THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The capital city will feature among three cities in the state to host the five-day zonal competition of India Skills Kerala 2020, the other two being Kochi and Kozhikode. The zonal competitions will begin on January 27. Multi-tier competitions are being organised by the Industrial Training Department (ITD) and Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE), both under the state Labour and Skills Department.
While the South Zone competitions will be inaugurated by B Sathyan, MLA, at Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Attingal, at 10am, B D Devassy, MLA, will inaugurate the Central Zone competitions at Government ITI, Chalakudy, Thrissur, at 9am. The North Zone contests will be inaugurated by A Pradeep Kumar, MLA, at Government ITI, Kozhikode, at 10am.
The preliminary district-level competitions of the event had concluded on January 20. In the previous edition, competitions were held in 20 skills. This has been increased to 42, which include 20 academic skills and 22 specialised skills.
The grand state-level finale is scheduled from February 22 to 24, in Kozhikode. The winners will receive Rs 1 lakh each as prize money, and runners-up will receive Rs 50,000. All finalists will get Rs 10,000 each.The state-level winners will qualify for the national competitions and the prize-winning performers in the final round will get an opportunity to represent the country at World Skills 2021 in Shanghai, China.