THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state has chalked out plans for inclusion of at least 20 of its Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the Centre’s ambitious ‘National Scheme for ITI Upgradation’, which was approved by the Union cabinet on Wednesday.
The scheme, with a total outlay of Rs 60,000 crore, will focus on upgradation of 1,000 select government ITIs across the country in ‘hub and spoke’ arrangement with industry-aligned revamped trades (courses) over a five-year period. The model involves a central ‘hub’ institution, that serves as a resource for smaller ‘spoke’ institutions for distributing educational resources and expertise from the hub to the spoke.
The state has reportedly identified up to four clusters for inclusion in the project. “Each cluster will have a major ITI serving as a hub and a minimum of four smaller ITIs as spokes. We are planning to propose ITIs in Chakai (Thiruvananthapuram), Kalamassery, Malampuzha and Kozhikode as the hubs as they have strong industrial presence in the vicinity,” a top official of the Industrial Training department told TNIE.
Under the scheme, the Centre would pool in 50% of the funds, while the state and the industry would bear the remaining 33.3% and 16.7% costs respectively. “The upgrading of four clusters, with one hub ITI and a minimum of four spokes in each, will cost at least `960 crore over a five-year period. This will involve a state share of `320 crore and an industry contribution of `160 crore,” the official said.
The state Industrial Training Department hopes to get the required support from the industry as the scheme allows the latter to have a major say in the design of courses. “With the prospect of getting manpower that is trained and fine-tuned to their requirements, we expect a good response from major industrial houses to the scheme,” the official added.
Already, ITIs in the state have undergone a major makeover in terms of curriculum and placement avenues. In tune with the growing demands of the industry, six new-gen trades were introduced in the ITIs last year taking the total number of trades to 84.
MAJOR UPGRADE
State plans to develop four clusters under ‘National Scheme for ITI Upgradation’
Each cluster to have one ITI as hub in an industrial belt and up to four linked ITIs
State estimates project cost at I960 crore with I160 crore support from industry