CUTTACK: The State’s first Skill Museum was inaugurated by Chief Minster Naveen Patnaik on the premises of Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI), here on Saturday.Addressing a gathering, Naveen said the era of domain skill acquisition through ITIs is gone. The innovative museum has been created to inspire youths and inculcate innovative thinking in them to foresee technological needs as skilled professionals.
“The Skill Museum at ITI, Cuttack is one of its kind. It would connect ancient and modern skills and also be a link forward to future skills,” Naveen said and added that the museum concept will be rolled out in ITIs of other districts for motivation of youths towards skill.Stating that ITIs are the heart of our skill ecosystem where trainees are not only exposed to the ‘domain skills’ but also ‘life skills’, Naveen said ITI, Cuttack had been producing skilled professionals over the last 60 years.
“My Government has made efforts to forge partnership with international Technical Vocational Educational Training (TVET) players like ITE, Singapore and ITIs have started their transformative journey,” said the Chief Minister.
Our skilled professionals are competitors for medals at World Skilled Competitions and quite a good number of young girls are opting for ‘Skills’ as career which is a positive sign for our mission, he said.
Expressing satisfaction over the number of initiatives taken up Odisha Skill Development Authority to make youth aspirational in skills, Naveen said an initiative like Skill Museum would take ITIs to a new horizon.
Among others, departmental minister Usha Devi and Chairman, OSDA, Subroto Bagchi were present.
The museum, which aims to provide information about skills to students, has been set up in an area of 2600 sq ft. It houses several skill-based equipment and machineries, a world-class exhibition area and an auditorium constructed at a cost of `73 lakh.
The Chief Minister also dedicated the state-of-the-art Breast Cancer Unit equipped with the latest model of mammography machine in Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC). The facility can screen 150 patients a day.
The mammography machine which has only 8 such installations all over India has been gifted by well-known writer Susmita Bagchi and Subroto Bagchi in memory of Sakuntala Panda, founder Editor of Sucharita.