Aimed at attracting top industrial units to set up international skill training institutes in the state, the government will organise an international summit called ‘Nypunyam- Global Needs, Local Skills’ in January next year. As part of the summit, road shows would be organised in major cities in India and abroad this month.
The road shows would be held in Dubai (December 9), Bangalore (December 13), New Delhi (December 16), Chennai (December 19), Kochi (December 21) and Mumbai (December 23). “The road shows would culminate in the international skill summit which would be held on January 20 and 21 here,” Labour Minister Shibu Baby John said.
“Nypunyam is the biggest skill development initiative of the State Government. Though in other states, skill development usually targets school dropouts, in Kerala we are looking at engineering dropouts and similarly qualified youngsters,” he said.
In order to fast track the process, registrations made by industry partners during the road shows would be considered as Expression of Interest (EOI) and would be converted into projects during the international summit so that they are implemented without further delay.
The government expects to enter into agreements with industry partners to set up international skill training institutes in the domains of construction, security, nursing, automobile, retail, tourism and hospitality.
“Excess land in Government Industrial Training Institutes will be earmarked to set up such skill development centres,” the Minister said, clarifying that government land would not be transferred for the purpose.
On a query regarding placement, Shibu clarified that 100 per cent placement assurance would be guaranteed by the industrial houses before setting up skill development centres. Asked about how beneficiaries will come to know of training opportunities, the Labour Minister said that this would be done through two methods - by issuing advertisement about such institutes and courses offered and the other by identifying beneficiaries through Employment Exchange figures.
“We are in the final stage of digitising the information in Employment Exchanges and this will help in a big way in identifying the right workforce with the required qualification,” he said. Students studying in ITIs can also avail of dual certification- one of their regular course and the other of the specialised training programme. “The ultimate aim of the programme is to hone up the quality of skills of the state’s workforce in accordance with the demands of the global industry,” the Minister said. Additional Chief Secretary, Labour and Rehabilitation Nivedita P Haran, Director of Employment and Training Prasanth N and officials of FICCI- the industrial partners of the summit- were also present.