mission to look into achieving the target of establishing the SHGs in the UT.He asked them to accelerate the process of establishing the same. He told them to work towards increasing the income of SHG members at least to Rs 1 lakh per annum as per the national standard.
In his overview the Principal Secretary, SDD, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon gave out that the department gave skill training to about 13000 Covid warriors. He also stated that during the year 2021, 3024 students took admission in different Polytechnic Colleges of the UT which is highest in the last 10 years.
Dr Samoon further gave out that around 6000 SHG members registered with NRLM/Tribal Affairs are going to be trained by the department for upskilling them to take up different ventures of livelihood. Moreover he revealed that nearly 1000 youth had been placed by the institutions of the department in past two years.
The meeting was also apprised that central schemes like STRIVE, SANKALP are under progress in UT for modernizing these institutions besides augmentation of manpower in our skill imparting institutions.
It was also informed that there 52 government and 34 private ITIs functional in the UT. Similarly there are 22 government and 7 private Polytechnic Colleges offering cumulatively 61 and 18 courses respectively with a total intake capacity of about 21100 students, as was declared in the meeting.(GNS)
