BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to develop skilled manpower, the Government on Thursday decided to set up Advanced Skill Development Training Institutes (ASTIs) in the State.
The proposed institutes will impart skill training to around two lakh youths within a period of five years.
This was discussed in the first general body meeting of Odisha Skill Development Society (OSDS) held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the Secretariat here.
“It has been decided to set up eight ASTIs in different parts of the State of which six would be on demonstration mode with major investment from Government and two on public-private partnership (PPP) mode,” Principal Secretary, Skill Development and Technical Education Laxmi Narayan Gupta told media persons after the meeting.
The eight ASTIs will be set up at Angul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Jeypore, Balangir, Jharsuguda and Rourkela and these institutes will impart skill training in 142 courses of 12 priority sectors, he said.
The project also proposes to impart advanced and finishing skill training to 50,000 ITI passouts and support 5000 people for self employment. Besides, customised skill upgradation training and certification will be provided to 25,000 skill workforce in their respective trades under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) provisions.
Gupta said the targeted group of the project includes unemployed IT passouts, engineers, general graduates and polytechnic graduates.
The project has been designed for five years. The estimated cost of the project is around `1051 crore of which the State Government will provide one-third and the rest amount will be a loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The OSDS comprising representatives from banks, industries, Government of India and agencies concerned is the nodal agency for implementation of the project.
An executive committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner. The meeting decided to constitute two sub-committees on civil construction and procurement to look into technical and financial aspects.
The Chief Secretary directed the department to design courses in line with National Skill Quality Framework (NSQF) to facilitate smooth migration from general education to vocational training.
He further directed the department to set timelines against each milestone of the project and start the training programme in temporary accommodations till completion of civil works.