BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the upcoming state-of-the-art integrated campus of National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI) plus will empower youth by providing them with cutting-edge skills and knowledge.
Laying the foundation of NSTI plus at Jatni, Pradhan said the apex organisation of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) will emerge as a modern gurukul to equip candidates as well as trainers with industry and future-ready skills. The skill centre will train 500 instructors in phase I of craftsmen instructor training scheme (CITS) and further incorporate another 500 instructors for upskilling and reskilling.
“This is a step towards empowering India’s Yuva Shakti and realising the vision of a developed India by 2047. Youth will be imparted training on professional skills required to excel in the 21st century. The institute will encourage entrepreneurship and equip master trainers with expertise aligned with current and future industry demands,” he said.
Pradhan said the state has 524 ITIs with a capacity of 1,04,134 seats and of the 4.5 crore population, around 2.5 crore are aged between 15 and 59 years. Institutions with flexible learning models like NSTI plus will enable the state to harness the potential of its youth besides extending a vocational training framework for the instructors to be more accessible, inclusive and innovative, he said.
NSTI plus will come up on a 7.8-acre campus at a cost of over Rs 90 crore. It will not only accommodate institutions like National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Skill India International Centre (SIIC), but also emerge as a potential hub for diverse skill development activities.
The hub will also serve as an incubation centre, nucleus for emerging start-ups and a prototype training facility for other states. The instructors will be imparted hands-on-training on new technologies apart from the training on various soft skills.State Skill Development and Technical Education minister Pritiranjan Gharai, MP Aparajita Sarangi and AICTE chairman TG Sitharam were present among others.