Bhubaneswar : A tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Friday for implementation of soft skill programme to the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) trainees in the state.
The agreement was signed between Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), Tata STRIVE, a unit of Tata Community Initiatives Trust (TCIT) and Susmita Bagchi, a philanthropist and wife of OSDA chairman Subrato Bagchi in presence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat. The objective of the MoU is to improve life skill of trainees like communication skill, IT literacy, entrepreneurship skill for better industrial employment or self-employment.
“Though there are subjects on English literacy, IT literacy, communication skills, entrepreneurship skills, productivity, occupational safety, health and environment education in first two semesters of ITIs, these courses literally go unattended due to lack of professionals. Tata STRIVE would provide manpower to impart soft skills to ITI trainees,” said Balwant Singh, director, technical education and training.
The youth development module of Tata STRIVE that covers all aspects of employability skill subject shall be implemented through Tata STRIVE-Bagchi soft skill training program. In the first phase, the programme would be taken up in 10 ITIs to train 8000 youths over a period of two years.
Around 30 professionals of Tata STRIVE would impart the employability skills to trainees of ITIs at Cuttack, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Anandpur, Jajpur, Phulbani, Umerkote, Puri, Ambaguda and Takatpur. The trainees will be nourished with soft skills in specially designed classrooms in both the years during their course.
The programme would have a financial implication of Rs 8 crore of which 50 per cent would be borne by Tata STRIVE and the balance by Susmita Bagchi.
Lauding the OSDA for the effort, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, “In the fast changing work environment, having life skills is also crucial to meet the challenges of everyday life. We have to equip our trainees with other soft skills beyond the domain skills.”
The state government aims to extend the programme to all ITIs on the basis of success of the programme. Odisha has 49 government industrial training centres with intake capacity of 17,699 seats. In the next two years, there will have 21 new ITIs which will add about 5000 seats.
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