AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s skill pipeline is running at around half strength. Government data placed in the Assembly reveals nearly 36 per cent vacancies in ITIs across 33 districts, exposing a widening gap between policy promises and ground-level capacity.
In a stark admission on the floor of the Gujarat Assembly, the state government has confirmed that Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), the backbone of its skill development narrative, are operating with just over half their sanctioned workforce, sharply undermining training delivery across districts.
Responding to questions raised by Congress MLAs, the Minister of Labour, Skill Development and Employment disclosed that only 6,854 posts are filled against 10,655 sanctioned positions, leaving a massive 3,801 vacancies, a shortfall that translates into systemic strain across Gujarat’s vocational ecosystem.
This deficit is not evenly spread; it is deep, structural, and geographically skewed, hitting tribal and industrial districts alike, thereby exposing a critical contradiction in Gujarat’s employment model: rising industrial demand but weakening training infrastructure.
Major urban centres are not insulated.
Ahmedabad, the state’s economic nerve centre, is short of 328 staff, while Vadodara reports 201 vacancies, and Rajkot 187, which directly impact training quality in high-demand industrial belts.
Even Surat, a manufacturing powerhouse, shows 163 vacant posts, signalling that labour supply chains are being choked at the training stage itself. However, the crisis intensifies sharply in tribal and backward regions, where the skill gap is meant to be bridged most aggressively.
Dahod (222 vacancies), Chhota Udepur (113), Narmada (83), and Panchmahal (170) reflect a troubling pattern: the very districts that need skilling the most are operating with the least capacity.
This creates a cascading effect: poor training access leads to low employability, which in turn deepens regional inequality. Equally alarming are districts like Kutch, where vacancies (183) nearly match filled posts, and Bharuch (181), a key industrial hub, struggling to maintain instructional strength. Meanwhile, mid-sized districts such as Kheda (168), Anand (108), and Surendranagar (130) show that the crisis cuts across categories, urban, semi-urban, and rural alike.
A closer data reading reveals that several districts are functioning with over 40–50% vacancies, including Chhota Udepur, Dahod, Mahisagar, and Tapi, pointing to a severe breakdown in recruitment or retention mechanisms. In Tapi, for instance, one dataset shows a 50% vacancy rate (53 out of 106 posts), while another entry reflects a similar pattern, raising questions over data consistency and administrative clarity.
This staffing vacuum comes at a time when ITIs are expected to bridge the gap between education and industry, offering courses in trades like electrician, fitter, welder, machinist, diesel mechanic, and computer applications.
Instead, the data suggests that the bridge itself is weakening, risking the quality and scale of skill delivery. ITIs, governed under the Directorate of Employment and Training (DET) within the Labour and Employment Department, are central to Gujarat’s employability push.
But with such large-scale vacancies, the state’s skill development promise risks becoming structurally hollow, as training capacity fails to keep pace with industrial ambition. The numbers, placed officially on record, now shift the spotlight from policy announcements to execution gaps where the real crisis is unfolding quietly, district by district.