New Delhi : Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy speaks on his ministry’s achievements on the completion of three years, how the ministry plans to redevelop ITIs like regular schools and plans to impart skill training to one crore people in the next three years. Excerpts from his interview:
What according to you have been the achievements of the ministry in the last three years?
One of the biggest achievement is creating a structure for short-term skill courses. We know how to train, whom to train and how to employ. There is a whole system where training partners chose the trades under which people are to be trained and employed. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna, we have a target of training around one crore people in the next three years. ITIs are a big part of skill training. A few days ago you had mentioned there is a mismatch between the trades available in ITIs and the numbers of students pursuing them.
Out of 126 trades and 23 lakh students, 20 lakh will be fitters and electricians and rest in the other 122 trades, so there is a mismatch, and we have to correct that mismatch. We have to see at the policy level how we can correct this.
We have plans to develop ITIs into proper formal schools like CBSE and ICSE schools. However, this is still at the policy level.
There is a huge demand of Indian skilled workers abroad, what is the government doing to make sure they get employed?
If you look at Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries, there are about 6,000 workers who are languishing. It all happened because they did not have the knowledge of the land where they are working, about visa and other similar things. As a result they were put behind bars. For the first time in this country, we have ‘International Skilling Centre’to place people internationally. People get a pre-departure training under a model decided by the Ministry of External Affairs.
You mooted proposals to use retired personnel of the armed forces for skill development. How are these ideas working?
The largest partnership which has taken place with armed forces is for skill courses. More than 60,000 people retire at the JCO level after serving in the armed forces. They have a lot of abilities with them, they are gunners, drivers, they lay tracks, they build bridges. But after retirement they could only work as security guards. On the other hand, we lack trainers. So we made this arrangement with Navy, Airforce and Army.
Note : Write-up is based on his interview with leading news portal DNA.
